March 26--Bill Belichick is displeased that NFL owners have once again rejected his suggestion of adding fixed cameras to improve replay reviews.
Just how the New England Patriots coach expressed that displeasure isn't quite clear. In a widely cited report, ESPN's Adam Schefter said a source told him that Belichick went on a profane tirade while addressing the league's head of officials, Dean Blandino, and others at a closed-door meeting Tuesday in Phoenix.
"He went off," Schefter said on ESPN2's "Olbermann" show. "And the way it was explained to me, the people in the room at the time, they were laughing at it because his language was so profane and he was so incensed about it. And the NFL didn't know how to handle it."
However, Mike Florio of NBC Sports cited three sources who were at the same meeting saying that though Belichick did address the group on the matter, it was not in the manner that Schefter described.
Florio wrote: "The quote was something like, 'Let me get this straight, we can bring this game to Brazil and effing China but we can't afford to put a camera in a pylon?'" one of the sources said. Another source said he heard no profane language at all."
For years, Belichick and the Patriots have been proposing a rule change requiring the use of fixed cameras on boundary lines, but NFL owners continue to shoot them down, saying that such a system would be too difficult to implement and too expensive.
That's right. A league that generates about $6 billion in revenue can't figure out a cost-effective way to plop down a few extra cameras at its stadiums in an effort to make sure the officials get the calls right.
No matter how Belichick expressed himself at that meeting, sounds like he might have reason to be upset.
