FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Bill Belichick arrived at his Wednesday news conference with two high-profile guests, former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and current Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau.

"It's great to have them here," Belichick said, smiling. "I have all the respect in the world for Tom and Tony, great coaches in their respective sports. Tony has won over 2,000 games. He wins more games in a month than I've won in my career. Tom has done a great job. I respected him with what he did here at Boston, his defensive patterns and also obviously his job in Chicago."

Belichick already had his game-plan in place for the two coaches.

"There are a lot of questions I want to ask them about running a team, getting ready for a season, and things like that," he said. "I hope they'll be able to help me out."