Bill Belichick had one of the most interesting press conferences of his coaching career when he met with the media Wednesday morning.
The typically stoic and curt head coach must be feeling pretty good about his New England Patriots as they get set to face the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, because Belichick was oddly forthcoming and alarmingly gracious when he assessed their opponent.
The king of one-word answers and an expert at providing the media with as little information as possible, Belichick defied all odds by opening his press conference with a seemingly never-ending monologue. Seven minutes, 30 seconds and 1,003 words to be exact (thank you, Patriots.com, for providing the transcript). As Belichick stepped to the podium on Wednesday, every NFL fan would have bet the house on taking the under for both the time and word count.
Bill Belichick with a whopping seven minutes and over 1,000 words on how good the Bears are pic.twitter.com/xS9UbK7zru
— Dakota Randall (@DakRandall) October 19, 2022
We’ve seen Belichick (seen above in 2021) go on lengthy tangents in the past. Who can forget the 10-minute, 1,500 word performance in response to a question about long snappers? But this seven-minute, 1,003-word soliloquy was not prompted by a question or comment, it was just Belichick’s way of saying hello. Most of Belichick’s monologue was rendered useless, as reporters largely ignored everything he said and followed up with unrelated questions. More than what Belichick said, it was how long it took him to say it that was interesting.
I did not read or listen to the full 1,003 word, seven-minute monologue, but I can tell you that Belichick used “very” 14 times. As in “very good,” “very instinctive,” “very successful,” “very consistent,” etc. All of this means Belichick is feeling very good about his defense’s chances of shutting out the Bears this week.
