Lawyer Milloy has rebuilt his relationship with Bill Belichick after the New England Patriots parted ways with the safety after a storied career. But at the time, Milloy has made it clear: it stung to get cut. And though we’ve seen Belichick do what he did to Milloy to a number of players over the last two decades, Milloy was one of the first players who was a victim to Belichick’s ruthless approach to managing his personnel.
In an interview Monday on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria.” Milloy recalled how he felt about the situation many years ago.
“It was obviously a pivotal part of my life, my career, when you dedicated for so many years — I was there seven years — and helped really build it from the ground up to ultimately being a champion,” Milloy told WEEI. “I think I went to my fourth Pro Bowl in five years and then I was given an ultimatum: either take a pay cut or leave it. That was up to discussion. I had good representation with Carl Poston and went the whole offseason — the last time I talked to Bill was in June right before the veteran (time) when you can go out and seek another team and we had a discussion. He said basically, ‘the worst-case scenario is you play out this year and we have to re-visit it after the season.’
“So me and my representation were in agreement with that and the Friday after the last preseason game he pulled me into the office and gives me the same ultimatum: I have until Monday to think about it. Guys get released or have these situations come up all the time, it was just the way he handled it, trying to wait until the Monday before the first game, which really disgusted me.”
It’s remarkable Belichick has moved on from so many players in tough ways, and yet has managed to maintain positive relationships with them. And he did that with Milloy, who explained he and Belichick have rebuilt their friendship from that low point.
