You would be hard-pressed to find another franchise in professional sports that is as tight-lipped with the media than the New England Patriots, and there is a reason for that.
Former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, who spent parts of two stints with the Patriots during his playing career, explained why.
“The thing that amazed me was the amount of information Bill would take in early in the week to prepare his game plan,” Flutie said on The Rich Eisen Show. “He has people reading every article, every comment that comes from an opposing locker room gets read, filtered through. The amount of information that you can pick up from all the interviews the other players are doing and things they say about a game plan — they don't mean to be telling it — but there is a lot of information that is given away.”
And how do you prevent that from happening as a coach? By being boring, of course.
“That's why Bill Belichick is the most boring interview in the country,” Flutie said. “Bill is not going to give you one thing. He's going to get on top of his guys not to say a word: Be generic, be bland, don't give away information, because there is a ton of information given away.”
In all seriousness, you can absolutely see why Belichick would honor this code, as other teams can surely pick up on certain strategies through interviews.
As a matter of fact, Belichick will use that to his advantage when other clubs conduct interviews.
“It amazed me, because in their scouting reports and in their game plans how detailed they could be and how right on they could be because of information that came out of a press conference,” Flutie said.
You may not remember it, but Flutie actually played for the Pats in 2005, so that is how he knows all of this about Belichick and Co.
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