Former Player Reveals How Bill Belichick Belittles Tom Brady: 'Christmas Come Early?'
For years, former New England Patriots have described coach Bill Belichick as being completely different in real life from what fans see in news conferences and on the sideline.
Players say Belichick has a great sense of humor but chooses just not to display it in a public forum, particularly when muttering his way through interviews.
So when former Patriots fullback Heath Evans provided a glimpse into the real Bill Belichick, it was refreshing.
Evans played 10 years in the NFL and spent four seasons with the Patriots. He was part of the 2007 team that went 18-0 before falling to Eli Manning and the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
Evans recently joined comedians Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky on the “Your Mom’s House” podcast and talked about Belichick humorously calling out Tom Brady in front of the entire team.
“The best thing about Bill is, there’s not a whole lot of people that can mother-eff Tom Brady in a team meeting room,” he said. “When you’re in New England, if you’re the superstar, you get coached harder than everyone else. And if you’re the 53rd man on the roster or maybe the 35th guy on the roster like I was, then you’re going to be in this staggered scale of your level of accountability and how hard you get come down on because he knows, ultimately, me as the 35th man on the roster is going to follow Brady at No. 1 on the roster, so if Brady’s not challenged and he’s not working and he’s not being held accountable, then you create this level of inconsistency.”
During that 2007 season, Brady won his first league MVP, led the league in passing yards and set the single-season NFL record with 50 passing touchdowns.
But even with all of that, Evans said, Belichick treated Brady just like everyone else, and that meant being held accountable for any mistakes.
“I remember it was ’07, we smoked a team by like 50 points and Bill comes in and he’s mouthing off at Brady about something,” he said. “I’m trying to remember how it started, but he was like, ‘If you weren’t so worried about you and Gisele’s next GQ magazine, maybe, just maybe you wouldn’t have thrown that interception. What is this, Christmas? It’s October, Brady. Christmas come early or something? I could go to Foxborough High and get someone to throw that ball better than you.’ So he’s just going at him, you know?”
Any NFL fan familiar with Belichick’s quips would know that referencing “Foxborough High” is one of his favorite things to do when calling out a player.
Jimmy Garoppolo also got compared to a player at the high school once when he couldn’t stop fumbling the snap during practice as a rookie.
“Coach Belichick hit me with, ‘Foxborough High School has been getting snaps right all year,’” the former Patriots quarterback, who was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, said, according to The Ringer. “You feel terrible. Because you realize, ‘Wow, it’s true.’”
And it’s not just Foxborough High.
“I also heard, ‘We’ll get someone down at the local gas station to take the snaps,’” said Jim Miller, who played quarterback for the Patriots in 2004.
So you know that comedian who recycles the same jokes over and over? There he is, standing on an NFL sideline with a cut-off hoodie and six Super Bowl rings to his name.
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