Bill Belichick addresses absences of Trent Brown, Lawrence Guy at Patriots minicamp

FOXBORO -- While the the OTA portion of the Patriots' offseason schedule has certainly adopted an optional feel for certain veteran players in recent years, minicamp remains mandatory. So the absences of Trent Brown and Lawrence Guy for Monday's first session certainly stood out as peculiar.

The report on Brown's absence said that his flight to New England was canceled due to a hail storm in Texas. The report on Guy indicated that his absence was contract-related.

On Brown, Belichick didn't have much to say on Tuesday morning, saying "I don't know" when asked if he expected the offensive tackle to participate in practice. Brown was spotted on the field when practice began after Belichick's time at the podium.

When asked why Brown missed Monday, Belichick said, "Yeah I wouldn't be able to comment on that."

Belichick was asked if Brown was physically present in the building on Tuesday, and even that did not generate a straight answer.

"I mean I don't have a monitor," Belichick said with a smile. "I would assume so."

The final questions of Belichick's press conference were about Guy's situation, but the head coach didn't want to touch that subject either.

"Yeah, you'd have to talk to him about that," Belichick said. "Whatever the issue is, you can talk to him about that. I'm not going to talk about contracts, personal situations, injuries."

The Patriots held their second mandatory minicamp session on Tuesday on the practice fields outside Gillette Stadium.