FOXBORO, Mass. — The greatest rivalry in New England sports isn’t Red Sox-Yankees or Bruins-Canadiens. It’s Bill Belichick versus the men and women whose job it is to predict the weather.
With rain in the forecast for this Sunday’s Patriots-Cleveland Browns matchup at Gillette Stadium, Belichick again expressed his disdain for meteorologists in a highly entertaining rant Friday morning.
Asked when he begins to prepare for the possibility of rough weather conditions in a given game, the Patriots head coach replied: “As late as possible.”
“In the Giant game (in Week 6), it was supposed to be a monsoon and everything and, like usual, there was not one drop of rain and, let’s say, minimal wind,” Belichick said. “Although there was some wind. It was across the field, so it didn’t affect the game that much.”
He wasn’t finished.
“We went down to Miami (in Week 2),” Belichick continued. “We thought it was going to be hot. We thought it was going to be hot when it was scheduled. We thought it was going to be hot in training camp. We thought it was going to be hot the week before the game. We thought it was going to be hot the day of the game. So predicting heat in Miami in September … maybe you and I can figure that out.
“I’ve seen the forecast (for Sunday). This is the exact same forecast we had for the Giants — not one drop of rain. So we’ll see. I don’t know. I’m sure it’s hard to get it right, especially specific locations like this. Where it is 10 miles from here and where it is here makes all the difference in the world to us. That’s the world we’re in. So we’ll see.”
This wasn’t Belichick’s first anti-weatherman screed. Back in 2014, he sounded off on the inconsistency of forecasts in a soliloquy that included the line: “If I did my job the way they do theirs, I’d be here about a week.”
Asked Friday whether he’d consider a career in meteorology once his coaching days are over, Belichick smiled.
“We’ll see what my options are after that,” he said.
