FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Bill Belichick’s most worthy adversary is probably human nature.
The Patriots head coach has been fighting an up-and-down battle against his players’ instincts since the day he arrived in Foxborough. The central theater in this conflict is the intuitive desire to compensate for another player’s inexperience or injury. Belichick wants everyone to focus on doing their own job – and only their own job. That’s not an especially easy thing to ask when players’ brains are telling them to do something else.
As Tom Brady returns today to face the Cleveland Browns – and put the grueling Deflategate saga to rest – Belichick is again working to keep his players focused on their own jobs, something he’s been doing since Brady made his first start in 2001.
When Brady took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe, there was initially a feeling on the team that everyone would have to overcompensate for the inexperienced starter. In an ESPN The Magazine story on Belichick that came out earlier this week, former Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri explained how the coach would not let that mind set take hold.
“When Brady first came in, his first start, the rest of the team was like, ‘This is a young kid, we have to step up and help each other,’ ” Vinatieri said. “Bill didn’t see it that way. He told us not to try to do too much by thinking we had to cover up for others. We followed his lead and it worked.”
This attitude is now the norm in the Patriots locker room. If you ask the players what Brady will bring to the team now that he’s returned, they’ll tell you they have no idea. They’ll say he hasn’t played a game yet. They’ll tell you he isn’t here to fix all of their problems. Chris Long will tell you he’s only ever seen Brady play on television.
Nonetheless, the fight against human nature continues. When a reporter asked Belichick this week if the team had to do a little extra to compensate for Brady after missing a month of practice, the coach reacted like a professor who’s tried to teach the same lesson over and over again to a class that isn’t getting it.
“No, I think they need to do what they need to do,” Belichick said. “I think you’re missing the whole point. I don’t think we go out there and do somebody else’s job. I think what we need to do is go out there and do the job that we all need to do.”
This might explain why Brady has been nearly invisible since his return to the team facility Monday. Less than two weeks ago, the paparazzi tracked this guy down in Italy and photographed him wearing a towel. Now, he’s fully dressed in Foxborough and he’s almost impossible to find.
The Patriots didn’t add Brady to the official roster until Saturday, which meant he was exempt from media obligations this week. That he chose to exploit that exemption – and stayed out of the public eye – could be due in part to a desire by the team or Brady to keep the focus off of his return. Likewise, defensive lineman Rob Ninkovich, who is returning from a four-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, has not spoken with the media this week.
There is also an on-field challenge for Belichick in reintegrating Brady and Ninkovich into the team. Each of them spent a month away from professional football, and the coach has to figure out the best way to acclimate them to the speed of the game.
“I would just say in general, it’s hard for a player who’s not playing football to practice playing football,” Belichick said. “I don’t care how many times you run around the track. I don’t care how many sit-ups you do. Put 21 other guys out there on the football field and work on the timing and situation football. Like if that was the best way to do it, to just not do anything for four weeks and go do pushups, I think then maybe that’s what we’d do. But I honestly don’t think that’s the right way to go.”
Will Brady and Ninkovich be able to return today and play at the level we’re accustomed to seeing from them? Belichick said he can’t predict how they’ll respond.
“In all honesty, my experience with all of those players has been as time goes on they play better,” Belichick said. “Maybe their first game will be the best game, but most likely the third, fourth, fifth, sixth games will probably be better than the first. … I don’t know what will happen with a new player who comes back. We have a couple of them. I have no idea.”
(Dave Brown is a freelance correspondent who covers the Patriots for the Monitor. You can follow him on Twitter @ThatDaveBrown.)