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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 Conference

Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick talks to the press about the upcoming game against the Browns on Sunday.To view the full transcript, click below.

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BB: We don't have any change on the injury report although CJ [Charles Johnson] is doing a little bit better so he might be able to do more today. One of the things that I think is a real emphasis point for us this week is the quick start that the Browns have gotten off to pretty much all year. We certainly had trouble with that against the Jets last week and that is an area that we need to target. They have done a good job defensively of not only creating a lot of turnovers, but creating them early and getting on top early, making plays offensively with long balls to Kevin Johnson and some plays in the running game and also on special teams. So that's certainly a key area for us this week in terms of not trying to fall behind and get in the position that we were in last week. That is not really where you want to play the game from even though we were able to pull out of it.

On Terry's [Glenn] situation, I met with Terry last night and I expect him to practice today and really just take it day by day from here. I am sure that you have a lot of questions relative to the situation and I really don't want to get into a play-by-play of what we talked about or what time we met or who was sitting in which chair and all of that. It's a bottom line, the bottom line is that I expect him to practice today and we will take it day to day from there. That is really about the extent of it. That is where it is for right now.

Q: Not getting into a bottom line play-by-play, but just in a general…

BB: No I am getting into the bottom line, I am giving you the bottom line.

Q: But not to get into a play-by-play, but in a general sense can you say that know both you and Terry understand each other and to just go ahead and play and work things out as they go along?

BB: I think there is an understanding or we wouldn't be where we are. I think we have moved ahead. He is going to practice today and we will take it day by day from here. That is better then where we have been for quite a few weeks.

Q: Have you gotten a commitment from him…

BB: It is day to day.

Q: Why are you willing to accept that?

BB: I feel like all of the decisions that I need to make are based on our football team and on trying to be fair to everybody that is involved and I try to do the best I can on that. I am not saying that it is perfect or easy, but I try to take everything into consideration and make the best decision I can for the football team, the organization and be fair to everybody that is involved.

Q: Can you just say how long you met with Terry?

BB: I don't know.

Q: Well you know whether it was five minutes or four hours?

BB: More than five minutes less than four hours. Just limit it to one question. I don't know an hour an hour and a half, I really don't know. It wasn't five minutes.

Q: What did he tell you about his hamstring. Does he feel like he is 100 percent now and can get out on the field and contribute?

BB: I expect him to practice today.

Q: Is this something that you kind of laid out to him what you wanted from him or you were waiting to see some answers from him to choose which direction to go?

BB: I don't know. Again, it was no five-minute conversation, it is not about one thing. I think we have reached a point, the bottom line is that we have reached the point that we are at now. I think we are comfortable with it or we wouldn't be there both Terry and myself and I think the team. So we will just take it from here.

Q: Is it a new start for him in some ways?

BB: I don't know about that, I don't know. It is where it is, I don't know.

Q: But from your standpoint isn't difficult to figure out whether this guy is going to play this week and gone next week or whatever the situation is?

BB: Again, I will just evaluate the situation as it comes. He hasn't practiced for awhile. I expect him to practice today we'll see what tomorrow brings. Tomorrow is tomorrow. I really don't know. I am not going to try to make any predictions and I am not going to try to set any expectations. There is no need to. We will evaluate it after we are on the field today and we will move forward tomorrow.

Q: Any concern with this affecting the chemistry of the club with things going so well right now?

BB: In what terms?

Q: Bringing him back into the mix?

BB: He has been here since the fourth week of the season. I mean he has been here since the San Diego…

Q: As a contributing member of this team?

BB: Well he has been here. Some weeks he has played, some weeks he hasn't played, sometimes he practices…he has been here. Whatever…there really is no change.

Q: Except some players may see him come to practice with his cell phone on, you don't think that that may bother some of the players?

BB: Well you would have to talk to…if you wanted to ask another player how they feel about it, I couldn't speak for another player.

Q: Did you get any sense about it one way or the other?

BB: I don't know. I am trying to look at the whole situation and be fair and do what I feel is the best and the fairest thing for the team. It takes a lot of things into consideration.

Q: Since he hasn't played in awhile, what is the best case scenario for him does he play at the third wide receiver?

BB: That will just be based on a day-to-day evaluation. We will take a look at it today, talk about it, take a look at it tomorrow and see how it goes. It is just day to day. I can't tell you.

Q: Would you rather go to the dentist or talk to Terry Glenn?

BB: Look, I know that everybody wants a play-by-play, a detailed description of every word that was said, every facial expression, what interruptions occurred, so forth and so on, but it is really not about all of that. I feel an obligation to the media and the fans, to everybody, to let everybody know what the bottom line is and that is what it is. The details of a private conversation I think should, from my end, are going to remain private and if Terry wants to talk about them that is his right and his privilege. If somebody else has an opinion on it I am sure they will speak it or right it and that is fine, no problem.

Q: When you talk about team, some teammates see him go on TV and say, 'Maybe my hamstring would feel better if my contract wasn't what it is' and then maybe some guys see him walking out with his cell phone on or some guys see something else that we have all seen and have actually happened, they are not conjecture, do you worry about the affect that has on the team?

BB: I think if any of them want to ask him about it they are perfectly welcome to do it.

Q: But that is not one of the things you take into consideration?

BB: There are a lot of things I have tried to take into consideration. All of the things that have been talked about in here I am sure have been talked about internally either myself or other people, whoever is involved, whether it be Terry or staff members or whoever it happens to be. So yeah I have tried to take everything I can into consideration.

Q: Have any of the players voiced any concerns to you or to anyone on your staff?

BB: Is this another poll? If you are asking if I have gone around and polled the players to take a vote on anything the answer to that is no. Look, it is not their decision to make, it is my decision and I am making it and I am telling you what I am doing. That's it. I am sure you could take a poll on just about anything, I doubt that is would unanimous. You would have mixed opinions and that's fine. Somebody has got to make a decision and it is my job to make it. I have made it. This is where we are today.

Q: Did you get a sense from this meeting that he feels more committed to being a contributing member of the team than he might have been in the past?

BB: The only thing I will say about the meeting is that I expect him to be back on the field at practice and in saying that I think that says that there is a certain level of consensus between the parties that that can occur in a productive manner.

Q: How is your relationship with Terry right now?

BB: My job is to coach the football team and coach the players on the team and I feel a responsibility to every one of them, every single one of them whether they are practice squad players, whether they are starters, whether they are injured, whether they are not injured what ever it is. I don't feel like I am coaching one player or two players or four players, I feel everybody that is contributing to the team is part of the team and anybody who is on it is part of the team whatever their capacity. Whether it is Brock Williams on injured reserve or anybody else. That is what I am trying to do. I am trying to coach the players, instruct them on what I think they need to improve and how the team, what direction it needs to go into to win a game, this particular game. That is what my job is, that's what I think my relationship needs to be with the players and I would say that about every player. You can bring up any specific one, I would say the same thing whichever one it is you bring up. I feel the same obligation to all of them.

Q: But certainly this guy has tried your patience?

BB: That is not what it is about, that is not what it is about. What it is about is when you are a coach it is about getting the people on the field that can play together and win together and that's the bottom line that is what we are all here for.

Q: You just said to paraphrase, 'Your responsibility is to contributing member of this team' and people here now that except for rare occasions this year, Terry Glenn has not been a contributing member to this team…

BB: Well wait a minute, anybody that is on the team is part of the team. You can contribute in different ways. We have players on injured reserve, you can say that they don't contribute to the team, but they are still part of the team and they either did or they potentially can in the future and they are part of the team so they are being treated as part of the team they are not being exiled. I mean Marty Moore, I consider Marty Moore as much a part of this team as any player that walks out on the field on Sunday. Unfortunately he can't play, but that doesn't separate him from the team. He is a Patriot and I am proud that he is a Patriot. I am proud of all of the other players too. If I wasn't then they wouldn't be here. Anybody want to digress and talk about Cleveland or are you pretty much done with that?

Q: Your secondary has been more consistent this year. How has it worked so well?

BB: Well I wouldn't say it's been great. I think its had its moments. You know we have a veteran group of players, particularly at corner, that have a lot of experience in the league: Terrance Shaw and Terrell [Buckley] and obviously Otis [Smith] and Ty [Law]. I can't imagine that there's much more experience on any other team than what we have. So the fact that those guys have been in a lot of games, they've been through the wars. That's a tough position to play mentally because really you are out there on an island every single play and really when you play that position you play 60, 70 plays, however many plays there are defensively in the game. But what you do is you really live for the four or five that make a difference in the game. That's how many plays, you know normally a corner is really directly involved in. So I think the experience level is a positive. Those guys have been asked to do some different things. Ty, Terrell and Terrance have all played inside, they've played outside and I think that their experience level gives us a little bit of flexibility. You know Matt [Stevens] and Tebucky [Jones] and Lawyer [Milloy] are again three, in different degrees, but experienced players, guys that have been in the league, guys that can contribute in the kicking game as well as on defense. And I think that experience level has enabled it to blend together a little bit better than we were able to blend it last year where we had more younger guys and guys with less experience and maybe less playing confidence than that group. Those guys all have a lot of playing confidence and you need that in the secondary and particularly at corner.

Q: In a figurative sense, at this time of year do you have any rookies left on your team?

BB: Yeah, I think we do. I think what you see with the rookies now, they come in they are all excited about playing in the NFL. They make the team. It's kind of their lifelong dream and all that so the expectations are high. They're going up against players maybe that they…you know maybe they played against some guys in college and all, but they are going up against some profile players that is again part of their dream, part of their challenge. Now we are at the point in the season where we've played 16 games, plus training camp, which is a whole lot more than those guys played in college and at a much higher level of competition. So it's…you know there are no homecoming games. So now those guys are getting to the point where they're, some of them have hit the wall or they have to fight the wall. They can feel the wall mentally, physically. It's a new game plan every week. It's a new opponent every week. It's another guy that if you just let up for a second he can burn you. Again it's not…there aren't those weeks you have in college where you can just kind of show up and go through the motions and win 35-7 against your homecoming game. Every week each guy's got a huge challenge and they're a target if they are in there. And they are going to be attacked. They are going to be game planned. They are going to be, whatever weaknesses they have, that next team is going to go after them and try to exploit them. So the mental challenge as well as the physical length of the season and intensity of the season…I think they are rookies because they're severely challenged by the duration and as I say, the wall. Whereas for a lot of veteran players, a lot of veteran players when they come to camp they have a pretty secure feeling that they are going to be on the team. I am not saying all of them, but there is certainly a group and a lot of the guys who are starting have that feeling. So their season doesn't really start until the opening game, even though, I'm not going to say they don't work hard in training camp and all that. They do and it's physically demanding, but the mental side of it, they are not really worried about making the team. They're not really worried about their playing time and that kind of thing. That doesn't really start until opening day. So there's a lot longer and more intense pressure on the younger players and the guys who have less stability and that certainly includes the rookies. So that's the thing that I think from that standpoint we have to try to work through and measure that. I think when you look back at players like Tom Brady. I think Tom is a good example of a guy that when I look back at him last year as a rookie, I thought that he was a guy that hit the wall a little bit during the season. Even though he wasn't playing. Even though he wasn't taking any snaps. But as opposed to this year he came in at a lot higher level and I don't see that wall. You know [David] Nugent is another guy like that. I thought that David last year hit the wall maybe half way through the season or somewhere in there. This year he's a different guy. He's at a different level. I think that…it's a really good point. It's a real interesting point. It's something you've really got to fight with. I think our rookies are probably like all the rookies in the league, they are battling it in December. It's a long season. Unfortunately, well I should say fortunately, but unfortunately for them, this is the home stretch. The finish line is four regular season games away for us. So this is where we have to kick it in to high gear, but I think there are a lot of them that are fighting, yeah

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