Yes, Patriots coach Bill Belichick will meet with the media on Wednesday, for the first time since tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested for murder and promptly cut from the team.
No, as explained during Tuesday’s PFT Live, Belichick won’t say anything.
How do we know this? Because Belichick never says anything.
OK, he says things. But he says as little as possible, and at times it looks as if he’s trying to talk without moving his mouth, like guys who shove their hands up the butts of wooden puppets.
Belichick may be wooden, but he’s no puppet. He says and does what he wants, thanks to those three Super Bowl wins as a head coach and his contributions as an assistant to other championship teams.
And here’s what we predict he’ll say, in response to the the first question about Hernandez: “I’m here to talk about the players on this team.”
Someone inevitably will ask Belichick whether the team will make changes to its player-acquisition process, either by doing more homework or by not “buying low” when it comes to players with off-field issues who slide down the draft board.
“Those are internal procedures, and I’ll leave it at that,” Belichick possibly will say.
Regardless, it will be a shock if he says anything other than what he always says. Which is pretty much nothing, with a delivery suggesting he’d strongly prefer to say even less.