Watch: Bill Belichick unhappy when reporter asks about the same thing 5 consecutive times
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is a summa cum laude graduate of the Gregg Popovich College of Sports Media Relations and could teach master’s degree-level courses in how to not answer questions.
Dan Shaughnessy is a nearly 40-year veteran of being a pest who injects himself into the narrative and gives the Boston sports media its deserved reputation as a bunch of jackals in a city that chases away free agents over it (Red Sox fans point to his book “Curse of the Bambino” and sensibly ask themselves if Shaughnessy isn’t secretly a Yankees fan).
So when the two clashed at a press conference, it didn’t take long for Belichick to grow quite sick of Shaughnessy’s antics and shut him down.
https://twitter.com/ezlazar/status/1022106564751228928
It speaks volumes that it was Evan Lazar of the Boston Herald, the top rival to Shaughnessy’s Boston Globe, who was the one tweeting Belichick’s “regular-season form” in making Shaughnessy look like a fool.
Shaughnessy starts with, “Bill, I know you’re all about this year, and we all understand that here…”
Belichick simply quips, “That’s right.”
“But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask about last year and…” Shaughnessy began to ask.
Belichick immediately replied, “Last year is last year. I’m not focused on it.”
Shaughnessy asked about last year anyway.
“What about the fact that everywhere we go, folks want to ask about Malcolm Butler?” he asked, as if he genuinely expected Belichick would answer him.
“We’ve talked about that. It’s multiple months ago,” the monotone Belichick said.
“Is there going to be any more explanation about why he didn’t play?” Shaughnessy said, using the age-old method of asking the same question a different way.
Belichick wasn’t biting. “Focused on training camp,” he mumbled.
Shaughnessy, adhering to the principle that when all you have is a shovel, everything starts to look like a patch of dirt, said “Would you do it any differently?”
Belichick, at his most Popovichian, quipped “Training camp? Well, we’re just getting started.”
Normally, when a coach has reached the sarcastic dismissal portion of the program, a sensible reporter would bow his head like the Devil in Georgia because he knew that he’d been beat.
Shaughnessy, evidently, is not a sensible reporter.
“Do you care that the fans want to know more about this?” he pleaded.
That finally set Belichick off.
“I’m focused on doing the best I can for the 2018 New England Patriots. That’s my job,” Belichick said. “That’s what I’m going to do. That’s what I’ve always done in the past. Every day that I’ve coached here, I’ve done the best that I can for this football team, and I’ll continue to do that. Right now, my focus is on the 2018 season. Not 2017, not 2014, not 2007, not 2004, not 2001, not 2000. I’m not focused on any of those seasons. They’re done.”
And it’s a shame, too, because I’m sure the imaginary fans Shaugnessy referenced want to know about Tara Reid and Tom Brady from 2002.
But the reporter changed tack, setting a Guinness World Record for Most Different Ways To Ask The Same Question by a Non-Toddler.
“For this season’s team, is it important for you to address the Malcolm Butler thing with your team?” Shaughnessy asked.
Belichick, finally, got the last word.
“It’s important for me to have a good season in 2018. I’m going to do everything I can to do that, do the best I can for this football team,” the coach said. “That’s my job, and that’s my responsibility, so that’s what I’m going to try to do. Hopefully you can respect that, but maybe not.”
Thankfully Shaughnessy finally stopped the line of questioning, because if he’d continued, we’d have been getting dangerously close to “If Malcolm Butler was on a train from North Wilmington at 20 miles per hour, and Tom Brady was on a train from North Station at 30 miles per hour…”
To say Belichick embarrassed Shaughnessy isn’t quite right. Shaughnessy embarrassed himself, and the rest of the Boston sports media got a Belichick-provided opportunity to score on him on social media.
Butler, meanwhile, will try to gain a starting job with the Tennessee Titans as training camp marches on.
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