Vintage Bill Belichick Today On Midseason Grades: 'Give An F...Give Me Whatever You Want, I Don't Care'
By Matt Dolloff (@mattdolloff)
BOSTON (CBS) -- The NFL season is at the midway point, but at the podium Bill Belichick is in championship form.
Belichick is known for his reluctance to feed the media information for stories, but sometimes his resistance and deflection become stories in and of themselves. That happened in his Wednesday press conference when talking about this week's Patriots showdown with the New York Giants.
Newsweek sports writer Barbara Barker, who apparently has never dealt directly with Belichick and may have never even seen or heard one of his pressers, asked the Hoodie about what it means for Tom Brady to be voted midseason MVP. And as anyone with even a shred of experience dealing with the coach would expect, she got a beautifully Belichickian response.
"We're focused on the Giants, not some midseason report card...Who cares? What difference does it make?" he said. "Like, give me an F. Give me a C+."
Barker even showed some bravery as she continued to press Belichick on midseason report cards, and Professor Hoodie returned an even harder volley.
"I don't give grades. I'm worried about the Giants," he said. "I don't care about some midseason, mid-term grades. Give me whatever you want. I don't care."
It's not Barker's fault that she got lightly roasted here, that's just how Belichick is and she doesn't deal with him on a weekly basis. It's not personal either; Belichick sounds ready to launch a snot-rocket onto your notepad no matter what you asked. But local beat writers know better not to bother asking him such a trivial question, unless his response is exactly what they want.
I feel like you'd have to have been living a mine shaft for the past 15 years to think Belichick would even consider entertaining a question like that, but apparently not. Still, the media around here have to be thankful for Barker inadvertently mining some Belichickian gold.
Belichick's press conferences are almost always a wasteland of tedious non-answers, but occasionally unearth a gem. Today was one of them.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read more from Matt here. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
