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Bill Belichick On-Field Interview Transcript

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the media during his on-field interview on Saturday, July 30, 2011.

BB: First of all, there were was a couple of releases - several releases we had yesterday were tough ones. Guys like Ty [Warren] and Nick [Kaczur], gave us a lot of good football here, have been players for a long time, really since their rookie year. It's just tough to have to move on in those situations. Tully [Banta-Cain], certainly has been a contributor for us and Alge [Crumpler] last year, came in and gave us a lot of leadership and gave us a real veteran presence offensively. Those kinds of things are tough. Unfortunately that's part of what we do. We just had to move on. The trades for both Chad [Ochocino] and Albert [Haynesworth] are complete, so they're New England Patriots now. Both of them came down pretty quickly. With the rules, obviously, we couldn't enter into any conversations about those. But Mike Shanahan and I had some conversations there late one night and it all kind of came together pretty quickly. And so we had to get a few things worked out and so we did that and consummated the trade with Washington. And I spoke with Marvin [Lewis] and Mike Brown and eventually we got things worked out with Cincinnati as they were reporting to camp, before Chad reported there, so he was able to come here and we were able to get that finished. Those players are here, they obviously have a lot of catching up to do. We're excited to have them. They've got a lot of work to do in terms of learning our system and us figuring out exactly how they'll fit in and what their roles will be and so forth, but they've both been very productive in the league as we all know. We hope they'll be able to contribute for us this year, but we'll just have to see how it goes and take it as it comes along. It's good to be out here in pads. I thought we had a good workday this morning, had a couple of good lead up days to it the past couple days. I think the players, even though it's certainly challenging to come out and practice in this heat in pads and all that. But I think as football players you look forward to getting out in pads and playing football and so we did some of that today and that was what we needed. We've got a lot of mistakes that we've got to correct and move on and a few things we've got to get straightened out but I think we're hopefully headed in the right direction and we'll just take it day-by-day. It's going to be a long process; we'll just evaluate each day and try to make the most of our opportunities.

Q: There have been rumors about Chad Ochocinco's interest in coming here. But when you hear a guy like Albert Haynesworth, when that name comes up with Mike Shanahan, are you surprised? Do you go 'Oh wow, he's available?' How do you react?

BB: Well, I don't think it was a big surprise that things weren't great in Washington, I don't think. But in any case, look, there's no formula. All the trades we've been involved in through the years - the Ted Washingtons and the Corey Dillons and the Randy Mosses and all, each one is different. There're always different dynamics that go into it. In the end, you just try to do what's best for your football team. There are a lot of things you take into consideration. As we've seen in those two last transactions, there're a number of steps that have to be taken that's all. So we just take each one and then if it all comes together, it does, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Q: Do you have an idea of how Albert Haynesworth is going to fit in? Can he play in the 3-4?

BB: We'll do the same thing we do with all players: put them out there, let them play, and try to do what's best for them and our team.

Q: Is there a reason he wasn't practicing this morning?

BB: He's not quite ready to practice yet.

Q: Is it injury related?

BB: When he's ready, he'll be out there.

Q: So he doesn't qualify under the not until August 4th thing? He can practice when he's ready?

BB: Yes, when he's ready.

Q: To be official, he had to pass the physical and the conditioning run though?

BB: The trade's official.

Q: On Chad, he's got a personality that interacts with the public, interacts with the media and he's been very out there.

BB: Any other news breaking stories?

Q: I'm on top of that. I'm wondering since it generally isn't a way your players have acted.

BB: I think every player on this team, every person on this team, has their own individual personality. None us are the same, so that's probably a good thing.

Q: Have you asked him at all to relax with the Twitter and etcetera? We haven't had a lot of tweets from him the past couple days.

BB: That's not something I follow, as you know. I don't Twitter, I don't MyFace, I don't do any of those things, so I'd probably be the last to know.

Q: In your discussions with Albert Haynesworth, have you gotten a sense of whether football is important to him? Do you think it's important to him?

BB: Of course, otherwise I don't think he would be playing football. But those are questions you can ask him. I don't want to speak for him.

Q: How do you reconcile that the guy obviously has a long rap sheet off the field, with his ability to perform on the field, the way he played in '07 and '08? How do you reconcile those two things?

BB: We did what we felt was best for the team.

Q: Did Albert pass the conditioning run yet? It was an issue in Washington last year, it's obviously going to come up again.

BB: Right. There are things we still need to do with Albert for him to be able get on the practice field and when those things are done, he'll be out there.

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