The New England Patriots had a jam-packed Monday, to say the least.
After waking up bright and early for a round of COVID-19 testing, the Patriots traveled to Kansas City on the same day they battled the Chiefs without their star quarterback. New England hung around with the reigning Super Bowl champions, despite being shorthanded, but ultimately fell 26-10 at Arrowhead Stadium.
Bill Belichick had another item on his agenda within the hectic day. The NFL on Monday held a mandatory conference call with head coaches, general managers and franchise owners to go over COVID-19 protocol penalties. Belichick made sure to avoid the facemask infraction in Week 4, as he wore two masks during Patriots-Chiefs.
NBC Sports’ Mike Florio believes Belichick’s double-mask decision was done in part to stick it to the league.
“When he wears both masks to the game and to the press conference, when he’s the first one we’ve seen all year long wearing the mask during the press conference and it’s the equivalent of wearing underwear over your cup, right? It’s the double whammy. It really is odd to see it,” Florio said Tuesday on “PFT Live.” “Yeah, I think it’s fair to conclude that that was his way of passive-aggressively reacting to the conference call he had to engage in yesterday on a day of a game. I don’t know, probably from the plane or once they landed they had the conference call where they read everyone the Riot Act and that’s his reaction to having the Riot Act read to him. If they’re going to huff and puff, he’s going to make sure that no one blows their house down. If he can give a subtle middle finger in the process, he’s going to do it.”
If Belichick truly was irked by needing to take part in the conference call, it only was the beginning of his frustrations Monday. The Patriots, typically the epitome of smart and sound football, made a few brutal mistakes against the Chiefs.
Those uncharacteristic miscues, coupled with poor quarterback play, doomed New England’s chances of scoring an upset over arguably the NFL’s best team.
Belichick and Co. will try to rebound Sunday when they host the Denver Broncos.
