This might surprise you, but Bill Belichick apparently isn’t a Scrooge during the holiday season.
Veteran NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya recently was a guest on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast and shed light on a softer side of Belichick. Tafoya and her family can set their watch to receiving some holiday cheer from the New England Patriots head coach every year.
“I got a Christmas card from him this year. I have every year,” Tafoya said, as transcribed by WEEI. “I do feel like there’s a relationship there. It’s just, there have been some really fun great moments, and just some that have been more challenging. And I’m going to take some responsibility for that, asking bad questions.”
Of course, football fans and media members alike are more used to seeing the stern and surly sides of Belichick. That’s what Tafoya expected to encounter virtually any time she had the future Hall of Famer for a 1-on-1 interview.
“You’re walking in knowing that it’s not going to be necessarily fun,” Tafoya said. “Some of that is on me. If I asked a question that was not a good question, he would let me know. Over the course of time, I tried to learn how to present questions to him in a way that was more intelligent. Look, I’ve been at this for a long time, so there was always room for growth and improvement with me. Always still is. It was always a little bit of a pit in the stomach.”
Tafoya no longer will have to worry about those Belichick-induced nerves. As Deitsch revealed in a column published to The Athletic on Monday, Tafoya will be leaving NBC to “be the co-chair of a political campaign for businessman and Army veteran Kendall Qualls, who announced in January that he is running as a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota.”
