For the 23 years that Bill Belichick was head coach of the New England Patriots it seemed the organization was vacuum sealed, but ever since his retirement there seems to be more and more stories of team ongoings that get out to us in the public. In all fairness, most of it has to do with the Pat McAfee Show and Julian Edelman's podcast called
Games With Names , but still, hearing that there was actually life inside the locker rooms and that it wasn't a prison camp makes a lifelong hater like me start to question the reasons for my distain of them. The latest story that crossed my feed was former offensive tackle Matt Light talking with Edelman about some on-premise activities that were looked on less than favorably by team administration. Gillette Stadium is located in Foxborough, Massachusetts and just to the south of the complex is a farm, with a small patch of woods connecting the two. Well, apparently there's a decent amount of wildlife living in said woods and Light took note and decided to start scoping out the area for some turkeys. According to him, he hunted that area for years and it was never a problem until a security guard spotted him one day and ratted on him to his superiors, though Light claims he had a soft greenlight of sorts from team owner Robert Kraft:
"I hunted that property forever cause Mr. Kraft was like "I mean look... I don't know anything about what you're doing." I'm like alright cool, it was like a green light, right? So I would hunt right behind the stadium where that Lawton's farm, close to that, right? And they're great people." Well, all was fine until one day where his little secret was discovered and he wound up getting quite a talking to by none other than Bill Belichick:
"I went one morning... this is in the offseason and I go to set up and one of the security guys comes over, you know the guy with like the weird lazy eye? He's like "Hey man, you can't be here." And I'm like "Huh?" I'm like "No, I'm gonna park right over here, I'm gonna go in here and kill this bird, I roosted him last night, like I know where he's at." By the way it's 3 in the morning, it's dark... I got my backpack, I got my bow and everything ready to rock, and he's like "No, Briggs (Patriot's director of security) said you can't be here." So, I'm like "Hey listen" cause you know Briggs lives like right around the corner... I said "If Briggs doesn't want me here, go wake his ass up and tell him to come out here cause you're not stopping me and I'm walking right there." As you may have guessed, Light did in fact walk into the woods and harvest a turkey, which he breasted out and put in the meal room fridge like he always did. He also said the team chefs would sometimes cook him up something really nice with it... which, let's be honest, is pretty cool. But that day's issues were far from over and Light soon found himself going toe-to-toe with Belichick over the property's hunting rules:
"As I'm eating breakfast, Bill walks in and he's like "I mean look, you know what are we doing? You can't have a f***ing weapon on stadium property." And I go "What?" I go "Hey Bill, the reason you're hearing about this is cause, you know, Briggs is a dickhead." I'm like "I've hunted this thing forever" and he's like "I don't give a damn what you've done, you can't have a weapon on stadium property." I go "Bill! It says you can't have a handgun. You can't have a gun... I didn't shoot a gun I had a bow and arrow." He goes, and this is awesome, "You want to argue with me about what the rules say?" I mean, the guy's pretty good about knowing what the rules are, not gonna lie to you." Light then went to his last ditch resort argument for him being allowed to have a bow and arrow on stadium property:
"I go "Okay Bill, [flexing] so I check Jack Johnson and Tom O'Leary at the door too? ... these are deadly!" Not the best case made for himself and that was the last time he hunted that stadium property, showing yet again just how dominant of a man Belichick was amongst the savages in his locker room. I'm team letting the guys hunt but you also have to respect Belichick for laying down the law when push came to shove. I hate that I'm enjoying Patriots stories this much... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkFdNKtPVhc
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