Bill Belichick regards fantasy football with the same grace he extends to social media
Bill Belichick only really cares about one thing; football. Actual football. Not the fantasy format that allows schlubs at home to argue about points-per-reception formats in August before sweating out the games in December.
The septuagenarian head coach, the man who once revealed the depths of his social media awareness covered the extremely not-real confines of SnapFace, InstantChat and MyFace, isn’t interested in how his running back platoon workload could affect fantasy rosters worldwide. He’s not tracking DeVante Parker’s rising average draft position as he makes play after play through training camp. Fantasy football, according to the future Hall of Fame inductee, “doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“We’re obsessed with fantasy football,” a 14-year-old reporter — the youngest in camp — asked the Patriots’ head coach Thursday. “Even though we know you don’t play, do you think it’s good or bad for the NFL?”
“Honestly, I don’t really have any opinion on that,” replied Belichick. “Fantasy football doesn’t mean anything to me. We’re just trying to win games out here, so I don’t know who’s hot, who’s not, who wins, who doesn’t. I don’t care about that. I just care about whether we win.
“So, have fun with that.”
It wasn’t a surprising answer from one of the league’s most locked-in coaches. Belichick sees nothing on his horizon from July through April but real football. When he does take a break it’s to watch Wesleyan lacrosse or college baseball or maybe to show up on the cover of regional lifestyle magazines for reasons we don’t entirely understand.
That leaves little room for fantasy sleepers. But we already pretty much knew that.