Asante Samuel implores Lamar Jackson to not play for Bill Belichick
BOSTON -- Asante Samuel really doesn't like Bill Belichick. At all.
The retired cornerback remains as disgruntled as humanly possible at his former head coach, to the point where he's now offering unsolicited advice to current NFL players to not play for Belichick in New England.
Reacting to this week's news that Jackson has apparently expressed a desire to play for the Patriots, Samuel tweeted, "Lamar Jackson, my brother trust me you don't want to play for Belichick."
Exactly how tuned in Jackson is to Samuel's Twitter page is unknown. But it is quite clear that Samuel still harbors some stiff resentment toward Belichick from their time together from 2003-07.
Samuel likes to let that be known as often as possible, saying in 2021 that Belichick is "just another coach" without Tom Brady, and saying in 2020 that Brady "probably got tired" of having Belichick as his head coach.
Belichick drafted Samuel in 2003 in the fourth round of the draft, and the cornerback won Super Bowls in his first two seasons in New England. He played the 2007 season under the franchise tag -- failing to secure a fourth-quarter interception in Super Bowl XLII that would have sealed the perfect season for New England -- and then left via free agency.
Either in interviews, on podcasts, or on Twitter, Samuel has spoken freely about his dislike of his former head coach.
The issue between Samuel and Belichick seems to have been rooted in money. Yet with Samuel making millions of dollars from the Eagles and Falcons over the final six years of his career, one might think the 42-year-old would have moved past those differences by now. Nevertheless, Samuel is spending his days actively campaigning for players to not sign with the coach that he did not personally like more than 15 years ago.
Interestingly enough, Asante Samuel Jr. will be making a trip with the Chargers to play the Patriots in Foxboro this upcoming season. Perhaps a pregame sideline visit from Belichick to the elder Samuel will lead to a burying of the hatchet. Or, based on everything Samuel says about Belichick, perhaps not.
