Bill Belichick: The ultimate pen pal

By Sterling Pingree

There’s never a dull moment. Since the Patriots last played football in Buffalo nearly two weeks ago, they traded linebacker Jamie Collins, we elected a new president and Mike DeVito made a person. That’s a lot of stuff for one bye week. One revelation that came from all of this insanity was at his press conference this week, Bill Belichick revealed that he sends out “hundreds of letters and notes EACH MONTH.” Think about that for a second, hundreds of letters and notes each month. When was the last time you sent a handwritten note to somebody? Let alone more than one. Maybe if you got married and had to send thank you notes perhaps? Even those seem to come 6 or 7 months after the wedding. Maybe newly married couples should just hire Belichick to send out their thank you notes, at his pace of hundreds a month he could likely work his way through your entire guest list in a matter of hours.

This little nugget of information, gleamed from a press conference that will go down in the monotone annals of Belichick history as “The one where he answered “Seattle” to everything” has left me with so many questions. Bill Belichick seems so singularly focused on the task at hand of winning football games, that it’s startling to see him in rare public appearances or to think of him sitting at his desk and scrawling a quick note to a friend or acquaintance.

The two most nagging questions to me are: who is sending these two and what does he say?

I bet the old Ravens safety Ed Reed has gotten a few notes. There are multiple videos on Youtube of Belichick openly gushing to or about Reed. I could see Belichick sending him a nice note after a big game or some subtle play that few would even notice.

I bet Tony Gonzalez got a bushel basket of notes over the years. If we know one thing about Bill (and let’s face it, we might only know one thing about Bill) it’s that he loves tight ends. Tony Gonzalez is still the benchmark for tight ends in the NFL, (though Gronk might be remolding that idea in his image as we speak.) I bet after Gonzalez retired Belichick sent him a nice letter congratulating him on a great career.

Jon Bon Jovi. You never see the coach more jovial than when JBJ is around training camp. Imagine what he’s like when he sees Bon Jovi in concert? Do you think he smiles? Do you think he dances? No, he doesn’t dance, but I bet he sings along and maybe if he’s had a beverage or two maybe tries a rhythmic clap that goes poorly.

The Belichick coaching tree has become so far reaching that I’m sure many of them get notes after big games. Nick Saban I’m sure has gotten some praise over the years, what with all of his national championships and perhaps for grooming Don’t’a Hightower. I wonder what the ones to guys like Charlie Weis and Bill O’Brien look like. It’s probably more on par with the birthday card your parents sent you in college that also ask about a suspicious charge on their Visa card.

One thing I know for sure about his correspondence is that after this week’s “Beli-leaks” I’m sure we’ll never get the contents of a letter penned by the Hood again. What’s so interesting when some little shred of information about Belichick’s life outside of football surfaces, is that we realize how little we really know or will ever know about him.

 

Sterling Head Shot 2Sterling Pingree (@SterlingPingree) is a co-host on The Drive, weekdays 4pm to 6pm on 92.9fm The Ticket and streaming live at DriveShowMaine.com. Follow us on Twitter, @DriveShowMaine and “Like Us” on Facebook, Drive Show Maine.