Richard Seymour: ‘I don’t have any hard feelings’ toward Bill Belichick

Richard Seymour knows the NFL is a business, and he said Monday there's no issue between him and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Seymour was drafted by the Patriots in 2001 and played eight seasons in New England. He became one of the league's best defensive players and helped the Patriots win three Super Bowl titles. It was announced Monday that the former defensive end was voted into the Patriots Hall of Fame by the fans.

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The Patriots traded Seymour to the Raiders in 2009 as he was entering the final year of his contract. In a video conference call with reporters Monday, Seymour was asked about his relationship with Belichick. He says "all is well" between him and the legendary head coach.

"At the end of the day, the amount of respect that I had for coach Belichick and still have to this day, it’s the difference between business and your personal life,” Seymour said. “Personally, it was always a ton of respect. Coach Belichick, he would always send Christmas gifts to the kids and little things like that. In terms of the business side of it, that’s just the business of the NFL. We saw that this year with all of the guys. That’s a part of it. I don’t have any hard feelings or anything like that. That’s just a part of the way the NFL works. It may have seemed like there was some tension or something, but in my mind, it’s no hard feelings. We talk and we see each other. He was shooting me a text. The team was here in Atlanta for a Super Bowl, I was with the team. All is well.”

Seymour will soon become the 30th player inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame. He is without question one of Belichick's best draft picks and ranks among the most talented players ever to play for the Patriots.

“When I first got the news, it was an opportunity and time for me to reflect,” Seymour said of his Patriots Hall of Fame selection. “I thought back to the day I was drafted and my mom and my dad, my family all being there. You think about all of the hard work it took just to be drafted, and now to be considered a Patriots Hall of Famer is a tremendous honor.”