Bill Belichick admits he misses Julian Edelman over text message

Patriots legend Julian Edelman and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick have leveled up their friendship, with Belichick telling Jules he misses him.

Bill Belichick has recently made headlines during Patriots training camp for his surly responses, so much so that The Rich Eisen Show and The Pat McAfee show have dedicated segments to Belichick’s press conference moment of the day.

But those who truly know Bill know the kind, funny, generous person he can be. That’s right: Belichick is quietly a thoughtful philanthropist and a friend to players he deeply respects. Those players include the recently-retired James White and Julian Edelman.

Edelman has shared plenty of hilarious moments during his time in Foxborough, most notably an unexpected hot tub encounter with Belichick. Even though Bill isn’t a fan of Julian’s impersonations of him, the legendary Patriots wide receiver told FanSided that the two have graduated to a new level of friendship.

Recently, Belichick has taken time from his quest to dominate the AFC East to send Edelman heartfelt text messages like never before.

"“I’ve had a couple random texts from Bill, and it’s just like, ‘Man, am I friends with him now? Are we really friends?’ Like great texts, nice texts, randomly. I’m like, ‘What? Did we just become friends? Let’s go!’I think it was like a week ago, he said, ‘Look forward to seeing you at camp’, something like that. And I think he dropped a ‘I miss you’, I don’t know. I blacked out; I fainted; I may have deleted the text. I’m blushing right now!”"

Julian Edelman faints when he realizes Bill Belichick misses him

Belichick has been known to offer copious praise to his former players, even his former quarterback, Tom Brady. When the world thought Brady retired in February, Belichick called him “the best player in NFL history.”

When Edelman retired from the Patriots last April, Belichick spoke glowingly of his longtime versatile asset who excelled in all three phases of the game. After all, it’s Edelman who ranks second in all-time postseason receiving yards and whose presence in the last three Patriots Super Bowl wins moved the needle for each victory.

“Julian’s been one of the players that’s probably come further than most every other player I’ve coached,” Belichick said at the time. “His toughness, his competitiveness, his play-making ability certainly is a big part of the backbone of our team. I have a ton of respect for Julian and what he accomplished in his career.”

Considering what Edelman did in the second wave of the Patriots dynasty, it only makes sense that Belichick would miss him. These days, Edelman shares with us the side of Bill only the luckiest of people ever get to see.

“Bill has a funny-ass laugh — he’s got a smile that he does,” Edelman said as he impersonated Bill’s infectious grin.

On his end, Belichick confirmed that he and Edelman “talk regularly“, but Edelman is the one giving us the details of what those conversations entail. For now, there’s no talk of un-retiring, but there’s a budding friendship that still makes Edelman blush.