Bill Belichick Shares Funny Joke When Asked About Patriots COVID-19 Plans At QB

Robert Alvarez

3 years ago at 3:10 pm ET

Geoff Burke - USA TODAY Sports

So far into the start of the 2020 season, the New England Patriots have remained very healthy in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic occurring across the world.

With no positive tests reported this summer, the Patriots have done a sold job keeping the virus away from Gillette Stadium.

However, in the event something does happen, especially at quarterback, what is Bill Belichick’s plan if all three quarterbacks on the roster are sick at once?

“I think we got Scott Zolak right around the corner that really comes to that,” Belichick said jokingly to a reporter. “So hopefully he’ll be ready to go if we need him.”

Zolak of course, is the fan favorite Patriots color commentator for 985 The Sports Hub alongside the radio play-by-play of Bob Socci.

From 1991-1998, Zolak was primarily a Patriots backup quarterback, but he did start seven games in that span.

In response to Belichick’s trademark dry humor, the reporter said back “Might take a while to get that arm warm” as Zolak, now 52, has been retired for 20 years.

“Scott’s a big strong guy. I don’t think it’ll take too long,” Belichick said.

As for the actual emergency plan, Belichick switched back to his serious ways and discussed the teams planning for any COVID-19 emergencies.

“Yeah I mean, everybody’s in the same boat on this, and there are really just a lot of unknowns,” Belichick said.

“So you can take several different approaches. I don’t know that there’s a right or wrong answer. I think everybody’s going to do what they think is best based on their situation. We’ve talked about various scenarios and how to best maintain the depth and quality of our team. But again there’s a lot of things that we can’t predict, so we’ve done what we feel like’s the best that we can do in that area, but I don’t know if that’s — again, it will depend on what happens. So we’ll just have to see how it plays out. I think we’re ready to do some things if we feel the need to do ’em. So if that happens, we’ll react accordingly. At this time, we feel like we’re OK where we are. But that could change. So we’ll just have to see.”

For now, it appears all systems go for Cam Newton on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, but just in case, there’s always that quarterback waiting just above the field at the 50-yard line in the radio booth.