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New England Patriots Links 5/13/10 - Patriots Make It Right With Connecticut Middle Schoolers

By Marima

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<em>Bill Belichick led the Pats contingent to Connecticut yesterday. Probably the only time I wished I were in middle school again</em>.
Bill Belichick led the Pats contingent to Connecticut yesterday. Probably the only time I wished I were in middle school again.

Paul Petrone (Norwich Bulletin) Patriots coach, player visit Lebanon Middle School.

"It was an amazing experience," physical education teacher Alyssa Fabry said. "It was a big shock to see Bill Belichick."

Belichick and Koppen talked to the students about the importance of education and living an active lifestyle. Then they answered questions, including how it felt to be a coach and how often Koppen has to exercise.

The New England Dairy Council, a sponsor of the Fuel Up to Play 60 fitness program, took responsibility for the misunderstanding. But Patriots owner Robert Kraft felt he had to do something, James said.

"I kept telling him it isn’t our fault," [Stacey James, the executive director of media relations for the Patriots] said. "But he looked at me and said, ‘Nobody cares about who is at fault, people just care about the kids.’"

Tom Brady feels all the players, himself included, need to listen more to Belichick, be more receptive to coaching and listen to what he says the team needs to do.

I think the point is we do have the best coach probably in the history of the NFL and he’s got the answers. When he comes in on a Monday morning and says this is what we need to do to win and then he comes back the next Monday morning talking about the game and says, ‘I gave you six things, and we did one of them,’ obviously it is very frustrating for everybody. Me included.

There are games where he says, ‘They are a turnover driven team. We can’t have turnovers  because they are going to capitalize and they’ve done that all season long. They are plus 12 on turnovers, they’ve scored this many points off of them, if this is what we do we are going to lose.’ And of course, I go out there on the first drive and fumble the ball. I always include myself, and I’m at the top of the list. I’ve got to have a great season in order for our team to be productive, along with everybody else. But the only person I can really control is myself...

Everyone needs to come together and it takes every single guy on the team. We need to do a better job at leadership — and believe me, I was one of the leaders last year and obviously I sucked at doing that. So I’ve got to do a better job at that and I’ve got to do a better job at quarterback, so that is what I’m prepared to do.

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