In fairness to Patriots coach Bill Belichick, there are (rare) occasions when he decides to give long, meaningful answers to the questions presented to him during press conferences. Today was not one of those occasions.
Belichick met with reporters on the first day of the team’s mandatory minicamp. Here’s a quick excerpt.
Q: Did everyone report to camp?
A: I don’t know. Whoever is here is here.
Q: Is there a reason why Rob Gronkowski wasn’t on the field?
A: There are a lot of players that were not on the field. They were doing other things.
Q: Was Rob Gronkowski expected to be there?
A: All of our players are. They’re doing other things.
Belichick often gives short answers to questions he regards as dumb. But these are fair, legitimate questions that he simply didn’t want to answer in a complete and thorough way.
It’s his right to be as concise as he wants to be. And it’s the media’s right to point out that Belichick makes an undisclosed amount of money that presumably is well north of $10 million per year due in part to the popularity of the sport and the public’s interest in it. If Belichick doesn’t want to be bothered with the media obligations that come from making presumably well north of $10 million per year as an NFL coach, there are plenty of other levels of plenty of other sports that he could coach in anonymity -- with a salary that reflects it.
