Bill Belichick Offers Hilarious Response When Asked About Scouting Players On Other Teams
BOSTON (CBS) -- Bill Belichick has some roster trimming in his near future, as the Patriots and the 31 other NFL teams have to slim down to 53 players by Saturday afternoon.
The self-scouting has been going on since before the start of training camp, but the Patriots have also been putting in a lot of work scouting the other rosters around the league. The process includes trying to predict which players may or may not be available to them after cut-down day, either on their game-day roster or practice squad.
When WBZ-TV's Levan Reid asked Belichick Tuesday if he has a good idea who these players may be, the Patriots head coach fired back a hilarious Belichickian response.
"Absolutely. What do you think we've been doing?" he snipped, getting some yuks from other reporters.
But Belichick was just warming up.
"We look at all 31 teams. What do you think we're doing. We're in camp -- we don't have watermelon rolls and badminton contests," Belichick added with a wry smile. "We're working on football. We look at our team and look at all 31 teams."
Belichick probably isn't referring to the delicious watermelon rolls from Friendly's, which would absolutely hit the spot on a hot day of training camp, but instead an actual game where kids roll a watermelon across the field. Other teams around the NFL have taken some unorthodox training methods to the practice field in recent years, like the Jaguars replacing footballs with volleyballs, so maybe Belichick is on to something without even knowing it.
Bubble players have one more preseason game to try to earn a roster spot, Thursday night against the New York Giants, but it sounds like Belichick already has a good idea who will and won't be around come Sunday. After that, maybe he can enjoy a watermelon roll or two.
Tune in to Thursday night's preseason finale on WBZ-TV -- the flagship station of the New England Patriots. The game begins at 7 p.m. with full postgame coverage after on Patriots 5th Quarter!
