It’s no secret that Bill Belichick would rather sandpaper his eyeballs than answer questions at a press conference.
On Friday, however, the surly Patriots coach filled reporter’s notebooks talking about how highly he thinks of Rob Gronkowski as a blocker.
Bill Belichick Friday pressers truly are first rate. Today he extolled, at length, virtues of Rob Gronkowski’s… https://t.co/cqNX8WDzmh
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 13, 2015
Many of Belichick’s curt answers can fit in a tweet. But this one was way beyond 140 characters. ESPN’s Adam Schefter had to link to Facebook to fit Belichick’s 391-word answer.
While Belichick rambled on a bit about Giants practices when he was defensive coordinator there in the 1980s, it was interesting that he compared Gronkowski to former Giants tight end Mark Bavaro in terms of blocking. He basically said he can’t put him ahead of Bavaro, but that Gronkowski is right there with him.
Maybe Belichick is on to something. Long-winded answers, with a couple of terms that only football film junkies can understand like “6-technique” and “38-Boss,” might actually make some reporters miss those one-word replies. And they take up a lot of time and get him closer to the end of the presser.
But that’s only speculation. What we do know is Gronkowski is pretty good at blocking.