Here's one that's not seen or heard every day. In the middle of a Super Bowl press conference, a credentialed member of the media asked Bill Belichick if he would take a selfie with him.
"Could I come up there and take a selfie with you, coach?" a Boston radio reporter, situated near the front of the room, asked the Patriots head coach on Tuesday. "Would that be OK?"
As expected, the request didn't go over well.
"Yeah, yeah we'll get that later," Belichick said, almost with a hint of a smile -- the smile alone a shocking response from the 66-year-old.
The reporter continued, saying, "Maybe if I just drop in front of the podium and you wave?"
"Next question," the moderator said.
After the bizarre request, Belichick's session remained slightly out of character for him, as the five-time Super Bowl champion cracked some more smiles and laughed during his scheduled time with reporters.
Belichick also got a laugh out of reporters when he was asked about the weather in Atlanta, where the city had been bracing for the potential of snow or ice.
"I haven't been outside this building today, so I couldn't tell you," he said. "It could be 8 feet of snow out there or it could be 95 degrees. I have no idea. Sorry."
The next question came from a reporter in Australia, when Belichick stopped and asked her, "How's things on the other side of the world?"
"Yeah, pretty good," she replied. "It's summer. About 100 degrees."
Belichick also laughed when a Chinese reporter jokingly said there are probably 30 million NFL fans in China and that 29 million of them root for the Patriots. But when that same reporter asked when Belichick might retire, noting that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has previously said he wants to play until he's 45, Belichick came back to earth, giving his standard response.
"Well, I certainly appreciate the support from our Patriots fans in China," Belichick said. "That's awesome. Yeah, right now, I'm really just focused on trying to help our team do the best job I can to prepare our team for the Rams. Not going to really worry about anything else besides that. I've hit the 45-year-old milestone myself as a coach, so long past that. But as far as the future goes, right now the future for me is Sunday, Sunday night against the Rams."
Meanwhile, at the Rams team hotel on Tuesday, coach Sean McVay has already fielded a question about potentially visiting the White House if the Rams win the Super Bowl on Sunday.
"I think that the biggest thing is if we're fortunate enough to win this game then we talk about what's next with regards to those steps, and that's exactly how we will approach it," McVay said. "The first thing is we've got to win this game, and that's going to be a great challenge for us, so that's really kind of where we're at. We're solely focused on trying to win the game against an excellent football team that's been doing it as well as anybody over the last handful of years. The luxuries or some of the opportunities that are presented as a result of winning that are things we'll have to filter through the organization after this."
