Brian Belichick on returning from his injury 9/26: "That was a huge boost for me"

Zach Cox (0:00)

Hey, Brian, how are you?

Brian Belichick (0:02)

Okay, how are you? Isaac, how's it going?

Zach Cox (0:05)

I'm doing well. It's been quite a while since we last spoke with you. Just curious how you're feeling and what these last couple of months have been like for you.

Brian Belichick (0:16)

Yeah, unfortunately, I sustained a pretty serious knee injury like at the beginning of the summer. I had three surgeries and a long recovery to get back to being functional. So I've always been a part of the team in the meetings and kept up with things, obviously. It's fortunately been made easier nowadays with the accessibility with Zoom and stuff like that.

And then towards the start of the regular season and the preseason, I was more functional to move around, more mobile, and could come back into the building and be with the guys again. So that was obviously a huge boost for me mentally after a long summer.

But I've been really fortunate and lucky to work with a lot of great doctors that work with the team, a lot of great physical therapy. People will work with the team, and that's been a great blessing to be in this situation and have those resources to help me. So I'm happy to be more normal and just trying to win games with the team now.

Zach Cox (1:46)

Yeah, that's great to hear.

Have you been able to do your normal kind of game day duties? Because you're typically up in the booth, correct?

Brian Belichick (1:55)

Yeah, I'm usually up in the booth.

I have been my whole coaching career, so really that hasn't changed much because I'm still able to do that. So game day is really no different than it was.

Zach Cox (2:11)

Gotcha. And is there any prognosis on when you'll be kind of back to full go, so to speak, off crutches and everything like that?

Brian Belichick (2:20)

Not really. It's kind of like, you know, just day by day, just try to see where it takes me on the road to recovery.

But thankfully, I am pretty functional with everything in the building now, so that's good.

Zach Cox (2:41)

That's great.

I see Nick waiting here, so I'll just get one more, just from a football perspective. What's it been like to work with a position group that no longer has Devin McCordy in it?

Brian Belichick (2:55)

Yeah, it's been, you know, obviously, a huge change. You know, Louis is a great player and presence in the room, but it's been a great opportunity for those guys, and for me, coaching-wise, to have those guys build up their communication and leadership on the field and in the meeting room, and I think they've really stepped up and done that, and I think we've, you know, communicated well, operated well on the field, and it's really been great to see those guys grow into, you know, better players who take more control of the defense and have more leadership and communication, and it's been, you know, it's been awesome.

Nick (3:45)

Great.

Zach Cox (3:45)

Thanks, Brian, and glad you're on the road to recovery there.

Brian Belichick (3:49)

Thanks, Seth. All right, Nick, go ahead with your question.

Nick (3:54)

Hey, Brian, I want to ask about how things have gone with, you know, the mobility issues coming back from the injury, and how has...

Brian Belichick (4:05)

You mean for me, right?

Nick (4:07)

Yes.

Do you think the sort of logistics of, like, the 2020, the big COVID season, was able to help you guys out with having an injury like that? Like, being able to, like, you guys have more reps of doing stuff remote and being able to, you know, have to physically be there.

Brian Belichick (4:27)

Absolutely, yeah. I think that's spot on, where if we didn't go through the COVID situation and the experiences with Zoom and our WebEx or, you know, meetings, virtual meetings, then would have been a huge, a pretty jarring change, but it made it more seamless. And yeah, it was, you know, it did, it did help. It's always, you know, obviously it was still tough. And I've been back in the building with everyone in person for, let's see, what date is it, I want to say about, maybe a month or so. So it's been a while since I was doing that, but we're virtual, and it was like this in COVID too.

It is hard, you know, not to be with, with the players, not to be with the other, the guys and, you know, look at them eye to eye and talk to each other and have that connection. So there still is a difference, but it was going through the COVID experience did make it a little more seamless to get it set up and, you know, operate more functionally, normally.