North Carolina coach Bill Belichick could use some good P.R. There’s no better way to get it than to appear on a wildly popular podcast and, in so doing, attempt to come off as almost human.
He largely accomplished that in his visit with Pardon My Take, even if — as Carmine Lupertazzi once said — a Don never wears shorts.
During the extended interview, the issue of Belichick’s “no days off” motto came up. After all these years, Belichick explained that it doesn’t reflect a maniacal mandate to working every single day but a commitment to working hard on work days.
“Most people don’t really understand what that means — or what it meant to us, I should say — what it meant to us,” Belichick said. “What it meant to us was, when you come to work, you go to work. You don’t come to work and dillydally around and like, ‘I was here, I broke a sweat, I showed up,’ and go home. That’s a day off.
“When we said, ‘no days off,’ we meant, ‘You come to work, you’re ready to work, you’re prepared, you put in a good day’s work,’ OK? Maybe tomorrow’s an off day. . . . That’s fine. I’m not saying like, ‘Don’t take a day off.’ We’re saying, ‘Don’t come to the stadium and take a day off.’ And so the ‘no days off’ was when you come in here, man, we expect your best and we expect you to work at it. When we’re done, we’re done, and, you know, you’re with your family or you’re, you know, whatever you’re doing. Sure, there’s days off. But don’t take them here.”
It wasn’t viewed that way. As Belichick said, it became part of the “hype train of the Patriots.”
“I’m sure it’s sold towels and some, you know, beer mugs or whatever,” Belichick said. “And it was used in a different context.”
It’s a reasonable explanation. And, if it had been provided at the time, Belichick would have been perceived as less of a curmudgeon who lacks perspective or life balance and more as a guy spreading the very positive message of being fully engaged in your work, on your work days.
That said, the rule only applied to the players. For the coaching staff and the front office, there weren’t many days off.