New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is looking to move on from discussing his team’s punishments for violating an offseason rule. But he took responsibility for it in his final comment on the matter.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Belichick announced that the situation is resolved and the team has moved on. He declared that he’s responsible for what happened and that’s the end of it.
“The whole situation is in the past. It’s resolved, and we’ve moved on,” Belichick said, via ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “It was three meetings (we lost)… I’m responsible for it, so that’s it.”
The Patriots were docked several practices and Belichick received a fine after special teams coach Joe Judge was found to have violated the CBA by having a mandatory meeting time go over the time permitted by the NFLPA.
News story: With Andy Studebaker of the NFL Players Association on hand to watch Wednesday’s Patriots organized team activity, Bill Belichick accepts responsibility for past violation while backing Joe Judge.https://t.co/m0bcTvgkd0
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) May 31, 2023
In the same press conference, Bill Belichick made it clear that he has no issue with Joe Judge whatsoever. He complimented Judge on his intelligence and pledged to have Judge “do a lot” in 2023.
Belichick usually has his own way of dealing with discipline internally, so if he feels that Judge did mess up in any significant way, chances are it’ll be dealt with in a way we won’t hear about for a while.