The New England Patriots were forced to rearrange their typical schedule Saturday when their flight to Miami was delayed.
The Patriots typically arrive early to their destination and hold a walk-through Saturday at the hotel. Because of the delay, everything was pushed back. Belichick detailed how the Patriots spent the delay during a conference call Tuesday.
“I mean first of all, I’d say everybody was pretty comfortable.” Belichick said. “That was fortunate. We had a big plane. The players rested, and a lot of the coaches were working on the things that we needed for the night meeting and so forth, like we’d normally do. There’s quite a bit of work that goes on on the plane between the coaches and other people. There are non-players that are working on the trip so we don’t really take a lot of people from the football area that don’t have a specific role for the game.
“I think the players; they got their rest on the plane. Otherwise they would’ve been sitting in their hotel room doing it. We didn’t have the walkthrough Saturday night that we normally would have. We did that Sunday morning. Had we been delayed a little bit longer I think we would’ve probably gotten off the plane and maybe done a walkthrough in one of the hanger areas. But as we were getting ready to do that things cleared up and we were able to get moving and get underway so it didn’t really come to that. Honestly, I think it’s not the way we planned it, but the players have handled those types of things well all year. Sometimes things come up. You have to adjust to them. You don’t let them bother you. You control what you can control and that’s what they did. Honestly, I didn’t even hear anybody talking about it. It was something we just dealt with and moved on.”
Quarterback Tom Brady said Sunday he used the time to study the Dolphins.
“I think it was just an adjustment,” Brady said. “We were sitting on the runway for a long time. Usually Saturday night is an important night for our team and for our offense to get together and review everything. We just didn’t have a chance to do it since we got in so late, but it was still good to win. A lot of people took advantage of the time and got some extra rest on the plane. We watched a lot of film. When you get six hours on the plane as opposed to three, you can double up your film time, so I think that’s an advantage. You just take what you get and try to make the most of it.”
The Patriots beat the Dolphins 35-14, clinching the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs despite the travel woes.
Thumbnail photo via Reinhold Matay/USA TODAY Sports Images
