Anyone who has every run a super-successful enterprise over a period of time knows that egos WILL come into play sooner or later. It's just human.
When that happens the job of the CEO is to figure out 1) a pecking order of who must be retained at all costs even if it means other very valuable people have to be let go, and 2) how to soothe those egos and keep the team together as long as possible because in the end, everything is just for a time.
Leaders love legacies. Somehow they want their accomplishments to continue long after they have hung'em up. Bellicheck is trying to do the same thing and Kraft is clearly aware of it and sees the folly of it all. The idea that on his terms Bellicheck is going to get that final Superbowl victory, plug in another younger QB and leave an essentially Superbowl ready team behind (that he'll get the credit for) as he rides off into the sunset, and that the operation will just continue using Bellicheck's formula and continue to win, win, win, can cause lots of problems, and it has.
Kraft is a wise man; he wants to extract all the gold he can from this golden goose because he knows that golden gooses are very rare. The combo of Brady and Bellicheck are the siamese twin golden goose. The odds of him finding another are remote and have more to do with good fortune than good planning. Let's face it: Tom Brady was an accident. If they had any idea what he would become, he wouldn't have been taken in the 6th round. Even Bellicheck was an accident. He had never been a winning HC before coming to New England (he went 36 and 44 with Cleveland). Besides, he has the personality and charm of a Badger; it was Kraft who knew how to cajole people and keep the band together for the good of the group.
Whether this story is exaggeration, or fantasy wrapped around a nugget of truth, or dead on I don't know. But I know for the sure that the plot makes sense because it is the normal thing to happen.....eventually.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2018 04:29AM by RockRam.