Bill Belichick dismisses new book about Patriots as ‘secondhand stories’

Give Bill Belichick some credit for at least trying to have some fun with this week, at least for a few seconds.

“Good morning. What’s going on? Got any stories this week?” he quipped as he walked into the Patriots media room for his Wednesday press availability, drawing laughs from reporters in attendance.

There are some stories to talk about, alright, and not just all the football-related questions surrounding Tom Brady’s return to Foxborough on Sunday as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

ESPN senior writer Seth Wickersham, the author behind the upcoming Patriots book titled “It’s Better to Be Feared,” leaked a few details on the friction that drove Brady and the Patriots apart just in time for the quarterback’s homecoming to Gillette Stadium.

Arguably the biggest nugget relevant to this week: Wickersham’s claim that Belichick declined Brady’s request for a face-to-face goodbye and insisted on a phone call instead when the Patriots decided not to re-sign the quarterback after the 2019-2020 season.

So naturally, Belichick immediately faced questions from the media about it. And, of course, he didn’t give them a whole lot of oxygen.

“I’ve heard a few things about this book and it sounds like it’s a lot of second, third and fourth-hand comments,” he said. The longtime Patriots coach also flatly denied Wickersham’s account about Belichick and Brady’s final interaction before the quarterback left town: “Yeah, that’s not true.”

Couldn’t expect a whole lot more than that.

Still, the new revelations from the book, which is set to be released October 12, have dominated the conversation, at least for a day, as Sunday’s mega-matchup with Brady and the Buccaneers looms.

Other stories include Patriots owner Robert Kraft allegedly referring to Belichick as “the biggest f—-ng a–hole in my life,” the verbal altercation between cornerback Malcolm Butler and Patriots coach Matt Patricia that may have led to Butler’s infamous Super Bowl benching in 2017, and players’ reactions to Belichick’s support of former President Donald Trump.

But the Brady-Belichick dynamic, in particular, has been a source of hot debate as media personalities and fans discuss which of them was most responsible for the Patriots’ unprecedented 20-year run of success.

Belichick, for his part, added his relationship with his former quarterback has “always been good” and heaped praise on Brady for his “unbelievably impressive” career and longevity in the NFL: “If anybody can do [play until age 50], he probably can.”

But for all that praise, Brady, whom Belichick reportedly believed was “close to the end” when he let him leave, will come to town as a defending Super Bowl champion with another team on Sunday, and the Patriots legend will look to make his former team yet another victim on his way to another title.