The Football Men are upset. During Bill Belichick’s solemn postgame presser Sunday, a reporter dared to ask the Patriots’ coach whether he was planning any New Year’s Resolutions.
Unsurprisingly, Belichick didn’t play along.“Yeah, no, not right now,” he said. “Maybe next week.”
Then the exchange was over, but not in the minds of the Serious Sportswriters who write about snap counts and red zone performance. They went on to tsk-tsk the reporter who posed the silly question to Belichick following a devastating defeat.
“Pats lose massive divisional game to the Bills,” tweeted CBS’ Will Brinson. “After 10 seconds of silence and death stares, this reporter asked Bill Belichick about his possible NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS.”
The usually mild-mannered Dan Roche was just as incredulous. “Bill Belichick was just asked if he had any New Year’s resolutions. What the….?,” he wrote.
NESN’s Tom Caron was so offended, he said Belichick should “retract last week’s apology to the media.”
Here’s the thing, though: that poor reporter almost certainly didn’t want to ask the question herself. Any sentient human could tell Belichick wasn’t in the mood for lighthearted banter. But sometimes, you have to do what your boss wants you to do. How do I know the New Year’s Resolution question was part of a larger assignment?
The reporter posed the same inquiry to Damien Harris. Either she can’t read a room, or was just following orders.
I’ll go with the latter.
It’s a tradition in Foxborough for Patriots writers to scoff at journalists who show up to Gillette Stadium and ask Belichick non-football questions. Their professionalism is ridiculed and derided. How dare they ask General Belichick about anything besides the Cover 3?
As veteran ESPN scribe Kevin Van Valkenburg points out, there’s no rule dictating what can and can’t be asked in a press conference. It cedes all power to the coach, who doesn’t have much use for members of the media, anyway, whether they’re asking about New Year’s Resolutions or his game plan.
Most of Belichick’s postgame press conferences are exercises in futility, especially after a big loss. He stood at the podium for just over three minutes Sunday. Nobody was getting any answers.
The irony is, many of the reporters who mocked the New Year’s Resolution woman would’ve happily included her exchange with Belichick in their notes columns if he provided an answer. Many online outlets, including this one, probably would’ve even published a separate article about it (in fact, we already did).
Everybody in that press room should take themselves less seriously. That seems like a pretty good New Year’s Resolution to me.