(AP) — Bill Belichick wasn’t going to talk about Tom Brady twice in three days.
Belichick arrived almost 30 minutes late for the coaches’ breakfast Tuesday morning at the NFL meetings and had reporters scrambling after deciding he wanted to stand for interviews instead of sitting at a table like the other 31 coaches.
When Brady’s name came up, he said: “Yeah, I already covered that the other day. It’s on every internet site. I’m sure we can pull it up for you.”
Brady has said he plans to keep playing, but his “Tom vs. Time” documentary series had an ominous ending.
“It’s a big commitment, laying here three days after the game and getting my Achilles worked on and my thumb,” Brady said after the Patriots lost to the Eagles in the Super Bowl. “You go, ‘What are we doing this for?’ You know? ‘What are we doing this for, who are we doing this for, why are we doing this?’ You gotta have answers to those questions. And they have to be with a lot of conviction. You know, when you lose your conviction then you probably should be doing something else.”
On Sunday, Belichick expressed no concern that Brady will return for his 19th season.
“I’ve had direct conversations with Tom, many times, obviously, through a long period of time,” Belichick told Boston reporters. “I’ll rely on those conversations that I have with him directly rather than something else. Tom and I have always had a good line of communication. We’ve always been able to talk directly to each other. I don’t see that changing. So I’ll rely on those instead of anything else.”
The 40-year-old Brady is signed for two more years. Belichick, of course, wouldn’t address his contract.
“As you know, I am not going to talk about contracts and personal situations,” he said. “We’ll just let that one go, along with all the other contract questions.”
Now that Jimmy Garoppolo is in San Francisco, the Patriots are expected to draft a quarterback, but Belichick wouldn’t commit to it.
“I think we’ll always try and do what is best for the team,” he said. “Whatever those opportunities are, we’ll do the best we can with them.”
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