Belichick: 'Tremendous Respect And Appreciation' For Veterans
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots are preparing for what should be a tough matchup against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, but head coach Bill Belichick took time Friday morning to make sure his team understands the importance of Veterans Day.
"Obviously a huge day for our country, to recognize the people that defend our freedom," Belichick said in his Friday morning at his press conference. "We talked about it this morning. When you go into the service and you take that oath and say that you'll put your life between the freedom of this country and somebody that's trying to harm us, you can't do much more than that. So that's a pretty big oath, pretty big pledge. People that have done that, we have tremendous respect and appreciation for."
Belichick singled out long-snapper Joe Cardona, a naval officer and the only active member of the armed currently forces in the NFL (former Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds is currently on the Baltimore Ravens' practice squad).
"I think he's a great representative of not only the New England Patriots but the United States Navy and servicemen in general," Belichick said of Cardona, who the team drafted in 2015. "I'm glad he's on our side, and I know we have a lot of others, thousands of men and women that serve this country and have served this country for our freedoms.
"[We're] very proud of that and I recognize it. We'll recognize it today," said Belichick. "We'll recognize it obviously on Sunday on Salute to Service."
Belichick ended his Friday press conference with an anecdote about how he had to clarify the true meaning of Veterans Day with some of his players a few years back.
"We had to just clear up a couple of years ago that Veterans Day wasn't a day for players that have played so long in the league or anything special," the coach said. "It's really not what we were talking about. We're talking about the real veterans. So, a little confusion on that a few years ago. We got that worked out."
Belichick grew up very much aware of the military, as his father was an assistant coach for the United States Naval Academy for 33 years.