NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to uphold Tom Brady’s four-game suspension has led to angry statements in response from Brady, his agent, the NFLPA and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, but coach Bill Belichick didn’t offer any additional thoughts during his training camp press conference on Wednesday morning.
Belichick opened the presser by referencing the other statements and saying that there’s “nothing really to talk about there” from his perspective. That didn’t stop questions from being asked, however, and Belichick showed he hasn’t lost his knack for sticking with the same answer.
“Q: Is there something flawed about the system here in the organization that you keep ending up in these cheating controversies? Can you explain why?
BB: It’s already been addressed.
Q: Could you elaborate a little?
BB: No.
Q: Why not?
BB: Because it’s already been addressed.
Q: Well, people have a lot of questions – the public, fans.
BB: You heard what Robert just said. It’s already been addressed. Maybe you ought to go back and look at your notes.
Q: I want your opinion.
BB: It’s already been addressed.”
Questions about conversations with Brady, the challenges of preparing the team when they might not have Brady for the first four games of the season and why the team suspended Jim McNally and John Jastremski were waved away just as easily with Belichick repeating that the team is focused only on the 2015 season. No one who’s familiar with the Patriots coach would have expected anything too different from Belichick and we wouldn’t expect anything to change from the coach even as fireworks continue to be lobbed back and forth by everyone else involved.
