Bill Belichick Press Conference: Patriots Coach Talks Super Bowl 2012 [FULL TEXT]

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addressed the media before and after the Super Bowl 2012 game that saw his New England team lose to the New York Giants, 17-21.

In his first press conference, Belichick was noticeably more relaxed and forthcoming than usual. After the Patriots' loss, however, the coach was back to his characteristically dour demeanor.

Get full transcripts of both press conferences below, and see what Belichick has to say about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, the possibility retirement and what he would have done differently at the Super Bowl XLVI game.

Pre-Game Transcript, Feb. 2, 2012:

Belichick was noticeably more relaxed and more talkative at the Super Bowl pre-game press conference than he usually is, praising Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and showing no signs that he's considering retiring from NFL football anytime soon. Read his opening statement and responses at the pre-game press conference below.

BILL BELICHICK OPENING STATEMENT:

It's been a good week for our football team here in Indianapolis. The city and the accommodations all the way around, the practice facility, the hotel - everything here has been really outstanding.

I think our team has enjoyed the week here. We've had a good week of preparation. I know we've got a big challenge here Sunday against the Giants, [a] great football team, well-coached, a lot of outstanding players.

Of course, we faced them earlier in the season, so we have a good sense of that.

I feel like our team has had a good week. I feel like we'll be ready to go, and we're looking forward, excited to be representing the AFC in this game. It's a big challenge for us, but one that we're excited to face.

BILL BELICHICK Q & A:

What makes his working relationship with owner Robert Kraft so successful?

Robert and I first worked together in 1996 when Coach (Bill) Parcells was here and I got to--I met Robert and the organization and so forth, then came back in 2000.

I feel like we have a good working relationship, a good personal relationship, and he's been very supportive in things that I've asked him to do. I feel like organizationally we're on the same page. We try to have a competitive football team, a competitive organization in every area, and I'm hopefully looking forward to doing that in the future, continuing that.

Has this Super Bowl week experience been any different, since he hasn't been to one in a while?

Every Super Bowl is special, and it's a real privilege to be involved. I know this is my eighth one as a head or assistant coach, but it's what you work for all year going all the way back to February or March when you start putting your team together and training camp and all the meetings.

It's like 111 practices a year, or whatever it is, but it's a long haul. To be able to get here is what you work for, so it's a great experience.

Each one is different. They're all special, and it's really a great reward for all the hard work and competitive success that we've had on the field throughout the course of the year to be able to be here and represent our conference in this great game.

Happy to be here. Very happy to be here.

Any possibility that a win on Sunday could make him decide that it's the right time to retire?

Right now, I'm really thinking, What's the best thing I can do to help our football team on Sunday against the Giants?

I want to really try to do a good job in the job that I have. I enjoy all the aspects of the job. I enjoy the team-building, the drafting, the free agents, team acquisitions - those kind of things. I enjoy bringing in the young players and working with guys who haven't been in the NFL and teaching them the basic fundamentals in how to become a professional football player for the New England Patriots. I enjoy working with the veteran players, the Tom Bradys and the Vince Wilforks and the Wes Welkers and all those kind of players that can do really special things because of their not only talent, but experience.

I enjoy the competition on a weekly basis. Not just on Sundays, but the preparation leading up into the game. I enjoy all of it. It beats working. It's fun to address those challenges on a daily basis, so right now I'm really focused on the game and that's where my energy is going to go, toward doing the best I can for the New England Patriots against the Giants on Sunday.

On tight end Rob Gronkowski's injury status:

I think he was OK this morning. I think he was OK. I don't think we had any setbacks.

We'll see how it goes out there today, but I think that he's been on a--Rob's worked extremely hard. He's gotten treatment morning, noon, and night, and he's gotten better on a daily basis.

Hopefully we'll be able to continue that same process today, tomorrow, and all day Sunday. We'll see where that takes us, but I think he's coming along. We'll just have to see where he gets to, but we're certainly moving in the right direction and getting better on a daily basis.

What does it mean to share a spot in the record books with Tom Brady?

There's no quarterback I'd rather have than Tom Brady. He's a tremendous player and competitor. It's been a real privilege for me to coach him during his career with the New England Patriots.

Then again, as far as looking back and putting it into some kind of historical perspective and all that, I think we'll leave that to another time and right now just focus on our game with the Giants.

On what Ron Gronkowski was able to do in practice on Feb. 2, 2012:

He practiced on a limited basis. He did some of the things that we did in practice, but not all of them. Is that the elaboration you were looking for? [laughs]

What will the team be doing tonight and tomorrow?

We will be in our team hotel, yes. I don't know if that's downtown or not. It's kind of semi-downtown, but yeah, we'll be there.

Today we'll have kind of a Friday/Saturday type of practice and then tomorrow we'll go over to the stadium. We'll do team pictures. We'll do some things in our Saturday night meeting and be ready to go on Sunday. We're kind of combining these next couple days into a one where it's an extended type of Saturday preparation.

What is the impact of a longer halftime for Super Bowl 2012?

My experience with the longer halftime has been that you go out and you play the first half. Normally our halftime is 12 minutes and this halftime will be closer to 30, so two and a half times as long.

I think it really gets into a whole restarting mentality. It's not like taking a break and coming out in the second half. It's like starting the game all over again. It's like playing a game, stopping, and then playing a second game. It's like a double-header in baseball, if you will.

I think that makes it a little bit different, and we tried to simulate that in practice on Wednesday where we had the players go through that process of restarting.

It's the kind of thing you can have a meeting about, you can talk about, and this is what it's going to be like, that's what it's going to be like, this is what you need to do. I just felt that it was beneficial for our team this year to actually put them through that. Go out there and warm up, practice, take a break, shut it down for a half hour, go into the locker room, simulate what a half time would be in terms of corrections, adjustments and restarting our bodies, both mentally and physically to restart the game with Here's how we are going to start the second half, here's the plays we're going to run, here's the things they did to hurt us, here's the things we have to be ready for, things like that.

We just tried to go through that process on a time frame more like it's going to be this week than what it's been in other games this season.

On making a case for Bill Parcells to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Committee:

A couple people have asked me about that. I guess they were on the committee.

Absolutely, Bill has done a tremendous job in his time in the National Football League, really taking five organizations from not a very high point to a very high point.

I was with him in three of those organizations and saw from a different perspective what he did in Dallas and Miami and those areas. Bill is a tremendous coach, a great influence in my career and on me personally.

I think he's had tremendous accomplishments in the game, not only his record but also his development of players and coaches and just the impact to the National Football League.

In my time as a coach in the National Football League, not getting back to coaches that I just barely overlapped with, or didn't overlap with at all, I would say of the coaches that I've been with over this time, either with or competing against, I would certainly put him right up there at the top. I learned an awful lot from him and think he's done a tremendous job and had a tremendous career. I can't imagine him being left out of the group.

On how much 'no-huddle' the Patriots ran against the Giants on Nov. 6, 2011: how has the 'no-huddle offense' been a weapon for the Patriots this season?

We used it some in that game, with varying degrees of success. I think there were some things that went well and other things that could have been better.

Overall, it's been a change of pace for us. I think it forces the defenses to play at a different tempo where they can't fall into a natural rhythm. They have to be ready for things to speed up, be ready for things to slow down and have different personnel groups. It just puts a little more stress on our defensive opponents to prepare for more things, more personnel groups, faster pace, change of formation, communication, things like that.

If we can do it better than they can, it's an advantage. If it slows us down or if it hinders us in some aspect in being able to attack our opponents, we won't use that and do something else.

How do you operate the week before Super Bowl Sunday? Can you sleep normally?

Slept like a baby. Honestly, I usually do during the season. I start early and have a full day of things that I need to do to prepare myself and prepare the team.

When it gets to the early part of the evening or so, I'm usually kind of getting worn out and go to bed, sleep well, wake up in the morning and start fresh. At the end of the day, I'm tired and have no problem rolling and putting my head on that pillow and I'm out. Post-Game Transcript, Feb. 5 2012:

The Patriots coach was back to his usual, more brusque mode of speaking at the press conference after the Super Bowl on Sunday. He gave the New York Giants a few words of praise for their stellar comeback, made a few terse statements to the press, and left the podium. Read his opening statement and his brief responses below.

BILL BELICHICK OPENING STATEMENT:

First of all, congratulations [New York] Giants. Won a championship, they're a good football team and they're well coached. They obviously played well tonight. Very competitive football game, they just made a couple more plays then we did.

By the way our guys played, fought, fought all year, fought tonight, and we had our chances. We just couldn't quite make enough plays. Giants made a few more than we did. Really isn't too much more to say about [Super Bowl XLVI]. Can't fault the effort of any of our players. They played as hard as they could, we could have just played a tiny bit better.

It was obviously a very competitive football game.

BILL BELICHICK Q &A:

His thoughts about the safety:

It's not my call.

On if he allowed the Giants to score that touchdown at the end: Right.

On if he can take them through his thought process on letting them score the touchdown:

No. Ball was inside the 10-yard line, a 90 percent field goal conversion.

What plays they could have done better on:

There was 100 plays you could be talking about and I would take a lot of them.

If he's second guessing anything he did on Super Bowl Sunday:

Sure, could have done a better job in a lot of things.

On what he could have done better as a coach: