Bill Belichick pushed for NFL rule changes in pre-Super Bowl interview with CBS

"I think as a coach you should be able to challenge that."

February 3, 2019

1 minute to read

https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS/status/1092183609056870405

Before heading into his ninth Super Bowl as head coach of the Patriots, Bill Belichick sat down with Bill Cowher and Phil Simms of CBS for a pregame chat.

Among the subjects discussed was the NFL’s replay policy. Belichick has been a consistent advocate for making all calls reviewable in a game.

“To me, if you see a play that’s just a bad play, it’s just a missed call, I think as a coach you should be able to challenge that,” Belichick said in the CBS pregame interview. “And if you want to challenge holding, they can go back and look at it. If you don’t think it’s holding, then ok.”

On the subject of the controversial non-call in the NFC Championship (which helped the Rams get to Super Bowl LIII), Belichick maintained that his view applied to any situation along those lines.

“Well if the coach had an opportunity, he could review any play,” Belichick explained. “I’m not for more challenges, I’m not for more – because so many of the plays will be replayed anyway, because of the officials, and scoring plays and their rules, but I don’t understand the two minute thing either. It’s the same thing. If I have a timeout, I can’t challenge the play, but if I take a timeout, I know that during the timeout, they’ll look at it. And if they feel it needs to be…so it’s just kind of, well we all just want to get it right.”