Belichick on Big Show: No red hoodie

Patriots coach Bill Belichick appeared as a guest on The Big Show on Monday and answered the question everyone has been worried about: Will he wear the red hoodie like he did in Super Bowl XLII?

"By popular demand we definitely won't be seeing the red one," Belichick said. "In all honesty I really don't may that much attention to it, I swear I don't. People ask me after the game why did you wear the blue one, why did you wear the gray one? I just put on whatever is there. There was a red one in my locker at the Super Bowl, I put it on, we lost the game. All right, so we're not going to wear that one again. I kind of think there was more to it than that, but anyway, it's honestly not something I give a lot of thought to, but I won't wear red one this year."

Moving on to more pressing topics, Belichick was asked about the comparisons between that game and this year's matchup with the Giants. Even though more than 75 percent of the players have changed from that game, the coach said there are some similarities. 

"The Giants are the Giants and they've been pretty consistent through the years going back to the 07 season," Belichick said. "We've played them every year since then in preseason. The coaching staff is similar, they've changed defensive coordinators, there's some carryover with some of the players and overall I'd say the schemes they've used have been similar even though they've had different guys in those positions. That's a lot of water under the bridge in those four years and I think this game is really about this game. It's not about something that happened four years ago."

On the issue of tight end Rob Gronkowski, who has not been able to practice since injuring his ankle in the AFC championship game, Belichick was asked about the health update given by the player's father, Gordy, who said his son had a high ankle sprain. 

"Was that from Dr. Gronkowski?" Belichick joked. "We're just focused on what we do and there are a lot of things that get said outside of our team by lots of people. We can't worry or control those. We worry about what we can control, what everybody else does is out of our hands."

Asked whether he thought Gronkowski would practice, Belichick played it coy. "We'll take it day by day," he said.

On the Giants, Belichick said that his staff has been able to review all their games because of the way the schedule has worked out this season.

"We played them in the fourth preseason game so we saw all their preseason games. We played them in the sixth regular-season game so we had all those games, and now 10 games after that with an extra week to prepare so basically we've got all the games," he said. "Without those previous games in the bank it's hard to get back to all those or if you do get back to them. It's a little bit of diminishing returns in how much value there is in a game that was 22 weeks ago."

One thing that has stood out for Belichick has been the ability of Giants receivers Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks to break tackles and make yards after the catch.

"[Cruz] and Nicks both are both very good runners with the ball in their hands. It isn't so much the 10 yards after the catch that worries you, it's the 60 yards after the catch like they've been getting or 90 yards after the catch in the Jets game," Belichick said. "Those guys have been doing it every week. There's no question tackling is a huge issue. It's a huge issue with [Ahmad] Bradshaw, too." 

For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots. To hear the interview, go to The Big Show audio on demand page.