Bill Belichick Makes His Opinion On ‘Hard Knocks’ Very Clear

The HBO-NFL Films television show “Hard Knocks” is following a team for the first time in a regular season. They went behind-the-scenes with the Indianapolis Colts. This takes us all the way to the New England Patriots as they are playing against the Colts after the bye week. In Monday’s press conference, head coach Bill Belichick received questions about “Hard Knocks”. Will his team watch it to see if they can use any relevant information about the Colts?

The first thing Belichick talked about was the Patriots’ advanced scouting system. He explained that the Patriots have people who scout teams in advance of when they play an opponent. According to him, two or three weeks before the Patriots play a team, scouts track teams to see how injuries have affected their gameplan or if they have changed their style of play. These scouts follow pretty much every change their opponents make.

Bill Belichick is not a fan of “Hard Knocks”

Coach Belichick did say that the “Hard Knocks” material may give useful information to Patriots scouts.

“Yeah, so we have somebody that studies each team, whether it’s any relevant comments or information that we think is relevant to the preparation for the team, then that could be shared, sure,” he said.

In a follow-up, reporters asked Belichick if this was one reason why he doesn’t want his team doing “Hard Knocks.”

“There’s a lot of reasons I wouldn’t be excited about it,” Belichick said.

Honest enough.

Belichick is a man of a few words and he doesn’t like when his players and coaches talk too much about the team. He avoids questions that have nothing to do with the upcoming game. Coach Belichick avoids questions about his personal life or the personality of his players. Reporters can definitely understand when Belichick provides a typical Belichick response.

Patriots players have embraced similar approach. They don’t say more than they have to. Short and clear answers. Players want to win games. Talking about “other stuff” won’t help them win. No one pays attention to outside noise. That’s the ultimate mindset.