A “Pat McAfee Show” contributor expressed doubt about ESPN’s most recent bombshell Bill Belichick story on ESPN’s own airwaves.
Connor Campbell, who goes by the nickname “Boston Connor” in a nod to his New England sports fandom, took issue with the elements of the report by Seth Wickersham, Jeremy Fowler and Don Van Natta Jr.
The story covered Belichick’s failure to land an NFL head coaching job this offseason, reporting in part that Kraft warned Falcons owner Arthur Blank against hiring the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach.
Pat McAfee Show contributor ‘Boston’ Connor Campbell (left) said that he thought elements of ESPN’s bombshell Patriots story were ‘clear bulls–t’. Pat McAfee Show“Some of the things from it [are] just clear bulls–t,” Campbell said, adding that he took notes by hand on what he thought was wrong about the story.
The Post reached out to the authors of the story for a response, and Wickersham answered, “We stand by our reporting.”
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On the show, Campbell explained the elements of the story about which he had questions.
“They said that Bill was blindsided that he didn’t get the job [with the Falcons]. That’s kind of hard to believe. They were looking at 14 candidates. One of them was a former interim head coach in Atlanta, who Arthur Blank knows,” Campbell said.
“We talked to Raheem Morris [on the show]. If you were to sit down with that guy, it would be hard not to be like, ‘Yeah, I’d run through a wall. That is our head coach.'”
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick (R) and Patriots owner Robert Kraft speak to reporters where Belichick announced he is leaving the team during a press conference at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on January 11, 2024. Belichick, the NFL mastermind who has guided the New England Patriots to a record six Super Bowl titles as head coach, is parting ways with the team after 24 seasons. AFP via Getty ImagesCampbell reiterated that “it’s hard to believe a guy who’s been in the NFL since 1975 would be blindsided by anything.”
The show announced Wednesday that Belichick will be on its NFL draft programming next Thursday, and McAfee has been open in the past about wanting to book the legendary head coach for a weekly spot.
“The other thing that they mentioned … Belichick wasn’t eager to work with [Falcons CEO] Rich McKay,” Campbell continued. “I guess, sure, maybe, that could be true, but if they’re just putting out bland statements like that … He wasn’t eager. We can say that, because he probably wasn’t eager to work with anybody — things like that are annoying.”
Campbell acknowledged that “I am biased towards Bill Belichick” and showed off the tattoo of Belichick’s famous “We’re on to Cincinnati” quote on his right arm.
He said that “clearly” something happened between Belichick and Kraft as their relationship dissolved, and that perhaps Kraft had badmouthed Belichick to Blank in the past, but expressed doubt that Kraft called Blank in January and gave the head coach a bad review.
“The idea that Bob Kraft called up Arthur Blank and said, ‘Hey if you hire this a–hole you’re screwed for the next 10 years, you’re going to ruin your entire building’ — that exact thing, very hard to believe,” Campbell said.
Pat McAfee Show contributor ‘Boston’ Connor Campbell (left) said that he thought elements of ESPN’s bombshell Patriots story were ‘total bulls–t’. Pat McAfee ShowAs was evidenced during the much-ballyhooed saga with former ESPN executive Norby Williamson, “The Pat McAfee Show” has unprecedented creative freedom at ESPN based in part on how the relationship with the program is structured.
McAfee and his crew are not ESPN employees — they license the show to the network, and thus enjoy more freedom to do things like question the veracity of ESPN stories than anybody who has ever previously worked for the company would have had.
