Patriots Blog: Bill And Bobby
FOXBORO (CBS) - Before the departure of Terry Francona, Boston had the rare occurence of having four major sports coaches who had all brought a title to their respective teams.
Francona, Bill Belichick, Doc Rivers and Claude Julien were all close, and the they all felt a little something when Tito left town.
Now in comes Bobby Valentine, who Rivers already shared one story about on Thursday. On Friday, it was Bill Belichick's turn to reflect on the new Red Sox manager. The Patriots head coach said he can't wait to reconnect with Valentine, who was the manager in New York when Belichick was with the Jets.
"Love Bobby," said Belichick. "Great guy. Great baseball guy. Love to talk to him. He's got a lot of energy. Don't get me wrong, I love Terry. I had a great relationship with Bobby in New York. I went to several Mets games and stuff like that, watched Keyshawn [Johnson] throw out the opening pitch and all that. Bobby is a wonderful guy. I look forward to catching up with him and seeing him here."
Read: Secondary Gaining Confidence In Each Other
Julien also touched on Valentine during the Bruins practice on Friday, saying he was "no longer the rookie" when it comes to Boston head coaches.
Let's just hope they don't want any free meals at Bobby V's...
Bill On Mike & Mike
Belichick was a live guest on Mike and Mike In The Morning on Friday, who were at Gillette Stadium. They had coach on set, and he was jovial and happy to be there.
Here are some of the topics that were touched upon:
What's the No. 1 reason why Tom Brady has become the player he's become: "You have to have two things: You have to have talent and you have to be able to perform. Tom has done a great job at both of those. He's improved on a steady basis since he got here in 2000. He's as hard a worker as anybody we have, he's very well prepared. But he can also play. He's accurate and he makes good decisions, that's what you need from a quarterback. I'd glad he's our QB, I think the world of Tom Brady. But I'm also proud of the fact that without Tom Brady we still won 11 games in 2008. We have a good program here. It's bigger than any of us individually. Collectively we are competitive."
Rob Gronkowski's development: "He practices hard, he loves to play football. Whatever you ask him to do he'll do his very best at it. If you want him to run through a wall he'll put his head down and run through it."
Coach also said, if he wasn't coaching football he would be coaching his other favorite sport, lacrosse.
Tune in to the Patriots-Colts game Sunday on 98.5 The Sports Hub and WBZ-TV at 1 pm. Pregame coverage begins on 98.5 at 10 am and on WBZ at 11:30 am with Patriots Gameday. Stay tuned after the game for all the reaction and analysis on the postgame show, and on Patriots Fifth Quarter on WBZ-TV.
