Bill Belichick gets really annoyed with reporter

When asked about the chances Jimmy Garoppolo keeps the starting job after Tom Brady returns from suspension, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick showed his disdain for the question with a short response.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is not particularly loquacious when speaking to the media. Short, vague answers with a clear “you don’t need to know” vibe are the norm, and things will surely be no different this year.

The Patriots will be without quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of the coming season, after he essentially gave up fighting punishment for Deflategate. So Jimmy Garoppolo will get an opportunity to start, with a sure eye toward proving he can be Brady’s eventual successor.

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Belichick was asked about Garoppolo’s chances to keep the starting job even after Brady returns from his four-game ban. The response, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com, was brief.

The reporter apparently went further, asking Belichick if he’d ever been part of a situation where he named a starting quarterback for the fifth week of the season in July. Belichick said “I don’t know”, while citing what he said before about how New England’s quarterback situation would shake out.

Here’s what Belichick had to say about his quarterbacks on Wednesday:

"“Our priority now then is to get Jimmy ready for the start of the season, for the Arizona game [Sept. 11],” Belichick said. “So that’ll be obviously a comprehensive process. Tom will return as the starting quarterback when he comes back. But in the meantime, we have to prioritize the first part of our schedule and that’ll be to get Jimmy ready to go.”"

Any media member that regularly deals with Belichick knows what they’re dealing with, for better or worse. Asking the question about Garoppolo keeping the starting job beyond Week 4 is done knowing the kind of response that will be given, and with little to be gained outside of possibly getting a notable quote. So that’s pretty bush league on that reporter’s part, and in this case Belichick said it all with his two-word response.

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