Bill Belichick still doesn’t have any New Year’s resolutions to share

One of the off-field NFL storylines of the week came thanks to reporter Juliet Pennington, who asked Patriots coach Bill Belichick about his New Year’s resolutions.

Belichick didn’t want to answer after New England’s loss to Buffalo, but that a reporter would be brave enough to bring up that kind of non-football question made waves, and then went viral once Tom Brady weighed in to call it a courageous question.

… pic.twitter.com/mSmyoxNZbz

— Ari M (@AriMeirov) December 26, 2021

As per Belichick’s request, Pennington followed up today remotely, again asking if Belichick had any resolutions to share.

Bill Belichick was once again asked about his New Year’s resolutions. pic.twitter.com/E4EXO0xqXB

— Ari M (@AriMeirov) December 31, 2021

Once again, no real response there, although we should note that actually Bill Belichick’s personal resolutions are in fact very interesting to us! Please share, coach! You’ve been more open with and even understanding of the press lately!

Considering the backlash Pennington faced from some corners of the sports media world where anything beyond coverage schemes is considered off-limits in the press room, it’s awesome that she went back and tried again. Here’s what we wrote the first time, which is all still very applicable:

Was Belichick ever going to answer that question at all, much less during a postgame press conference after a loss in late December? Probably not. But is there any harm in asking? A lot of detractors would point to not reading the room, or even taking question time from a beat writer looking to fill a gamer with a more traditional football question.

That said, if you’re a reporter working on a story, you don’t always get to dictate when and where you get availability to ask the questions necessary to complete your work. If Belichick had actually launched into a few resolutions, that would absolutely be fascinating to a wider audience.

It may not have worked any better in this context, but the COVID protocols mean reporters only have access in certain situations, and this is one of them. She should keep asking. It’s never too early for 2023.