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Replay: Best of the Week on Patriots.com Radio Fri Dec 20 - 10:00 AM | Sun Dec 22 - 01:55 PM

Bill Belichick Press Conf.

Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough, MABill Belichick speaks to the press.

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            **B:** We made a couple of roster moves the last day or so. We released Raymont Harris, claimed Matt Stevens off of Waivers from Washington and we will have a couple of changes there, possible changes in the secondary so we will see what we can get Matt ready to do this week. Ty (Law) won't play in the Miami game and we added Brad Costello to the practice squad, a punter. So those are the moves. A lot of the things we talked about last week with Buffalo I think remain true with Miami, division games. It is the time of the year where there could be some elements in the game that can make it challenging. Miami is a very tough, physical team very similar to Buffalo. I think this game will be a real good challenge for our football team. Miami has got a lot at stake with this game and I am sure they will be ready. They played us very tough down there and I am sure we will expect the same kind of game from them this time and that's what we need to be ready for. A couple of new faces, (O.J.) McDuffie is back, (Richmond) Webb is back he didn't play against us in the first game so a couple of new things to get ready for. Miami is a real good football team. We know they are real tough on defense. I think their pass coverage is probably better than any other team we faced. Offensively they have showed that they can put up some points as they did against Cincinnati, Green Bay, the Jets, up in Buffalo so they can be an explosive team and they are very good on defense and they are very good covering the pass. Good team, good kicking, good kicker it so that will be a big challenge for us this week in terms of our mental and physical toughness that we will need to play the Dolphins.  

Q: Considering how important this game is to Miami, can you talk a little bit about why you suspended Ty?

B: Well the whole situation doesn't have anything to do with who we are playing it has to do with the disciplinary system on this team and I haven't commented on team discipline all year and it has been handled internally so that is the way we will keep it.

Q: What about (Terry) Glenn and Troy (Brown)?

B: They are all fair questions, good questions all the discipline is handled within the team.

Q: Why do you do that?

B: Because I think that the best way to deal with the players is one on one. I don't think those things really should go out beyond the team.

Q: We can respect that, but what are your feelings about it personally are you aggravated, infuriated?

B: As I have said many times before this job changes a little bit every week, there are different things each week to deal with and that's what you get paid for as a coach deal with all of the elements that come up on a weekly basis. Getting your team ready to play against whoever the opponent is, all of the conditions and the circumstances that arise and every week is different. There are no two that are the same.

Q: Does it make you angry?

B: I just try to do the best I can to get the team ready to play that is what I am focused on. It is not about emotions it is about trying to do your job and trying to get the team to perform.

Q: Because of your background in the league, in general terms with professional athletes, why do you think there is such a lack of accountability and responsibility?

B: I don't know

Q:

B: Well I don't know. I am not an expert on judging social issues and that type of thing, really I don't know.

Q: What was Ty's reaction?

B: I think if Ty has anything to say about it he can speak for himself.

Q: Will the suspension only go through this last week?

B: Again, it is a good question, but one that I will take a pass on. It is an internal matter.

Q: It is just a team suspension or was the league involved.

B: I don't have anything to do with the league, I don't have anything to do with the league discipline. League discipline is league discipline it is not team discipline.

Q: Is it a paid or unpaid suspension?

B: I respect the question, but I will continue to take pass on them.

Q: Did you believe him and suspend him anyway or was there some doubt in your mind?

B: It is not about that, it is not about that.

Q: What was he suspended for?

B: It is a violation of team rules.

Q: He offered to take a drug test will he or has he?

B: I have got to come back with the same answer. I have to take a pass on it.

Q: Did he break team rules that Terry (Glenn) and Troy (Brown) did not?

B: It is not anything that I can get into. They are team things, it has been like this all year. We had a couple situations come up during the year and it is not anything that I feel like I can discuss.

Q: Is there ever a time when your fans are owed more of an explanation than what you can be forthcoming with in terms of the trust they place in the team?

B: I am trying to give the best one I can.

Q: Why in the first place would players be allowed to not fly home on the team charter, regardless of their fears?

B: It is a fair question, another one that I will take a pass on.

Q: Are you apt to allow that again?

B: Every day in this job, every week, every year there are new situations, new circumstances and new decisions that every coach and every organization has to make. When those come up and I have tried to make the best ones I can, deal with them the best I can.

Q: Why not give the fans and the people who support this team more of an explanation?

B: I just think that is the way a team should be run.

Q: Is that unilateral?

B: I think that is what a team is about. A team is about being a team and there are some things that are team things they should be held within the team and that is the way I feel. I don't think it is my place to comment on things such as this.

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            **Q: Is he obligated to stay in Foxboro to workout?**  

B: Another question that I can't…

Q: When did you inform Ty, this morning, last night?

B: It is a closed case, it is a closed case. I really don't think it is appropriate to talk about details and circumstances. I understand all of the questions and I think there are a lot of legitimate questions, but it is an internal matter and so are, there have been other disciplinary things this year that have taken place and they are closed. They are between the player and the coach.

Q: Troy Brown and Terry Glenn missed the meeting arguably with less of a good reason then Ty had. They are at the airport they could have gotten on the plane without him, so it seems clear that Law was suspended because he was found with the drugs?

B: As a coach or as a decision-maker you have to take into consideration what the situation is, what the facts are, what you know to make the decision that you think is most appropriate one. That is all I can say.

Q: Was this decision a unilateral one, did you talk to the owner about it?

B: We have team rules.

Q: With this result in changes in team rules next year?

B: I don't know.

Q: Are you concerned about Ty and his well-being?

B: I am not a doctor I am a coach. I don't think I am qualified, I am not a medical doctor.

Q: Do you think this kind of stuff happens when a team is not successful on the field?

B: I can't relate it to any other incidents here other than the year that I was here in 1996 because I wasn't here so I really couldn't comment on any of those things that happened previously.

Q: But in your experience coaching?

B: I can't really make a concrete statement for it. I have seen things on all types of teams.

Q: How do you think this team will react not only to the incident, but the aftermath?

B: I don't know. I don't think you ever know exactly how things are going to go when you walk out on the field on Sunday. I don't think you ever know that first game of the year, tenth game of the year, sixteenth game of the year each week is different. Each week is it's own week. There is a certain amount of momentum or whatever you want to call it within a schedule, but I think each week is self-contained. What a team does on Sunday is reflected on what its performance is out there when the whistle blows at one o'clock and when the last one stops at four relative to the team it is competing against. I think each week is pretty much of it's own entity. Again not that there isn't some carry over at times from positive or negative momentum within the season. I am not saying that doesn't exist, but each week both teams have an opportunity to put their performance out on the field relative to what the other team performs and you usually have a winner or a loser at the end of that game. That's they way it is every week. I don't think you ever know how things are going to turn out.

Q: How far can you go to control what these players do when they are not on the premises? Can you enforce bans on where they can go when they are not on the clock?

B: Team rules and league rules and all are a very complicated issue. It is one from a legal standpoint that is well over my head. There is a collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league and a lot of things come under that jurisdiction one way or another. So what players can do and what teams can do and all of that so that is pretty well a part of it.

Q: Who will replace Ty and will Terry Glenn and Troy Brown start?

B: Ty will be replaced by a combination of Antonio (Langham), Kato (Serwanga) and Antwan (Harris) the three corners.

Q: The other two will they start?

B: I don't have any plans to discuss any lineup changes.

Q: Does the opportunity to knock Miami out of the playoffs, is that kind of a salvageable thing for this season?

B: Well as I said last week against Buffalo I think what is more important is how this game effects us, not how it effects Miami. Whatever happens to Miami we don't really have a lot of control over. It is just a matter of record, what happens in this game is just part of the total picture and the rest of the total picture we don't have any control over. What we have control over is how we perform on Sunday against Miami and that is what we are focused on. It certainly will be something that, I mean the game is important to us, the preparation will be important and I know performance will be important and that is really where our focus is and what we are about as opposed to what the ramifications are. That is somebody else's job. Somebody else could put that together we really don't have any control over it.

Q: Did the Jets and the Colts kind of give you a little blueprint as to how to attack their defense?

B: Yes we have seen those games, is that what you are asking?

Q: They have had success against the Miami defense by spreading them out?

B: Nobody has had a whole lot of success against Miami's defense. Teams have intermittently moved the ball and had some success, but nobody has really had a lot of success against them. We have seen those tapes. We have seen plenty of other teams. We will try to put together the best gameplan that we can and do what we can do to move the ball and score against them.

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