Covering Bill Belichick seems like it must be absolutely brutal. Belichick gives stubbornly unhelpful answers to almost all inquiries, and when he does elaborate, it typically involves berating the questioner.
But while this must be quite exhausting for the dutiful Patriots beat writers who have to confront it day-to-day, it’s kind of fun for the rest of us to watch from afar.
On Friday, Belichick was asked about the performance of Austin Carr, an undrafted rookie who made highlight reels with his impressive catch at training camp Thursday. Sounds like an innocent question, right? Well instead of offering some platitude about how Carr looked good and the team was excited to see what he could do, Belichick totally rejected the premise.
Here was his response, via the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin:
In case you couldn’t sense the sarcasm about “a pretty talented group of evaluators” and “my personal limitations” dripping through the text, here’s a clip of just some of Belichick’s diatribe.
Of course, Belichick has a bit of a point here. One great catch does not move the needle much in player evaluation, especially it comes in non-contact drills. It’s not as Austin Carr’s nice grab suddenly makes him Jerry Rice—or even, like, Chris Hogan.
On the other hand, reporters have to write about something early in training camp, and it might as well be the undrafted wide receiver with the big college stats who made a cool catch in camp. For the beat reporters’ sake, it would be cool if Belichick could just give out a canned quote like most football coaches would.
But from the perspective of someone with no stake in that dude’s story, it’s kind of funny to hear Belichick unload like that.
About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.