 big news this morning. Obviously, it's news that many of us have been expecting and we're waiting for and we're wondering why it did not happen yet. It happens this morning. Thursday morning is the announcement, which means it had been negotiated all week long, which is what was happening. Phil Belichick and Robert Kraft first met on Monday. They have met multiple times since the end of this season. And if you're asking me why it took till Thursday is because they were negotiating and haggling over the details and really the money, making sure that Bill got all of his money to negotiate this thing and get everything that Robert wants, which is what is happening today. Ownership is getting their elegant solution as Bert Breer has called it so many times over the last several months. If you see some of the coverage this morning of this, the tweets, the stories, how it's being portrayed. You read from Schefter and Mike Reese at ESPN. Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft spent a good part of the week periodically meeting and discussing how each side wanted to proceed from sources familiar with those conversations. There was said to be no conflict, no disagreement. And in the end productive talks that resulted in a mutual decision that left both sides comfortable and at ease. Are you going to be with this? I wouldn't frame it and I wouldn't term it at his ease. And it's good to be back in this place. You want to be to talk about this. And it was a beetle said, we carry the press conference live with both Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick. You're not at ease when you lose the greatest coach in NFL history. And he was your coach for 24 years. You're not as ease knowing how the next guy, regardless of who it is, and we're going to talk about the names and the potential irings, is going to handle things when things hit the fan. You're not at ease when you're a 70-some greatest coach to ever do it and had to split ways with the team you've loved, you've always been with. And if you still want to coach, you got to go elsewhere. Yep. And you got to prove your family and you got to prove your kids families. I assume the kids go with it more from that story. Both fellow check and craft is one outside party noted quote, took the high road, which was fitting for an owner coach tandem that will go down as one of the greatest and most decorated in NFL history. Now that's just one story. There are others in the form of tweets. Diana Rossini describing it as the conversations between Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick were all kept very professional and also very quiet, after 24 years together, they decided it was best to go in different directions. Chad graph of the athletic Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick met multiple times and it was all very cordial and professional. I mean, this is what they want. This was the most gentle, missionary boning there ever would be to get fired. Are you kidding me with this? He got fired. The owner fired the coach, but that's all there was to talk about. Are you paying me all my money? Am I getting all my money? Missionaries on your back, right? It's the same as Seattle. All right, Robert, let me go to Atlanta and we're good. But you're paying me, right? Otherwise, what is there to talk about? What are we talking about? We don't know if we're going to, we want to fire you. You don't know if you want to be head coach. That wasn't what was going on. I mean, it's like Seattle saying like Pete Carroll is going to have a consultant role there. Come on. I wouldn't be surprised that Pete Carroll is coaching another team in three weeks. Yeah. It's, it's and look like these guys, the owners want the owner in Seattle, the owner here, they want this because they understand the standing and the rightful standing that these guys have in those cities, right? Yes. Obviously Belichick more here than Carol in Seattle, but Carol's a revered figure in Seattle, right? And so you don't want to be the person who fired the coach. And I think that that was the whole question this week was, will these guys play ball with each other? I thought that was the entire thing. That's why it took three days. Will these guys play ball with each other? And I think probably to some degree, both sides had to give a little. So, you know, Bill had to wait a few days and Robert had to walk away from the potential for having compensation. Now we can talk about the compensation part of it because that's way more complicated than people think it is because of the Rooney rule, because of some new rules that went in this year. It would have been really hard to pull that off. But, you know, I think that was a really, the question the whole week was, are these guys going to play ball with each other? And in the end, they wound up playing ball with each other. Robert gets his elegant press conference with Bill there and Bill gets to go wherever he wants to go. Do you think there will be questions asked? Yeah. Do you think it's be, it's just going to be two statements are going to be read by both and that's going to be it? No, I'll answer questions. I think, I mean, I don't, you don't think so. I don't know. Cause one question can make the other guy sit next to the other guys uncomfortable. Yeah. Say you get into the quarterback question. That would be weird. I don't know if I've ever gone to a press conference where they just get up there and talk and then like get up and then I've seen those before. I've seen those before. Well, then why wouldn't you just make a video? Then you just make a video and then it's to produce at least that you get the human element. They're going to take questions. They'll look ridiculous if they don't. Yeah. It would look obscene if they don't. Yeah. Like then just, then just put out a video. You know what I mean? Like, like I thought like what the Titans did the other day, it was totally gutless. You guys see that? No, no. Oh, the team reporter with a, yeah, when she sat down and did like the Q and A, she sat down to the Q and A with the team website, someone she employs and then through the GM out there to do the press conference. Yeah. Like what the hell? Yeah, it's cowardly. You know, so I actually like, I think if you're, if you're going to have a press Pete took questions yesterday, and I think the questions are going to be respectful, but there are some pointed questions that have to be asked. And I, I would assume that Robert and Bill are both prepared to answer those questions. And I do think like, look, but I said, I say it that way because I think some of the most important questions we get, you know, blame could be put at one or the other. And the other one guy's going to have to put the other guy on the spot. So to speak, right? Or does one guy just fall to sword? Yeah. Like the Mac Jones question, who really picked them? Did you guys really do this? This week? I mean, I that that that's a really fascinating one. But I don't think that there was like this massive owner interference. So what did they spend the week doing? What are these two parties doing? So here it is. Here it is. Here it is. Monday you come in, you have your exit interviews with players, right? Like that takes up a lot of the day. The personnel, people, coaches, they're meeting with the players as they're getting ready to leave. In a lot of cases, like you fire the coach, right? Before you do that, like, right? Like in Atlanta, they fire Arthur Smith at midnight on Sunday. Well, Arthur's still going to go through exit interviews at a courtesy for the players. He's going to still do that for the players. In a case like this, you don't do that before like there are special cases where you're not going to do that before. So you let him go through like the normal post season process, which is exit interviews with players on Monday. Tuesday you have a few meetings with coaches. You break them for the next couple of weeks, which is what Bill did. Yeah. He signed a couple of players back. Practice squad guys. Yeah. Bill sent them home. The coaches have the next, they're off until the 22nd, right? And on Tuesday or no, Tuesday or Wednesday morning, like some of the front office guys in the scouts went to the hoola bowl. And so like all of this normal after the season stuff is happening and Bill's conducting that. And my understanding is he had, I think a brief meeting with Robert on Monday. But like, I think the longer one was yesterday and then I wouldn't be surprised if Bill, if they could have done this last night and Bill knew the Saban thing was coming and maybe didn't want to upstage his buddy, right? Like that would make some sense, wouldn't it? Maybe. Like I think that's like, I think it's certainly like stance to reason that maybe they came to an agreement yesterday afternoon and bill was just like, Hey, look, like I, I, something's coming, right? And I just want to give my buddy his day and I don't want to upstage anything that's happening down there. So let's, let's do it tomorrow morning. Well, Robert gets exactly what he wanted. Yeah. He wanted the nice goodbye. The elegant solution. Trademark Bert Brear. And I hate that word elegant. He got it. He got it. Evening dress. He got what he wanted, but I took that. Like that's, that's a, that's a word that Robert has used over and over again, which is why I have you, which is why I used it. I actually borrowed it from him. So that's where I got it from. Yeah. But he didn't refer to Bill Belichick. He referred to Tom Brady's contract, right? That's, that's the phrase he would use when he said, we need to reach the elegant solution, which was a code for, we need to pay Tom Brady less because we want to pay him less than what he's probably worth. Yeah. So what did they talk about? You're going to pay me, right? Yeah, we'll pay you, but you got to do the press conference. Okay. You know, that's it. That's all they had to do. They had to convince them to do the PR part of it. That's what the week was spent doing. Because the more I've dug into this this week too, this was done in January or in Germany. Yes. This was done in Germany. Yes. And this was, there was every warning shot in the world, the way that Robert talked to people over there. I personally know how he privately expressed to people how important this game was to him. He addressed the team in the walkthrough and repeated that to him. And, you know, I was talking to somebody earlier today that said, like, that should be, that should show Robert how hard it is to motivate a football team. And like the challenge there is in the NFL now that the owner can come and say something in that sort of setting and you're still getting that kind of performance. It's hard to win in the league. It's hard to motivate guys in the league, especially when you're in a season that's circling the drain the way that this one was. And I think because they couldn't get the team going for that game in Germany, right? And where they were at that point and what they'd already been through the decision was made then. And I think the last 72 hours more than anything else were about how you dress this up, how the separation happens, and what the next steps are for both the Patriots and for Bill Belichick.