Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft were front and center Sunday in what appeared to be a happy reunion during the live roast of Tom Brady.
But according to two former players who attended the roast, the former New England Patriots coach and longtime team owner also shared some awkward moments offstage.
Julian Edelman and Drew Bledsoe discussed the three-hour roast during the latest episode of Edelman’s “Games with Names” podcast and described the scene in the green room before the event.
“Preshow, we’re in the green room — remember that? Were you in there?” Edelman asked Bledsoe. “Bill’s opening up. He’s having fun, he’s talking war stories, talking rookie skits, talking fun s—, doing s— we know what Bill’s all about, but it was like amplified because he was excited to see you guys because he doesn’t have a job anymore.”
Edelman and Bledsoe said they were both in the green room with Belichick, along with former Patriots stars Rob Gronkowski and Randy Moss, when Kraft arrived.
“Then Kraft walks in … Belichick’s kind of holding court,” Bledsoe recalled. “As he’s in the middle of the story, Kraft walks in, and so you guys all go over to say hi to Kraft.”
“The tension in that room, though, could cut f—ing glass,” Edelman said.
Edelman added that he tried to give Belichick a “head’s up” when he saw Kraft walk into the green room but said Belichick did not pick up on the cue.
“[Kraft] came in, and I was like, ‘Oh s—, there’s gonna be some fireworks,'” Edelman said. “I just walked away. I didn’t want to get in there.”
Bledsoe added that Belichick and Kraft did at one point “break it down and got together for, I don’t know, 10 minutes at least.” But the former Patriots quarterback agreed with Edelman’s assessment about the tension in the room, saying “it was very real, it was very real.”
Belichick and Kraft drank a shot together on stage at one point, with some coaxing from comedian Kevin Hart, during Sunday’s made-for-streaming live comedy show on Netflix titled “The Greatest Roast of All Time.”
Belichick left the Patriots in January after 24 seasons with the team, and there has been reported friction between the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach and Kraft over the past couple of years.
As part of an ESPN report published last month that detailed Belichick’s departure from the Patriots and his inability to land the Atlanta Falcons‘ head-coaching job, a source said Kraft called Falcons owner Arthur Blank “to warn him not to trust Bill.”
The Falcons interviewed Belichick twice this offseason for their vacant head-coaching position before ultimately hiring Raheem Morris for the job.
After joking about this being like a reunion and “unlike many family reunions there are some people I am desperately trying to avoid,” Kraft praised Belichick for what the two accomplished.
“I want to say this is the greatest coach in the history of the game that did what no one else has done. And having Tom Brady and him was the greatest honor the good Lord gave me,” Kraft said.