Bill Belichick Makes Interesting Practice Choice As Patriots-Cowboys Nears

FOXBORO, Mass. — Bill Belichick famously likes to act like the Patriots’ indoor practice facility doesn’t exist. Over the last two-plus decades, he repeatedly made his team work in bad weather rather than in a climate-controlled environment.

But he held one practice last season inside the Socios.com field house — Mac Jones’ first after returning from an ankle injury — and did so again two weeks ago as New England prepared for a home game against the Miami Dolphins. In both cases, the Patriots were gearing up for an outdoor game with good weather in the forecast.

So, with the Patriots set to play in a dome this weekend, Belichick surely would react to Friday’s miserably wet weather by holding practice indoors, right?

Nope!

“We’ll see what happens out there,” Belichick said when asked that question minutes before Friday’s practice. “Talked about how bad it was gonna be last week (in New York) and it barely rained.”

Belichick obviously was indicating practice would be held outside. And he also was continuing his long-running bit of questioning the qualifications of meteorologists.

However, the weather was awful at the beginning of practice, with Patriots players taking the field amid pouring rain. It didn’t look like a great time.

The Patriots, in a pouring rain, had perfect attendance for their final practice of the week pic.twitter.com/HAf0yqvVTL

— Dakota Randall (@DakRandall) September 29, 2023

Was that really necessary after the Patriots played rain games in two of their first three weeks? It’s debatable, but Belichick has his reasons and certainly knows more about how to prepare a football team than anyone else on Earth.

As for what actually happened at practice, reporters only were given a few minutes to watch. But it was enough time to see that New England enjoyed perfect attendance for the third straight practice.

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That said, defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, who’s dealing with an ankle injury, left for the training/room shed shortly after the stretching period. He was listed as “limited” on Wednesday and Thursday.

New England’s final injury report of the week will be released Friday afternoon. The team will hold a closed walkthrough on Saturday before traveling to Dallas.

Sunday’s matchup with the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET.