Does Bill Belichick still deal with pre-game jitters? It’s a question that was asked during Friday’s press conference ahead of the AFC Championship Game.
“Yeah,” he said Friday morning, per Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston. “Every week.”
When asked if he feels it more before a game like Sunday’s against Kansas City, Belichick quipped, “They all count in this league. Just lemme know the next game that doesn’t matter so I can take that into account. Just lemme know the ones that don’t matter I’ll make sure I don’t get excited for those.”
Classic, snarky Bill.
On a more serious note, Belichick dove into the question a bit more with a thoughtful reply.
“Nervous,” he agreed. “Sure. You want to go out there and do well. There’s an anxiety, we all have things in the game that we have to do. You want to perform well and not let your team down. Everybody’s counting on you to do your job, you’re counting on them to do theirs. You don’t worry about everybody else, you just worry about doing what you can do and making sure you don’t screw up what you’re supposed to do and you’re responsible for. Because nobody else can do that. That’s your job. We all have jobs to do and we all want to do them well.”
Belichick by the numbers: Of course, this head coach has had more success than any other in modern NFL history.
Goes to show you that success doesn’t diminish nerves, even at the highest of levels.