Bill Belichick Will 'Absolutely' Coach Patriots In 2018: Kraft

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Patriots coach Bill Belichick isn't going anywhere after this season, according to team owner Robert Kraft.

Kraft told Peter King of Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback that he "absolutely" believes that Belichick will be the team's coach in 2018. He also denied that he ordered the coach to trade Jimmy Garappolo, contradicting the details of an explosive ESPN report released Friday morning.

In the ESPN report, Seth Wickersham wrote that the relationship between Brady and Belichick is cracking over Brady's use of personal trainer Alex Guerrero, the trade of Garoppolo and Brady's attitude as he enters uncharted territory as a 40-year-old living legend.

When asked about a reported half-day meeting with Belichick about the Garoppolo situation, Kraft called it, “a total fabrication and fiction. I am telling you, it’s fiction.”

The insistence that Belichick is staying follows a New York Daily News report that Belichick is looking for a way to return to the New York Giants, where he spent the 80s as a member of the coaching staff. That report was refuted by ESPN's Adam Schefter, who said the Patriots would not let Belichick out of his contract to go to New York and the coach wouldn't want to rebuild a team with a GM.

He did say keeping both Garoppolo and Brady would have been difficult because keeping the younger quarterback would have likely required the use of the pricey franchise tag.

Wickersham has stated that he stands by the story. As noted by King, Wickersham's stories on the Jerry Jones/Roger Goodell saga, the state of the Seattle Seahawks, and moves of the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, and the pending Raiders escape to Las Vegas have turned out to be accurate.

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Image Credit: Getty Images/Ronald Martinez