After missing the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the normally taciturn head coach of the New England Patriots opened up to the Golf Channel to relate that he had been commiserating with his quarterback, Tom Brady, as well as the Denver Broncos’ Peyton Manning, about the added pressures that come from golf as a game where individuals must succeed on their own.
After missing the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in California in February, Bill Belichick, the normally taciturn head coach of the National Football League’s New England Patriots, opened up in an interview with the Golf Channel about how golf has “much more pressure” than football.
As reported by Kevin Patra in an Around the League posting on NFL.com, Belichick said in the interview that he had been commiserating with Tom Brady, the Patriots’ quarterback, as well as Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Super Bowl-losing Denver Broncos, about how much more difficult golf was for them, compared to football.
“Yeah, I mean there is a lot more pressure here playing golf because it’s just you,” Belichick told the Golf Channel. “I was talking to Tom and Peyton, [because] I played [with] both of them this week, [and] we were just commenting on how much easier it is to play football where we sort of know what we’re doing versus coming out here, where it’s just you, no teammates.
“It’s just you standing over the putt or you standing on the tee and everybody watching. It’s a lot more pressure,” he added.
The one thing that makes it a bit easier for Belichick when he struggles on the course, he added, is that the golf fans at Pebble Beach are far less hostile than the ones he encounters in NFL stadiums—even at the Patriots’ home field, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
“The difference is in football, if it’s third-and-5, and we gain four yards at home, the fans boo,” he said. “Here, no matter how far into the woods you hit it, probably the worst you’ll get is an, ‘Ooooooooooooooooooh.’ The fans aren’t quite as intense.”
In an interview with CBS Sports during a weather delay, Brady, who was in Belichick’s foursome for three rounds of the tournament, also noted an aspect of playing golf, especially when his head coach is present, that he prefers over football.
“[Belichick] doesn’t yell at me out here like he does during the weeks of practice,” Brady said, getting laughs from all who heard.
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