For more than 10 minutes Wednesday, the conference call with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick went as expected.
There were awkward pauses, truncated answers and a bored-out-of-his-mind monotone from the Patriots head coach, who is associated with greatness and grumpiness.
Then, however, a subject was raised that piqued Belichick’s interest and prompted an uninterrupted three-and-a-half-minute answer: As it turns out, Belichick and former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. have more in common than their slew of Super Bowl rings.
“I have tremendous respect for him -- I couldn’t really put it into words,” Belichick said near the end of a response in which he said plenty.