Coach Bill Belichick on WEEI 1/2: "Focused on finishing the season with a win"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hey, Bill.

Bill Belichick (0:01)

Good morning.

SPEAKER_3 (0:03)

Happy New Year.

Greg Hill (0:04)

Happy New Year.

Bill Belichick (0:05)

Same to you.

Yep, Happy New Year. Same to you guys, too.

Greg Hill (0:08)

Are you a resolution guy?

Bill Belichick (0:10)

I probably try to keep those to myself.

Greg Hill (0:17)

Well, we obviously...

Bill Belichick (0:20)

I don't get called out on them.

Courtney (0:23)

Smart.

Greg Hill (0:24)

I think you're supposed to write them down or something like that. And then you can, you're probably not, are you a big manifest guy, Bill?

Courtney's big into manifestation.

Bill Belichick (0:35)

Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know how you measure that.

Courtney (0:41)

Vision boards.

Greg Hill (0:43)

Well, listen, you alluded to this, obviously post game, but it seems like when it comes to turnovers for this football team, that's sort of been a struggle all season long. And yeah, you end up again playing that Bill's team well.

And if not for the turnovers, the result may have been different.

Bill Belichick (1:10)

Well, we put ourselves in a hole there, in the second quarter and then kind of battled back. We couldn't battle all the way back. It's just too much to give a good team like that.

Courtney (1:28)

Bill, it did seem like when it came to those turnovers, at least on one occasion, it was a miscommunication between Bailey and Rigort.

Did you see that? And do you put a lot of the fault on those turnovers on Bailey or the offense as a whole?

Bill Belichick (1:41)

Yeah, well, each play had its own, you know, had its own elements. But I have to say, you know, in general, the high level of execution that we needed on a couple of those plays, we just didn't have. And obviously, we paid for it.

SPEAKER_3 (2:08)

Bill, Sean McDermott was effusive in his praise for you after the game. It looked like you guys shared a good embrace afterwards.

What was it conveyed there, and what do you think about what McDermott's done in Buffalo?

Bill Belichick (2:23)

Yeah, I think Sean and Brandon have done a really good job up there.

Obviously, you know, won several divisions, and you know, in it again this year. So, yeah, I mean, they've done a great job.

Greg Hill (2:38)

One of the things, Bill, that I think I especially enjoy about having the opportunity to have you on is to get the chance to clear things up that are talked about a lot. I wanted to ask you about Trent Brown, who took offense with a Sports Illustrated report that he has been late a lot this season. Has that been an issue or is that something that you can clear up?

Bill Belichick (3:01)

You know, I'm not going to comment on any personal situations or contracts or anything like that.

Courtney (3:17)

Bill, it did seem the last two games, at least, that these players have really put the effort in. And a lot of people, we've talked about it on this show, are saying that they look like they're playing for you. I'm on that account that seems to think that these players want to succeed for you, even though the postseason is out of the question.

There's been a lot of rumors about your future. Bailey Zappi on this station said that he hears them, everybody else hears them. You told us that you have an open door policy with your players, if they have any questions. Does it feel like to you that these players are playing for you?

Bill Belichick (3:54)

I think the players have come in really every week, and on a pretty consistent basis, you know, very consistent basis, not perfect, but on a very consistent basis, come in, you know, work hard, try to correct our mistakes, prepare for the next team, you know, get the game plan, go over and over the game plan to try to make sure we have it down, you know, as well as we can in all three phases of the game. And that's what these guys have done all year from the beginning of the year until, you know, all the way through to last week against Buffalo. So I don't expect that to change. I don't, you know, I think that's just what they are and what they do.

Got some really good leadership out of our captains and some of the other veterans on the team, and, you know, people have followed their example. And so, I mean, look, we're all just trying to get better and do the best job we can. I mean, that's really, you know, that's really what it's about.