Everyone who ventures outside in the Boston area on Thursday is getting punched in the face by a 21-mph winds from the north. There’s snow. And the temperature keeps dropping. It’s a blizzard. Not just any blizzard — a BOMB CYCLONE!
Bill Belichick will not accept ‘bomb cyclone’ as an excuse for being late to practice
It’s hard to get around in a blizzard, but Bill Belichick is pretty much like “snow what!?”
Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images
If you live in the area, you better have a damn good reason for going outside in this weather. Like football practice.
The New England Patriots will be on the practice field, weaponized winter storms be damned. And Bill Belichick made it clear to his players they better not be late for work.
“You certainly better leave yourself enough time to get here on time tomorrow,” special teams ace Matthew Slater cautioned. “We all know there is weather. Coach has mentioned that several times to the team, so I wouldn’t want to be the guy who is late tomorrow.”
Getting around in these conditions is no joke, even in a place that’s not unfamiliar with blizzards. Crappy roads mean more driving time. If you don’t have a garage, you’ve got to add more time to your commute to get the snow and ice scraped off the windows and the car warm enough to sit in.
If you’re late, none of those things will be enough to get a pass from football’s greatest task master.
In 2009, Belichick sent home Randy Moss and three other players who were late to practice because of the weather.
Safety Devin McCourty applied that lesson to his choice of domicile.
“I knew not to come late. I found a couple nice places (to live) that are about 15 or 20 minutes away my rookie year and I was like ‘Nah, I’ll do the three minutes away,’” he said Wednesday.
Three minutes away, if your car can’t make it, you can always throw some skins on the skis and get there that way.
Moving around at even the most basic level SUCKS when it’s cold, and if there’s a nuclear winter storm swirling overhead, you should probably just stay in bed. My college GPA suffered because I maintained a rule about not walking to class when wind chills fell below zero (OK, below 20 degrees).
None of this is an excuse if you work for Belichick and have “do your job” scrolling across the bottom of the screen in your head at all times. We could all use a Belichick in our lives.
Practice starts at 10:35 a.m. ET on Thursday. Don’t be late.
See More:
