Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Patriots Head Coach Holds News Conference

Aired January 22, 2015 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more about this. Joining me now, CNN's sports anchor, Rachel Nichols, CNN anchor and lifelong Patriots fan, John Berman. That's why he's putting all those snarky comments because he's sitting right behind me. And former NFL linebacker Coy Wire.

Good morning to all of you.

OK, so, Rachel, I'd like to start with you. Do you think Bill Belichick will really say much about this scandal?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, he might say no comment. He might say we have to let the NFL investigate. That's two different things. He might say we're moving on to Seattle. That's three different things. You're not going to get a lot from Bill Belichick this morning, just like you never get a lot from Bill Belichick. He is not going to want to talk about this.

We didn't hear much about him during spy-gate. And, remember, after the Patriots were penalized, part of the deal with that penalty is that Bill Belichick was supposed to give a news conference explaining himself and he never did it. Roger Goodell, the commissioner, was not happy about that. And that was a direct order. I certainly don't expect him to speak a lot this morning.

COSTELLO: OK. So -- I know. And even when he speaks, John Berman, it's difficult to understand where he's coming from because he doesn't really like to speak in complete sentences all the time.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: No, look, speak is a relative term with Bill Belichick, which, by the way, is ironic. Bill Belichick is a very smart guy.

COSTELLO: Yes.

BERMAN: And this guy even went to Wesleyan, which is a small college.

COSTELLO: He does it on purpose.

BERMAN: You know, he does it on purpose, exactly. He doesn't really care, I think, what the media has to say or has to report or has to do. So he does these news conferences because he has to and that's it. It is what it is. I expect you'll hear a little bit of it is what it is also.

COSTELLO: Coy, do you think he cares that he's being accused of cheating?

COY WIRE, FORMER ATLANTA FALCONS LINEBACKER: I think he's concerned that he may have gotten caught, if that is the case. You know, he was fined heftily $500,000 when spy-gate happened. His organization was fined $250,000 and they lost a first round draft pick. Now, that really didn't change anything. They went on and had a higher winning percentage after all of those punishments were dealt out. So, you know, the guy has such a confidence, an heir about him that you don't think he's worried at all about this and he's certainly not letting his team be affected by it either in their preparation for the Super Bowl, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Coy, what about this Matt Leinart tweet. He says this goes on all the time. It's no big deal. What did you like experience when you were playing football?

WIRE: I reached out to a friend of mine who's a Hall of Fame player, who caught thousands of passes in the league and spent over a decade in the league catching the football, and I asked him, would it make a difference? And he said, absolutely, without a doubt, it would make a big difference if they're under inflated enough, especially in the weather conditions that were present at game time. So, you know, that's a bold statement from a guy who's, again, a Hall of Fame player in the league, caught a lot of passes.

COSTELLO: Wow.

WIRE: So I think there was a competitive advantage. And you always hear Commissioner Goodell talking about competitive balance, competitive advantages and this is clearly a case where the Patriots are seemingly seeking that in this instance.

COSTELLO: Rachel, could you sort of compare this to what sometimes happens in baseball?

NICHOLS: (INAUDIBLE) for you (ph).

COSTELLO: Rachel, could you please compare those --

NICHOLS: Yes, and I want to make that distinction for you.

COSTELLO: OK. Go ahead.

NICHOLS: Yes. Yes. Because you talk about doctoring the ball in baseball, right? And that's something that we hear a lot. And we've heard a couple quarterbacks like Matt Leinart or a couple people say, hey, balls are messed with in the NFL. Well, like in basketball, there are different things that you can do with the ball that are legal or not. And in football, balls can get scuffed up during the week. Each team provides the balls for its own offense. And part of the reason is, as Matt Leinart says, quarterbacks like to do things to their football.

And there's a number of things that they can do that are legal. They can scuff up the ball and get all that waxy stuff, that new ball smell out of it so that it's easier to throw. A lot of teams soak the footballs in water ahead of time so that if there is rain or bad conditions during the game, the football will already be prepped for water and won't soak as much up of it during the game.

However, you cannot under inflate the football. So there is a line. There is a rule there for a reason. And so when you hear some players kind of casually mention, hey, we mess with the balls all the time, there are some balls and some amount -- there's some amount of messing with the football that is legal. It's OK. This is not legal and it does make a big difference when you catch the ball. It makes a big difference also for running backs. Think about it, if you're holding on to a ball while you're running in a pile and it's a little bit more easy to squeeze and tuck in under your arm, it's going to be harder for someone to punch that ball out. This is significant.

COSTELLO: OK. So going back to the baseball analogy for just a second because there are things that are done illegally in baseball, right? Kenny Rogers in 2006 in the World Series, he was using pine tar. There was no doubt about that, but nothing happened and the Tigers went on to win that game. So what is the difference? What is the distinction?

BERMAN: Well, getting caught. Getting caught is the difference. You see -- you know, you saw Miguel Pineda (ph) last year, Yankees pitcher, get caught with pine tar. He got thrown out of the game. So if the Patriots did it and if they got caught, the NFL has to take some action there. And, again, the difference here also is we're not talking about one ball. You know, if they did this, if they did something wrong, they did it systemically. I mean they did it to every ball there was, except for one. And whoever didn't deflate that ball is going to be in some kind of trouble here.

Look, you know, a lot of Patriots fans, like me, are looking at this and saying, please, let it have been the weather. Please, let there have been a faulty gauge. And maybe, maybe that was it. We don't know yet. But it's highly, highly suspicious.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Coy, do you think anyone -- like I, you know, I have responses from my Twitter fans at the bottom of the screen and many of them seem very angry at the New England Patriots. But when all is said and done, Coy, do you really think people care?

WIRE: I think so. And there's a specific group of people who I think will care greatly, and that's the 31 other teams, the 31 other owners who are going to be watching the decision of Roger Goodell if they are have found to have tampered with those footballs purposefully to get a competitive advantage because, again, this is the second offense of John's Patriots there trying to get an advantage. So I think that there are a lot of people who are going to be watching very closely what type of punishment is dealt out to the Patriots and Bill Belichick if they did, indeed, tamper with those footballs.

COSTELLO: All right. I'm going to have to leave it there for now. But I hope all of you will stick around because Bill Belichick is running a little late, apparently. When he takes -- when he takes his place behind that podium, of course, we'll take you back to Boston live.

And I'd like to keep the conversation going online as well. If the Pats are guilty, (INAUDIBLE) punishment be? Tweet me @carol/cnn or weigh in at facebook.com/carolcnn. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Yemen's capital still on edge with violence and uncertainty, but the United States is holding firm on not evacuating -- oh, I'm sorry.

BILL BELICHICK, HEAD COACH, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: All right, I'll start by addressing the football issue here.

When I came in Monday morning, I was shocked to learn of the news reports about the footballs. I had no knowledge whatsoever of this situation until Monday morning. I'd say I've learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew or had talked about it in the last 40 years coaching in this league.

I had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process that went through -- that happened between when they were prepared and went to the officials and went to the game. So I've learned a lot about that. I obviously understand that each team has the opportunity to prepare the balls the way they want, give them to the officials and the game officials either approve or disapprove the balls and that really was the end of it for me until I learned a little bit more about this the last -- the last couple of days.

Let me just say that my personal coaching philosophy, my mentality has always been to make things as difficult as possible for players in practice. And so with regard to footballs, I'm sure that any current or past player of mine will tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be, wet, sticky, cold, slippery. However bad we can make them, I make them. And any time that players complain about the quality of the balls -- footballs, I make them worse and that stops the complaining.

So we never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever or kick with whatever we have to use. And that's the way it is. That has never been a priority for me, and I want the players to deal with a harder situation in practice than they'll ever have to deal with in the game. And maybe that's part of our whole ball security philosophy. I'm trying to coach the team, and that's -- that's what I want to do.

I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am. And I hear them comment on it from time to time. But I can tell you, and they will tell you, that there is never any sympathy whatsoever from me on that subject. Zero. And Tom's personal preferences on his ball -- footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly -- than I could possibly provide.

I can tell you that in my entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up. To me, the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pregame and we play with what's out there. And that's the only way that I have ever thought about that. I've learned about the inflation range situation. Obviously with our

footballs being inflated to the 12.5 pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit. Knowing that now, in the future we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game. So, as an example, if a ball deflated from 13.2 to 12.9, it wouldn't matter. But if it deflated from 12.5 to 12.3, it would. So -- as an example. So we will take steps in the future to make sure that we don't put ourselves in that type of potential situation again.

The National Football League is investigating this situation. We have cooperated fully, quickly, and completely with every request that they have made, continue to be cooperative in any way that we can. I have no explanation for what happened and that's what they're looking into.

So I can't comment on what they're doing. That's something that you should talk to them about. Again, my overall knowledge of football specifications, the overall process that happens on game day with the footballs, is very limited. Let's say that during the course of the game I honestly never -- probably has happened on an incomplete pass or something, but I've never touched a game ball. That's not something that I have any familiarity with on that. And, again, I was completely and totally unaware of any of this that we're talking about in the last couple of days until Monday morning.

So based on what I know -- knew Sunday, Sunday night, thinking back on this, which I have done several times, I really can't think of anything that I would have done differently based on what I knew then, based on what I know now. I told you the one change we would make in the initial start level of the football pressure, but that's -- that's really about it. And it's unfortunate that this is a story coming off of two great playoff victories on our football team, our players but, again, we've been cooperative with the NFL investigation, we'll continue to do so, and we will turn all our attention and focus onto the Seattle Seahawks, a very well-coached, talented, tough, competitive football team. We've spent the last four days, three days with our preparations and so forth for the trip, and those are coming to a conclusion. We're wrapping that up. And we're starting our preparations today with the Seahawks and practicing through the weekend. So we'll have a good, solid opportunity there to get ourselves ready to go before we head down there. Again, I have no further comment on the NFL investigation and I have told you all I know about the subject from my perspective. So that's where we are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NFL investigation, in your own investigation, did you find whether or not anyone --

BELICHICK: I've told you everything I know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coach, where do you think --

BELICHICK: I have nothing. I don't have an explanation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coach, what do you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Understanding what you've said here today, a lot of people were questioning your integrity. Do you say that you were --

BELICHICK: I've told you everything I know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you say to critics who are challenging your character, which seems to go well beyond the sport of football?

BELICHICK: I've told you everything I know.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any message to the fans who are watching all of this and upset by this?

BELICHICK: I've told them everything I know. Nothing else I can answer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coach, how do you -

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I assume you've had conversations with Tom about this issue and what happened --

BELICHICK: I have no explanation for what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coach, why do you think these controversies continue to follow you?

BELICHICK: I don't have an explanation for what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As many Super Bowls that you've been to, coach, you know distractions come with the territory. What do you say to your younger players who don't have the experience being in the spotlight like this?

BELICHICK: None of them are involved in this.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coach, do you -

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've learned a lot over the past couple of days about how well you handled this. Does Tom Brady handle the ball after inspection of those balls?

BELICHICK: Those are all questions that should be directed to the league and that's part of what they are doing. That's not what I'm doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it possible that someone on your sideline, even though you may not know it happened, that has deliberately altered a ball?

BELICHICK: I don't have an explanation for what happened. I've told you all that I can tell you from my point of view and anything coming from the investigative side from the league needs to be directed toward them.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you want to over-inflate the balls unless you think that somehow it happens naturally?

BELICHICK: So that there is no opportunity for a small margin of error that would put us under the specifications.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you see any other circumstance (INAUDIBLE). Coach, do you see any circumstance where the 11 or 12 footballs could have accidentally deflated?

BELICHICK: I don't have an explanation for what happened.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know how much you care about, you know, obviously what's going on. What's it been like for you since you found out about the investigation? What's it been like trying to deal with everything going on?

BELICHICK: As I said, I've learned a lot about the process. I had no idea how the balls got from the official's locker rooms out on the field and so forth and so on and all that. That's not something that I had ever thought or concerned myself about at game day. I've concerned myself with preparing and coaching the team. So some of the things like that that have been talked about that have happened, I'm totally unaware of. All right. Thank you.

COSTELLO: All right. Bill Belichick has left the podium. For a full nine minutes, he stood there and said he had nothing to do with the Deflate-gate, nothing to do at all. He also said that he has no explanation as to why this happened. He also said that he'll make sure it doesn't happen again and that he will fully cooperate with the NFL investigation. He talked a little bit about Tom Brady, but not much. He said we'll leave it to Tom Brady to tell you all how hard he likes his footballs, I guess.

So let's talk more about this with CNN sports anchor Rachel Nichols, CNN anchor and lifelong Patriots' fan John Berman, and former NFL linebacker Coy Wire. Welcome back to all of you.

It did strike me, John Berman, that Bill Belichick came out and he was ready to talk. In a way, he doesn't talk often at these press conferences.

BERMAN: In a way he doesn't talk ever at these press conferences, Carol. I've never heard him speak so much at one time without interruption. Clearly, he was prepared to do that. Clearly, he wanted to get something off of his chest. He said something interesting. He didn't leave himself a lot of wiggle room there. He said, flat out, I didn't even know what the process was with footballs before this. He said he didn't know how it even worked until Monday morning when this was a controversy. He went on to say he has no explanation for what happened. He did not answer direct questions about whether he's talked to Tom Brady, what he's talked to Brady about, whether he's talked to his offensive coaches. That seems to be a big question right now. One thing I do want to point out, this is a little bit inside football, as it were inside baseball. You know, Belichick is a defensive coach. Belichick coaches defense. You know, offense is not his area of expertise. So what happens with quarterbacks and balls and plays and things before the game wouldn't necessarily be something that he has vast knowledge of over his career because that hasn't been an area where he's been focused. And again, no wiggle room here at all.

COSTELLO: No wiggle room. Rachel Nichols, I found it interesting what he said about Tom Brady, and he said very little about Tom Brady. In light of what John Madden said, he said that if this happened, Tom Brady was to blame.

NICHOLS: Well, we don't know yet who is to blame, but certainly he did throw Tom Brady front and center into this. Look, I don't know what Bill Belichick did or didn't know about the pressure of footballs before this incident happened. It is unusual for Bill Belichick not to know every detail of his operation. He is known as a micromanager. That is one of the most important qualities of him as a football coach. It was interesting to me that not only did he say he wasn't involved in this, but he didn't even know about it. Tom Brady, however, would certainly know every quarterback is familiar with how a football feels. They did an interesting thing on ESPN yesterday, like the blind taste test, well they did a blind football test with some of their former players who are on the network, Jerome Bettis, Mark Brunell. Every single player they tested could blind test a football of which was under-inflated, over-inflated, or normal. They got everything right, right away. This is something that football players are aware of, and Tom Brady is also known as a micromanager. In fact, "Sports Illustrated" did a great piece on him last month about how his food, training, and stretching plan is done for the next three years. This is a guy who has what food he's going to eat planned out for the next three years, according to this article. Again, detail-oriented people in this organization. We don't know for sure what any of them knew or not, that's what the NFL is investigating. But we know how they approach football in general and that's part of what makes this such a big question mark. You're dealing with -- Nothing more important than with the football that you're throwing, right? You have to think at least the quarterback is aware of what's going on and maybe the coach. We'll have to see.

COSTELLO: So Coy, I'm sure that the New England Patriots, members of the team, are watching this news conference. What do you think that they thought in listening to their coach?

WIRE: Well I think it's obvious that he's passing blame here. He's completing alleviating himself from any guilt. And John, we talked about this on your show yesterday, it's similar to what Lane Kiffin did in the collegiate ranks when he was the head coach at USC when the USC Trojans were found guilty of under-inflating the footballs when they played against Oregon. And that school was fined $25,000 by the Pac-12 conference. Lane Kiffin went on to say I knew nothing about it. This was basically a rogue equipment manager who did it on his own to give his team a competitive advantage. That student manager was then fired. We're going to see, is the NFL going the find that Tom Brady was in on this and he knew about it only, or was it an equipment manager? It's going to be interesting to see. But Bill Belichick --

COSTELLO: But still, how can you totally excuse Bill Belichick? Because couldn't you argue that he's created this climate where it's okay to come right up to the line and maybe sometimes to cheat. You can't really get away from that if you're Bill Belichick. Can you?

WIRE: And Rachel, I mean, you remember from covering the Bountygate situation, Sean Payton was said that ignorance is not an excuse, was the quote from Goodell in that situation. I think you're responsible for what happens within your organization and on your sideline on game days.

BERMAN: The exact quote -

NICHOLS: Yeah, the precedent is that there. Roger Goodell has come out and said that the head coach is responsible for anything that happens in the organization to the point where, as Coy points out, Sean Payton, who was cleared of direct involvement in the Bountygate scandal, was taken off the field for a year from his team. That's a pretty significant penalty. We also want to look back to Spygate, which the Patriots were found guilty of. Bill Belichick had a somewhat similar defense. There was a lot of, I didn't really know what the rules are with this, I'm not really aware of what the videotaping practices are --

COSTELLO: This is the man who beat the Ravens with some --

NICHOLS: -- And the only person who got fired from the Patriots for Spygate, let's just remember that, the only person who got fired from the Patriots was the kid running the video camera. So they've done the acted-alone thing before. We'll have to see if that comes into play here.

COSTELLO: You wanted to say something about Tom Brady?

BERMAN: I just wanted to agree, because he did not jump to Tom Brady's defense. I mean, he said he didn't know anything, but he didn't make clear that no one else did. What he said about Tom Brady exactly was Tom can talk about his preferences in greater detail, about how he likes the footballs. Tom can talk about his own preferences in greater detail. So I mean, really directly passing the buck here and putting a lot of these questions directly on Tom Brady.

COSTELLO: That's interesting. Which probably means Tom Brady, at some point, is going to come out and talk publicly about this. He almost has to, right?

BERMAN: I would think.

COSTELLO: Yeah. Because he's dealing with that, too. I'm going to have to leave it right there. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)