Living out in the Bay Area, I don’t expect to get a lot of close contact with my favorite football team, the New England Patriots. But with their back-to-back games on the left coast, they decided it’d be better to stay out where the weather is in the 50s in December instead of flying Boston to Seattle to Boston to Oakland to Boston in the span of 8 days. Can’t say I blame them. Their scheduling mishap was my gain though, as I got to cover the practice for Sirius NFL Radio. Here is what I learned that won’t show up in any of the audio or video clips you’ll see:

1. Bill Belichick has a wicked sense of humor and is much more media-savy than people give him credit for. On almost any question that wasn’t related to Matt Cassel and his father, Belichick held back from displaying a giant shit-eating grin, and then gave his patented boring answer. Trust me, if this guy wanted to, he’d be cracking jokes for every question, and probably getting himself into trouble three times a week. It’s not that he couldn’t be Bill Parsells with the media, he just chose not to.
2. Unlike Belichick, the Pats PR guys are less than accommodating. Only Boston media was allowed to watch the first 10 minutes of practice, which of course didn’t include yours truly. Please explain to me how Colleen Dominguez got to attend though…
3. Richard Seymour is HUGE. Those big and tall stores were made for him. If you see interviews with him where all the microphones just come up to his chin, it may not be because the reporters are avoiding the cameras, it may just be because that’s how high they can reach.

Otherwise, well, it seemed to be pretty business-like. 3000 miles from home the Pats were business as usual. Maybe that’s why they put together the first NFL dynasty of the millennium.

Even though I’m a huge Pats fan, there’s no way I’ll be attending the game at the Colosseum though. I may be a fanatic, but I value my life.