FOXBORO, Mass. — Some assorted notes and nuggets from Wednesday’s New England Patriots media availability at Gillette Stadium:
— During his afternoon’s news conference, Bill Belichick recalled a memorable run-in he had with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at an Aspen ski resort in 1996.
“Yeah, I was out in Snowmass,” said Belichick, whose team will host Jones’ Cowboys on Sunday. “I was out there with the family, and Jerry, he’s got on a big white jacket with a blue star, coming off a couple Super Bowl victories out there. But yeah, Jerry and the Joneses have always been great to me. I always had a great relationship with them.”
Belichick was asked about that chance encounter because of a story Jones had shared on a Dallas radio station one day earlier. According to him, Belichick, who’d recently lost his job as head coach of the Cleveland Browns after the franchise moved to Baltimore, told Jones: “I can coach. If you ever get an opportunity, don’t forget about me.”
“I’ve thought about that many times,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “You never know where you can find a great coach. You can find them in a ski checkout line sometimes.”
At the time, the Cowboys were coming off a run of three Super Bowl championships in four years. They reached the NFC Championship Game the following season but have not advanced past the divisional round since.
Belichick, who went on to spend four seasons as an assistant in New England and with the New York Jets before taking over as Patriots head coach in 2000, wouldn’t confirm whether he pitched himself to Jones.
“I don’t know if I quite remember it the way Jerry described it,” he said. “But he’s probably got a better memory than I do.”
— Belichick applauded the work undrafted rookie receiver/punt returner Gunner Olszewski, who was placed on injured reserve Tuesday to make room for the returning Isaiah Wynn, put in this season.
“Gunner earned his way onto the team, and we would love to have him on the roster and be able to use him in that role,” Belichick said, referring to Olszewski’s punt returning. “Unfortunately, at this point, we’re not able to make that happen. He’s a tough kid, he’s fought through some stuff all year. We are where we are, so we’ll move forward.”
Olszewski, who missed the Patriots’ last two games with ankle and hamstring injuries, entered the week ranked fifth in the NFL in punt return average (9.0 yards per return).
Mohamed Sanu has handled punt-returning duties in Olszewski’s absence — a relatively new endeavor for the veteran receiver, who’d never returned an NFL punt before this season. The Patriots might need to find another option there if Sanu, who missed Wednesday’s practice with an ankle injury, can’t play Sunday.
“Mo has come in and done everything we’ve asked him to do,” Belichick said. “You can’t catch up to everything in a couple of weeks, but he’s done the very best he could to make up as much ground as possible and he’s made up a lot. There’s still a ways to go but he’ll keep trying. We’ll see where it takes us.”
