A.J. Francis never appeared in a regular season game with the Patriots, but the former NFL defensive tackle spent time on New England’s practice squad and gained a strong appreciation for how Bill Belichick conducts business.
Francis, who bounced around the league and last appeared in a game with the Washington Redskins in 2017, explained in recent interview with Kristine Leahy on FS1’s “Fair Game” that some teams don’t appreciate or award playing time to unheralded prospects due to contract situations or the draft capital used on specific players. The Patriots are not among those teams, according to Francis, and it could explain why they’ve been to nine Super Bowls, winning six, since the 2001 season.
“You know what team does that (pay attention to the players at the bottom of the roster)? The Patriots, and that’s why they’re in the Super Bowl every year,” said Francis, who added that Belichick talks to “everybody” as head coach in New England. “When I was on the Patriots my rookie year — I didn’t play for them, I was on the team for three months, I was on the practice squad most of the time, I didn’t play for them. But me and Bill were cool. The whole time that we were there, we would talk. Bill would give young guys and undrafted guys and guys off the street a chance to make a difference, because he didn’t care if you were drafted in the second round. He wants to win the game. And if you’re the best option to put us in the right position to win, he’s gonna play you. And that’s why they’re always in the Super Bowl. That’s why they can go to the Super Bowl with guys that other teams released, because he knows how to get the best out of everything that he sees.”
Belichick has had tremendous success throughout his career identifying players other teams didn’t want and turning them into key contributors. Even Tom Brady, now considered the greatest quarterback of all time, was a sixth-round pick selected 199th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft.
Is this the biggest reason the Patriots have dominated for the past two decades? Maybe. At the very least, it’s played a huge role in creating a specific culture in New England — commonly referred to as the “Patriot Way” — that’s not replicated anywhere else across the league.
