Bill Belichick reportedly wasn’t happy that one of his NFL playing rule proposals was tabled for research.
Belichick wants the league to install fixed cameras to all boundary lines to aid instant replay, but the NFL previously has said it would be too costly to carry out. So Belichick went on a profanity-laced tirade against the league during the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on “Olbermann.”
“They were in a meeting the other day with Dean Blandino, the head of the officials,” Schefter said, via ProFootballTalk. “And Bill Belichick got up there, and in profane language, told the NFL: ‘We spend money to send the Pro Bowl to Brazil, we spend money to go overseas to London, but we can’t spend money to have four cameras in the end zone, four cameras to help determine the correct call in the end zone on certain plays?’ He went off, and the way it was explained to me, from people in the room at the time, they were laughing at it because his language was so profane and because he was so incensed about it, and the NFL didn’t know how to handle it.
“But the bottom line is, they did not introduce the four cameras in the end zone, they thought right now it’s too cost-prohibitive for the NFL even, and they don’t know how to do it. They’ll probably continue to look at this, but Bill Belichick left these owners’ meetings not particularly happy.”
Belichick said Tuesday during the AFC coaches breakfast, in which he was particularly salty and unhelpful to reporters, “It’s disappointing every year we can’t afford that, as a league.”
Belichick has plenty of reasons to be angry. NFL owners voted to ban the use of ineligible players outside the tackle box Wednesday in direct response to a tactic Belichick used in the Patriots’ AFC divisional-playoff win over the Baltimore Ravens. They also passed a rule that a player who appears disoriented on the field can be taken off for a play by a spotter in the press box — and that rule has been nicknamed after Patriots receiver Julian Edelman, who briefly appeared groggy after being hit during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Owners also rejected Belichick’s proposal that would allow coaches to challenge penalties.
NFL owners haven’t yet voted on Belichick’s proposal to kick extra points from the 15-yard line.
There’s also that whole DeflateGate thing, which has yet to be resolved despite tarnishing the Patriots’ reputation — fairly or unfairly — in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell denied during his news conference Wednesday the NFL handled the controversy incorrectly.
UPDATE (6:30 p.m.): Three sources disputed Schefter’s report to ProFootballTalk and said Belichick did not have a profane tirade at the meeting.
Thumbnail photo via Stephan Savoia/Associated Press
