Bill Belichick Football Quotations

I'm sure that any current or past player of mine would tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be: wet, sticky, cold, slippery. However bad we can make them, I make them. Any time that players complain about the quality of the footballs, I make them worse and that stops the complaining.

Tom's [Brady] personal preferences on his footballs are something he can take about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide.

To me the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pregame and we play with what's out there. That's the only way that I have ever thought about that.

I've learned about the inflation range situation. Obviously with our footballs being inflated to the 12.5-pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit. Knowing that now, in the future we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game.

I was out of the country for a period of time but followed everything closely through other people in our organization and we've made the decisions that we felt were right for the football team and we'll continue to do that and be as diligent as we can going forward.

We've been cooperative with the NFL investigation. We'll continue to do so and we will turn all our attention and focus on to the Seattle Seahawks, a very well coached, talented, tough, competitive football team.

It's the business that you guys are in too. We try to get as much information as we can and make the best decisions that we can for the football team.

Some guys, football comes really easy to them; they can see what all 22 players are doing, can see what all 11 guys are doing on their side of the ball, how it all fits together. It's easy for them.

We never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever or kick with whatever we have to use and that's the way it is.

I'm a football coach. I'm not a doctor ... They don't call plays, I don't do surgeries. We have a great deal here.

I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am.

Each decision will be done on a case-by-case basis and we'll make the decision we feel is best for the New England Patriots football team.

Some guys are football smart and they're not smart in other ways. Other guys get 1500 on their SATs and can't get a double-team block right. No, that definitely, in my experience, sometimes it correlates, sometimes it doesn't. I don't think you just take it for granted.

I told you the one change we would make in the initial start level of the football pressure, but that's really about it.

I could tell you that in my entire coaching career I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up.

It's time for the New England Patriots to move on and that's what our job is. And as I said, our goal is the same: to have a winning football team, to be a pillar in the community. That's what our direction is; that's what we're going to do.

Whatever success I've had it is because I've tried to understand the situation of the player. I think the coach's duty is to avoid complicating matters.

I am who I am. In the end, I feel that what I'm accountable for is doing a good job as a football coach.

The less versatile you are, the better you have to be at what you do well.

My overall knowledge of football specifications, the overall process that happens on game day with the footballs is very limited. I would say that during the course of the game, I honestly never - it probably has happened on an incomplete pass or something - but I've never touched a game ball. It's not something I have any familiarity with on that.

In short, we accumulate all the information that we can accumulate, wherever that information comes from, and try to analyze it and make the best decision we can make for our football team on a case-by-case basis. It's the same for every single player; the process is the same.

There is an old saying about the strength of the wolf is the pack, and I think there is a lot of truth to that. On a football team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.

We're looking at another really good football team this week in Denver. They're probably one of the hotter teams in the league right now. They're playing very well in all three phases of the game. They've been a good team to watch just because they're executing so well. They haven't had a turnover in three games.

One of the things we wanted to do today was play competitively against a good football team. Obviously, it came right down to the last play. I was proud of the way our players fought. We had a lot of opportunities for a lot of people to play. This was really our last opportunity to do that, so we tried to take advantage of that.

Obviously it was a game where they made more plays than we did. I congratulate Mike and the Denver Broncos. They are a good football team. They earned the right to play here (Saturday) and they played well.

I was really proud of our team. It's tough down here. Miami is a good football team. They're well coached, they're physical and they gave us all we wanted. I'm proud of the guys for hanging in there.

We're on to Jacksonville and we've got our work cut out for us there. Jacksonville's a tough football team. They're physically tough and they're mentally tough. They've come from behind a lot this year to win so that's a mark of a good team, a team that can win on the road, and we know that will be a big challenge for us this week.

What you need to think about it is, 'How do I defeat the guy who is assigned to block me?' That's what defensive football really is about,

I think it comes down to doing what you think is best for your football team and whether it's two young guys, two old guys, two medium-size guys, two-whatever they are, you work your people.

I think any player that hasn't played football for a while, and then comes back and tries to catch up to a lot of guys who have been playing on a regular basis, they're behind. They have to be. If they weren't, then we should cancel all the practices and just show up for the game.

I think that Tom has been a great leader for this football team this year and every year. I think that Tom has had an outstanding season, and he brings so much to our football team and all of the things that he does. His preparation, his work ethic, his toughness. His ability to lead this team and lead the offense. He's an outstanding quarterback. I'm glad he's our quarterback.

That was a heck of a football game. I've got to give all the credit in the world to (our) players. This is a team that believes a lot in itself even when others don't.

We can't do much of anything. We don't know what we're working with. Until that's defined, it seems like an exercise in futility. On the plus side, it gives us a chance to put more of our time and energy into football and known quantities instead of contracts when you don't know what the system is.

Unlike most other interviews that you have, you usually don't talk that much technical football with an owner.

Those are pretty good football players. There's no gimmes on that front, I can tell you.

You know where I stand on that. Could I have been any further away from the play?

The conversation was, 'Look, we're taking him. We're taking a good football player. We don't know what we're going to do with him exactly, but we figure we'll find something.

When you have a football team, everybody has a role on it. And Ro's role, for the most part in the last couple of years, . . . was to get the defense ready. Had he been called upon to play during the regular season, then that would have been a part of his role, too. But, for the most part, it wasn't. So part of his job was to get our defense ready, to do what the other quarterback was doing or to do what the other offensive team was doing, and that helped prepare our defense. In no way can I minimize that.

We've got the same amount of time that Jacksonville has to prepare for the game, so we're on a level field there. We just have to do a better job. You've got to play your best football in January. It's that time of year.

So we are onto Jacksonville and we've got our work cut out for us there. Jacksonville is a tough football team. They are physically tough and mentally tough.

As a football team, they completely outplayed us tonight. They made the plays and we certainly didn't make them.

They've both been very dependable. They have gotten a lot of snaps. They've been able to be out there on a weekly basis and understand it and get better. I think they've improved. I think they started at a good level and I think they've improved with each game. I think they're doing well and I think they can do better. There are some things that they need to work on. They're both instinctive football players, smart guys that when you tell them something, they understand it.

They're 12-4. If the playoffs weren't set up the way they were, they'd probably be playing at home, (but) they're in the same division as Indianapolis.

They ran the ball at will; they passed the ball at will. They have good offensive football players. They play both inside and outside and just beat us all-round.

Almost 75 years of football gave him a vast knowledge and reverence historically for the game that very few could match, ... He coached everything, and his ability to teach and interact with people has really come back to me in my lifetime and in the last few days.

They do what they need to do. They can play their ?Cover 2? and they play it well. They play some zone and they can pressure. They probably don?t pressure as much as some teams, but they can definitely bring it. It?s a good defensive football team. They do everything pretty well.

They played well, ... They played a good football game. They played better then we did. They deserved to win. They outplayed us. They outcoached us. They outperformed us.

As usual, Tom played his best football when it counted.

Football's a contact sport. Tackling, that's what defensive football is, getting the guy with the ball on the ground.

It's hard to get four quarterbacks the amount of reps that are really productive. You know, we've got two players that really haven't played any football at all for this organization and we're going to have to make some kind of evaluation on where they are. And the only way to evaluate them is to see them play.

If their job's to block, they block. If their job's to tackle, they tackle. A football player's a football player. You've got a job to do, you do it. There's no class system. Everybody's got to block. Everybody's got to tackle.

Chad's a smart, experienced football player. He's got a good background and picks things up quickly. We've thrown a lot at him, and he's been able to handle it. He's starting to take on the leadership role.

Chad is improving a little bit every day, like a lot of our newer players are, ... I don't think he's ever really played this position. But he's a smart guy. He picked it up well and he's a good football player.

Honestly, we went through this at the end last year with the San Francisco game (and the starters played most of the game). Were treating this like a regular week ... I don't think anybody else really knows any other way to do it around here?. I don't think the players do. I don't think the coaches do. It's football season. Maybe I'll see it differently next week. I don't know.

You've got to play your best football in January. It's that time of year.