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Brandon Bolden used an ‘Any Given Sunday’ analogy to explain Bill Belichick’s Patriots preparation
"If you tie your shoes a certain way, we know it."
As much as Bill Belichick’s success in New England was highlighted by star players (most prominently Tom Brady), the “Patriot Way” was also propelled forward by a wide array of smart and versatile role players.
The Patriots thrived by finding undervalued talents, and finding spots for them to fit into Belichick’s design. One of the better examples of this was a player like Brandon Bolden.
Bolden, 35, played for the Patriots in two stints between 2012 (when he signed with New England as an undrafted free agent) and 2022, leaving only for the 2018 season when he was with the Dolphins. He helped the Patriots win two Super Bowls, and became a regular special teams contributor aside from his backup running back role.
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In a recent episode of the “Raw Room” podcast alongside other former NFL players, Bolden recalled a moments from his Patriots career (among other stories).
A specific theme was in noting the attention to detail that Belichick paid, and how he prepared the team.
“Bill’s not going to put you in a situation he doesn’t think you’re going to thrive in,” Bolden explained of Belichick’s style. “So Bill’s going to [tell] you like, ‘I want you to rush this punt, but this is how I want you to rush it.'”
To illustrate his point, Bolden referenced a scene from the movie “Any Given Sunday,” in which Al Pacino (portraying the role of head coach Tony D’Amato) gives Jamie Foxx’s character specific advice about being able to diagnose a blitz.
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“You remember that scene in Any Given Sunday when the coach and Willie Beamen are walking down and he’s giving him the hint about knuckles?” Bolden explained. “That’s Bill. So Bill’s watched that much film on everybody, like if you tie your shoes a certain way, we know it.”
“Attention to detail was crazy,” he added.
On the subject of Super Bowl XLIX, when the Patriots stopped the Seahawks at the goal-line thanks to Malcolm Butler’s famous interception, Bolden acknowledged that because of Belichick’s scouting, they knew what play Seattle would run by the formation and personnel grouping.
“We ran that play for two weeks, and Malcolm did not get that s*** straight until Saturday walkthrough before the f****** game,” Bolden joked about Butler’s ability to block the specific route that he was supposed to cover (and ultimately did, resulting in the interception of Russell Wilson).
Bolden said that New England’s offense and special teams player got off the bench once they knew what the call would be at the pivotal moment.
“We all knew if they went out there with three receivers at the goal-line, we knew what f****** play was coming,” he said. “So when [they] said three-wide, and we heard goal-line three corners, we were like, ‘Oh s***.’ Because if you go back and watch it, once you see that defense go out there, you’re going to see everybody stand their a** up, not because we wanted to see what was going to happen, we knew what play they were about to run. We were going to see if Malcolm was going to f***** do it. And he did it.”
Game on the line. And Malcolm Butler steps up with an all-time INT.
— NFL (@NFL) April 14, 2020
Rewatch the @Patriots Super Bowl XLIX victory for FREE with NFL GamePass: https://t.co/3yQtk4LcnE @mac_bz pic.twitter.com/fFt3UyOe0j
As for the other Super Bowl that Bolden won in New England — Super Bowl LI, the historic comeback win against the Falcons — the ex-Patriots running back humorously summarized Belichick’s halftime response to what was at that point a massive deficit.
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“We go in the locker room, Bill looked at us with straight disgust,” Bolden remembered.
Part of New England’s secret to the comeback, as Bolden and others have noted previously, was the team’s high level of conditioning.
On that topic, Bolden gave a rundown of the “three-minute run” that became a staple of the Patriots that season.
“It’s a three-minute run. Every position group has a different time, like skill [positions], big skill, and line. Linemen had I think…400 yards. Big skill had 600, and skill positions had to get like 790,” said Bolden. “You start at the goal-line, run to the back the other end zone, and back to the goal-line. Three minutes straight. You don’t stop. You’re running three minutes to get your yardage.”
He explained that instead of introducing the conditioning drill slowly, the team “jumped off the porch with three of those things.” After doing three, three-minute sprints, players were exhausted.
Thinking back, Bolden said there was one he would “never forget.”
“I’m running with the ‘big skill,’ which is linebackers, tight ends, quarterbacks, the middle group.”
“There was nothing funnier than when I looked back and I see Tom Brady and Martellus Bennett holding each other up,” he recalled, “running like they’re in a three-legged race.”
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“‘Come on, Tom, you can’t give up,'” Bolden said, imitating Bennett. He then mimicked Brady’s response.
“‘I got you, Marty, baby.'”
Bolden joked that afterward, Bennett suffered a “full-body cramp” as soon as he got into the Patriots’ locker room.
“My dog army-crawled all the way to the f****** training room,” the former running back said of Bennett. “We said, ‘Bro, you want help?’ He said, ‘No, they gotta see what they did to me.'”
“Marty was hilarious.”
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