Bill Belichick Dodges Deflategate Questions, Says ‘You Can Forget About Last Year’

In his first time addressing the media since the New England Patriots were hit with penalties for Deflategate, head coach Bill Belichick deflected all questions on the scandal with vague, forward-looking answers.

When asked about the difficulty of watching the scandal unfold, Bill Belichick talked about the work his team was putting in during the practices.

“We’re just working hard every day to come out here and get better.”

Reporters also asked Bill Belichick if the scandal took away from the excitement of winning the Super Bowl, to which Bill Belichick again replied with an answer focused on the future.

“That’s a long time ago. We’re on to next year. It’s 2015. You can forget about last year. That was last year.”

Bill Belichick also had little to say about Robert Kraft’s choice to drop the appeal of the sanctions given to the Patriots, simply replying that Kraft had made his statement on the decision last week.

Though starting quarterback Tom Brady will be suspended for the first four games of the regular season as part of Deflategate, he participated in practice and split repetitions with backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

Bill Belichick said not to look into how the practice repetitions were divided between the two quarterbacks.

“We’re trying to get everyone an opportunity to learn our system and be able to compete and play. Competition will really come in training camp. This is more of a teaching camp than a competitive camp.”

Bill Belichick also said that training camps are learning opportunities that later give players a chance to prove themselves on the field.

Garoppolo said that he had a standard offseason, which included working with wide receivers in California.

“I’m just going out to practice every day, trying to improve, trying to get my teammates better, me better, and we’ll go from there. I just have the mindset I’m trying to get better. That’s all you can control at the end of the day.”

Bill Belichick’s Patriots team was also fined $1 million and lost a first round draft pick after allegations of deflating footballs were found to be true.

While many members of the media were surprised to see Bill Belichick make himself available to the press, the NFL just changed the rule this year that makes it mandatory for all head coaches to speak to the media during three days of OTAs.

[Photo By Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]