FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Friday that headset malfunctions are common and that he wouldn't get into a back-and-forth with Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, whose club, despite an earlier report, said it would not file a complaint with the NFL about equipment failure in Thursday night's opener.
Tomlin was fuming after the game about the Steelers' headset malfunctions, saying coaches were listening to the Patriots' radio broadcast for much of the first half.
Belichick said that the Patriots had similar issues and detailed some of them Friday.
"There's a lot of stuff down there, the coach-to-quarterback stuff, offense and defense, there is the headsets to the press box, the tablets," Belichick said. "Just as an example, we had some problems in the first half and then it seemed to be OK. Then we got to the end of the game and most of the problems we had were our last two possessions on offense and defense.
"Sometimes it goes along and it's fine, and then for some reason something happens and then you go to the guys on the sideline, the blue hats or purple hats, whatever they're called, and you tell them about it. They fix it. I don't really know enough about technology to know how any of that works. But that's how it goes."
Belichick noted that the Patriots hard-wired "a couple" of headsets during the game "to kind of eliminate the wireless part of it."
"It's not an uncommon problem," he said. "We ended up having to signal some of our plays offensively [when] we couldn't get them in. We look at it as something you have to be ready for every week and we practice it. So, home, away, I don't really think there is any common denominator on that."
Then, without prompting, Belichick referenced "a couple things from earlier in the week."
"I just think overall, it's kind of sad really to see some stories written that obviously have an agenda to them, with misinformation and anonymous-type comments. You know, writing about warm drinks and trash cans and stuff like that. I think it's a sad commentary, and I think it's gone to a pretty low level. It's sunk pretty deep," he said.
An article in Sports Illustrated that highlighted suspicions opponents have about the Patriots noted that an AFC team "has brought its own sports drinks because the ones the Patriots supply are often late, warm or both."
The story also detailed how "teams commonly clear out trash cans in their hotel meeting rooms in New England because they believe the Patriots go through them."
Belichick might have also had an Outside the Lines/ESPN The Magazine investigation, published the same day, in mind when he publicly defended his team Friday. The story details a long history between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and revealed new details on how Goodell's handling of the Patriots' Spygate scandal might have influenced his actions in Deflategate.
"First of all, I'd just say I think our program here is built on competition and trying to improve every day and trying to work hard. It's not built on excuses. We just try to go to work and improve and find a way to get better," Belichick said.
"This organization has won a lot of games. Particularly in reference to the great teams from '01, '03, '04, back in there, and all the great players that played on those teams -- Ty Law, [Lawyer] Milloy, Otis Smith, Rodney Harrison, [Tedy] Bruschi, [Larry] Izzo, [Willie] McGinest, [Mike] Vrabel, [Anthony] Pleasant, [Richard] Seymour, Matt Light, [Joe] Andruzzi, Steve Neal, [Deion] Branch, Troy Brown, [Tom] Brady, Antowain Smith, Kevin Faulk, Corey Dillon, Lonie Paxton, [Adam] Vinatieri. To take away from what those guys accomplished, what those teams accomplished, how good they were, how many great players we had, how well they played in big games, how consistently they showed up and made big plays and game-winning plays, it's just not right. Those guys, they were great players. And many more; those are a few of them. And great teams."