How Robert Kraft's handling of Bill Belichick's Falcons candidacy looks bad for all

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz reacts to the ESPN report that the Patriots owner told the Falcons not to consider the 6-time Super Bowl champion for their head coaching opening earlier this year.

Video transcript

JASON FITZ: ESPN's deep dive into why Bill Belichick is not on a sideline this season creates a terrible look for every single person they're reporting on. Let's start with the Patriots. Robert Kraft out here telling another owner not to hire arguably the greatest coach of all time, doing the opposite of giving a recommendation, telling them not to look in that direction because he can't create a culture because he'll run the offense into the ground because he's an egomaniac. How does that make the Patriots look when somebody walking out the door that they're pretending in front of cameras they still want to honor they're trashing to another ownership group?

And by the way, the Falcons apparently didn't even have him in their top three. How does that make them look? Are they that influenced by what Kraft says? Did Arthur Blank take into consideration his own thoughts on Belichick? How much did they separate those things?

And how does this make the league look as a whole when you've got owners talking to each other like this about coaches that are supposedly some of the greatest of all time? When you've got this level of conversation happening, it begs the question, will Bill ever get back in the league? Sure, we love to assign the Cowboys to every single situation because we love to talk about the Cowboys, but let's be honest. Bill Belichick getting blocked, essentially, by the Patriots in the conversation with the Falcons is not going to change, and neither is the communication of owners who have reminded us that they are the most powerful group in all of sports. They can make sure you get hired, and they can make sure you don't, no matter what your last name is.