Bill Belichick responds to Tom Brady's injury in the most Bill Belichick way
Bill Belichick is a man of many words — when he wants to be.
He was once asked about the role of the punt protector in the special teams unit and gave a 683-word answer about its importance.
But ask the Patriots coach about the hand injury of arguably the greatest quarterback of all time just two days before the AFC championship game?
Crickets.
“Yeah, we gave out the injury report yesterday. We’ll update it today,” was Belichick’s response when asked about any update on Tom Brady’s status.
But what about not having Brady on the practice field this week, coach? Has that limited the team’s preparation for Jacksonville?
“We’re going to continue to get ready for Jacksonville all the way through, up till game time,” he said.
One brave reporter had the courage to ask Belichick if he had any regrets about trading away Jimmy Garoppolo and, predictably, Belichick had no interest in broaching that subject.
“We’re getting ready for Jacksonville,” he said.
During Belichick’s media session, he didn’t say “Tom” or “Brady” at any point, nor did he even use the “he” pronoun when responding to a question about Brady.
But the coach did take time to single out Brady’s backup, Brian Hoyer, when asked how Hoyer did filling in for Brady with the first team.
“Brian does a great job for us — works hard, practices hard,” Belichick said. “He does a good job.”
No matter how a reporter phrased a question regarding Brady’s injury or status for Sunday, Belichick wasn’t going to give an answer.
Brady was on the practice field for Friday’s practice, or at least on the field for the portion available to the media.
Tom Brady with a little hop in his step at the start of practice. pic.twitter.com/GnouNhM1dP
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) January 19, 2018
ESPN’s Mike Reiss also said the media only saw stretching and light jogging from the Patriots, and the quarterbacks didn’t throw during the period open to the media.
Brady was expected to address the media after the Patriots finish practice Friday. He was initially scheduled to speak to the media Wednesday but that was bumped to Thursday and then bumped again to Friday.
Expect his answers to be a little meatier than Belichick’s were, but also don’t expect Brady to give a 926-word answer like his coach did when asked about the hypothetical expansion of NFL rosters.
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