If you in any way are familiar with the New England Patriots, you know Bill Belichick isn’t known for his soft side.
During a recent appearance on ESPN’s “DangerTalk” podcast with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and comedian Jeff Dye, former Pats wideout Randy Moss recalled a time the head coach was rather harsh when addressing a particular on-field mishap.
“I remember we had a two-minute drill where … I was backside, three-by-one, and Tom Brady gave me the quick-out signal,” Moss said. “… The quick out was to get the first down. Well, it was an incomplete pass.”
So, during a film session the next morning, Belichick put up the two-minute drill in question and made sure to give the offense his honest opinion — in typical Belichick fashion, of course.
“He left the offense with, ‘I got a Hall of Fame wide receiver. I got a Hall of Fame quarterback. They can’t not complete a five-yard out,’ in front of the whole team,” Moss said. “And he said, ‘If I want a quarterback to complete five-yard out, I’d go down there and get the local high school quarterback at so-and-so high school.’ … So, at that time, I’m sitting there like, ‘Wow, man, he just clowned Tom Brady in front of everybody.'”
But what came next took Moss completely by surprise.
“So I’m probably two or three — I’m the next row over, but I’m like two or three rows up, like stadium seating. So I’m looking at Tom’s face to see if he took that as like ‘OK Bill, I’m going to show you,’ or did he chuckle. Man, Tom Brady is sitting up there with his legs crossed, arms folded with a look on his face like, ‘(expletive) you.'”
After that, Brady and Moss began to click. And Moss attributes some of that to Brady’s mentality when it comes to the game.
“And that’s some of the things that most guys in today’s game would be like, ‘Man, I can’t believe Russell Wilson just called me out in front of the offense.’ No, I’m just trying to bring the best out of you, young man. We need you,” Moss said. “… The thing about the locker room, you check your ego in at the door because at the end of the day, Russ, I don’t care what you do when you’re not in the building. All I care about is when we come together for those three-plus hours, I need you to give me everything you got, man.”
Coming from people as successful as Belichick and Moss, that’s certainly some solid advice.
