There is an old saying about the strength of the wolf is the pack, and I think there is a lot of truth to that. On a football team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.
The less versatile you are, the better you have to be at what you do well.
Whatever success I've had it is because I've tried to understand the situation of the player. I think the coach's duty is to avoid complicating matters.
In short, we accumulate all the information that we can accumulate, wherever that information comes from, and try to analyze it and make the best decision we can make for our football team on a case-by-case basis. It's the same for every single player; the process is the same.
I'm a football coach. I'm not a doctor ... They don't call plays, I don't do surgeries. We have a great deal here.
I am who I am. In the end, I feel that what I'm accountable for is doing a good job as a football coach.
It's time for the New England Patriots to move on and that's what our job is. And as I said, our goal is the same: to have a winning football team, to be a pillar in the community. That's what our direction is; that's what we're going to do.
My overall knowledge of football specifications, the overall process that happens on game day with the footballs is very limited. I would say that during the course of the game, I honestly never - it probably has happened on an incomplete pass or something - but I've never touched a game ball. It's not something I have any familiarity with on that.
Some guys are football smart and they're not smart in other ways. Other guys get 1500 on their SATs and can't get a double-team block right. No, that definitely, in my experience, sometimes it correlates, sometimes it doesn't. I don't think you just take it for granted.
We've been cooperative with the NFL investigation. We'll continue to do so and we will turn all our attention and focus on to the Seattle Seahawks, a very well coached, talented, tough, competitive football team.
It's the business that you guys are in too. We try to get as much information as we can and make the best decisions that we can for the football team.
I told you the one change we would make in the initial start level of the football pressure, but that's really about it.
I'm sure that any current or past player of mine would tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be: wet, sticky, cold, slippery. However bad we can make them, I make them. Any time that players complain about the quality of the footballs, I make them worse and that stops the complaining.
Some guys, football comes really easy to them; they can see what all 22 players are doing, can see what all 11 guys are doing on their side of the ball, how it all fits together. It's easy for them.
Each decision will be done on a case-by-case basis and we'll make the decision we feel is best for the New England Patriots football team.
I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am.
I was out of the country for a period of time but followed everything closely through other people in our organization and we've made the decisions that we felt were right for the football team and we'll continue to do that and be as diligent as we can going forward.
We never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever or kick with whatever we have to use and that's the way it is.
I've learned about the inflation range situation. Obviously with our footballs being inflated to the 12.5-pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit. Knowing that now, in the future we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game.
I could tell you that in my entire coaching career I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up.
To me the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pregame and we play with what's out there. That's the only way that I have ever thought about that.
Tom's [Brady] personal preferences on his footballs are something he can take about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide.
