Patriots, Belichick Ink New Deal

Posted by Stephen Rhodes on September 17th, 2007 filed in News

The New England Patriots have a secret to share. And it doesn’t involve a video camera in this case. ESPN and Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald are reporting that the team and long-time head coach Bill Belichick very recently have agreed to a long-term contract extension that is expected to keep Belichick in Foxboro into at least the 2013 season, according to league and other sources close to Belichick.

When asked to verify the report in question, team spokesman Stacey James gave the standard reply, “We don’t talk about contracts.” In addition, when posed the same question to Patriots owner Robert Kraft by NBC’s al Michaels in an interview, Kraft said, “Well, the coach and I have had a policy that we don’t discuss his contract, but he’s made great contributions to this franchise over the last seven years and myself, and all of our fans, truly appreciate his efforts.”

Prior to the extension, it was unclear how many years were remaining on Belichick’s original contract. Oddly enough, according to ESPN, this deal was struck before Belichick was punished for his part in the videotaping scandal that involved the Patriots. no terms of the extension were divulged; however, the previous contract had Belichick earning approximately $4.2 million per season.