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August 8, 2007

Belichick's thoughts on Tampa Bay, Beckham and home runs

A few notes from Bill Belichick’s morning meeting with the media today at Gillette:

* The Patriots coach says the deal for cornerback Dante Wesley ``kind of came up pretty quickly.’’

As for the team’s plans for him, Belichick added: ``He’s had most of his playing time on special teams [for Carolina and then Chicago], but we’ll look at him as a defensive player, look at him in the game and go from there.’’

(Earlier in the morning, following a brief practice in the Dana-Farber Field House, Wesley says he’s ready for any assignment: ``I’ve always considered myself to be more than a special teams guy. I feel like I can play cornerback, I can play special teams, I can play pretty much, I feel, anywhere on the field. So whatever my opportunity here, whatever they’re going to give me a chance to do, I just want to do my best.’’)

* Regarding New England's first preseason test, Belichick had this to say: ``We’re winding down here on the preparations for Tampa. We have a lot of people to get ready for a lot of different situations, on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game, all of the goal line, short yardage, third down, extra DBs, extra linebackers, extra receivers. We’re just trying to get it all organized and hopefully with everyone who can play will get an opportunity to play. I’d like to see everybody get some action this week. We’ll just have to see how that goes here in the next couple of days, who all that really is and how it shakes out. We’re just trying to get everybody an opportunity to show us what they can do. We’ve had a lot of teaching. We’ve had a lot of practice, seen a lot of blue and white jerseys. We’ll see a different color on Friday and we’ll see how it goes out there.''

* He considers Tampa Bay to be ``a good test’’ for the Patriots. It is a team ``that runs basically a West Coast offense, that runs a 4-3 defense with a lot of movement and zone coverage, but a good dose of man-to-man, that’s well schooled and disciplined on defense and on offense.’’

* Asked for his reaction to Barry Bonds hitting his 756th career home run, Belichick deadpanned: ``That’s a lot of home runs.’’

Asked if he had any thoughts on the controversy surrounding Bonds breaking the record, to a round of laughter Belichick said: ``I’m really focused on the players that are here.’’

``I guess I won’t ask about David Beckham coming to town then,’’ the reporter said, to which Belichick replied, ``Yeah, he’s not here either.’’

Posted by Carolyn Thornton  at 2:49 PM | Permalink