It is harder to say what New England Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick enjoys more; building a true “team-first” mentality in his squad or trolling reporters.
Since 2012, Belichick has managed to do both with Patriots practices.
The Patriots are the only team in the league to not have players wear numbered jerseys during practice. According to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, this is done with the purpose of ensuring that all the players learn each other’s names, especially now that the team has a huge influx of recently signed free agents, draft picks and undrafted rookies.
It also has the added effect of making it extremely hard for reporters to actually gauge who is doing what on the field:
It’s debatable whether the anonymous nature actually helps the players involved, but it was mentioned to McDaniels that it’s not easy for reporters to know who is where.
“I’m sure it’s not,” McDaniels said.
So, good luck to all the Patriots beat reporters who have to distinguish between the fifth and sixth linebackers in the depth chart without the aid of silly things like “player numbers” or “names” on the backs of jerseys. It will still probably be easier than getting a lengthy answer out of Bill Belichick in a post-game press conference though.
