Bill Belichick shares old tale about Baltimore Colts training camp in 1975

BOSTON -- Bill Belichick isn't normally full of smiles when meeting with the media, but Wednesday was different. Belichick couldn't hold back his happiness on this day, as he basked in the glory of being in the most historical football city in America.

"There's a lot of it, yeah. There's a lot of it," Belichick said with a laugh when asked about the history of Green Bay, before the Patriots kicked off their first joint practice session with the Packers. "It's the third-oldest franchise in the league, going all the way back to [Curly] Lambeau and starting the team and all the success they had with [Don Hutson], [Clarke] Hinkle and [Cecil] Isbell and then [Vince] Lombardi, most recently with [Brett] Favre and [Aaron] Rodgers. And now with Matt [LaFleur], his first three years here have been double-digit wins every year. So it's a great program, and a lot of history here.

"Third-oldest sporting field behind Fenway and Wrigley," Belichick continued. "So it's very moving to walk out of the locker room down onto the field. You think about all the great, great players that have done -- and coaches that have done that through the years. So great part of football, great part of tradition. And I'm honored to be a part of it, to be here."

With the Packers' practice fields being a little bit of a ways away from the locker rooms at Lambeau Field, Belichick was asked about the uniqueness of taking such a journey to practice. Considering it was Football History O'Clock in Belichick Time, the question made him recall the process of getting to the practice field way back in his first NFL training camp with the Baltimore Colts in 1975.

"We did that when I was with the Colts. We walked across the street to Eastern High School," Belichick said.

He made sure to make an important distinction, though.

"Wasn't quite this nice, but we walked across the street," a smiling Belichick said. "We pressed the walk button. But yeah, it's a little different setup here."

While Packers history holds a near and dear spot in Belichick's heart, the future Hall of Fame head coach said Wednesday that he and everyone else in the organization are hoping that team owner Robert Kraft takes another step toward the Hall of Fame when the final candidate for the coach/contributor category is announced later in the day.

"Yeah, keeping our fingers crossed that we get the vote this year," Belichick said.