Friday’s pool report was compiled by USA Today’s Jarrett Bell.
The New England Patriots wrapped up their Super Bowl week of practices and head coach Bill Belichick is feeling confident.
“We’re ready to go,” Belichick said. “We’ve covered everything. With a little more than 48 hours to kickoff, we’ll finish off our meetings and stuff, but we’re done on the field.”
Belichick added that the players that were limited in practice suffered no setbacks and that S Nate Ebner is continuing through concussion protocol.
Here are some other notes from Bell:
- Walkthrough: The Patriots will visit NRG Stadium on Saturday, but merely to walk the field and get acclimated to the surroundings and take a team picture. Belichick said the team would not switch hotels for the night before the game for more seclusion, as he’s done with the Patriots and other teams have done in the eve of the Super Bowl in the past.
- Consistency: If there’s a theme that Belichick wants to convey to his team in the hours before the game, it begins with continuing the patterns that have allowed the team to advance to the brink of a championship.
“We’ve done this all year,” Belichick said. “Everybody’s got a job to do. We play for each other, coach for each other. Nobody can do anybody else’s job. We all have to do what we each have to do. We’re prepared. They’ve worked hard. We need to have confidence in our teammates, which I know we do, and confidence in ourselves that we’ll do our jobs.”
- Sex Joke: For the third day in a row, the Patriots serenaded a teammate in celebrating a birthday to cap off their team huddle at the beginning of practice. On Wednesday, it was linebacker Rob Ninkovich. On Thursday, defensive tackle Malcolm Brown drew the attention. On Friday, running back James White was feted.
Belichick noted the coincidence of having so many birthdays strung together.
“Must have been something going on nine months ago, in those years,” Belichick said.
- Camera at Falcons practice: A drone was spotted at the Atlanta Falcons’ practice that belonged to someone living in a nearby neighborhood. Be prepared for some dumb discussion.