As COVID-19 Impacts NFL Draft, Bill Belichick Adapts To New Technology

It’s no secret New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is an “old school” football genius.

A coach who’s infamously joked time and time again that he doesn’t Twitter, “MyFace, or “Yearbook” and once even discarded a Windows tablet mid game, appears to be at last giving into technology due to coronavirus pandemic social distancing rules.

During his pre-draft press conference on Monday, CLNS media’s Mike Petraglia asked if Belichick had to use technology more than usual to get to know the players in the 2020 draft since there are no pro days or face-to-face meetings allowed.

“Yeah, Mike that’s an interesting question. It’s a little bit different than the way we’ve done it in the past with the 30 visits and the pro days and so forth, but all the teams are working with the same constraints. So, in fact, we probably talk to as many if not more players than we have in the past when you’re not traveling and you’re just sitting at a desk or sitting in a room, wherever we are. It’s easier to make a lot of phone calls and get in contact with people rather than sometimes visit a place and just see the people that are there, even though those visits are valuable and you’re able to get into more of an in-depth conversation and evaluation there. So, we certainly have logged a lot of phone time and FaceTime and whatever video conferencing and so forth. You know, again, I think for the most part, we’ve all adjusted to that and tried to take advantage of the opportunity that we have to do those things.”

WBZ’s Dan Roche later asked Belichick if he’s “mastered the technique of all this technology?” that he may have once given no attention to.

It turns out he’s a fast learner.

“I’d say master is probably not the right word, Dan,” Belichick joked. “I’m certainly better at it than I was four weeks ago. I mean, I didn’t know what half of this was. But, at least now I can do more than I did, let’s put it that way. So, I get a little better every day – learn a new button or learn a new thing to click on and see what trick that does. So, yeah, it’s been very, very educational as a first floor, maybe even the basement – I’ve lived below the first floor. Yeah, it’s been interesting to get educated on different technologies.”

Belichick then praised and credited Patriots team IT Specialist Dan Famosi for teaching him how to work the various technology tools.

“Dan has done a tremendous job for us because he’s had to navigate a lot of this. I mean, there’s the coaching side of it, there’s the scouting, there’s the playbook and preparing for the offseason program side of it, meetings and so forth. Just to be able to deal with so many people that are – some are very proficient at some of the things we’re doing, and others, like myself, are remedial. And so putting things together on a lot of different levels for multiple groups and interactions that cross over different connections and needs and ‘can we do this with this type of meeting and this kind of conversation and can we do something else’ – you know, some are one-on-ones, some it’s five people, 10 people, 20 people, and we’re preparing for larger groups than that. So, there really are a lot of moving parts, and Dan’s done a tremendous job for us and tried to pull a lot of things together and remotely help out people like me that need a lot of help.”

(Pats Pulpit’s Bernd Buchmasser, wrote a detailed background piece on Famosi’s history with the team you can read HERE)

The NFL will host its first ever “virtual draft” between April 23-25th where Commissioner Roger Goodell intends to announce picks from his basement and all teams will communicate remotely.

Belichick’s newfound tech skills will be put to the test when the Patriots draft “war room” could partially originate at his house on Nantucket.

We’re onto the “Zoom” call.