Bill Belichick predictably declines comment on Dolphins' tampering with Tom Brady

FOXBORO -- Whenever NFL news breaks, everybody in football tends to weigh in and react. Everybody but Bill Belichick, that is.

Whenever he is speaking  to the media, the Patriots' head coach tends to mind his own business and maintain a very narrow focus on his own work. Anything that doesn't directly impact his team on a given day typically is a topic that Belichick won't address. 

And even though Tuesday's big news did involve the Patriots, Belichick did not care to offer an opinion of any kind on the NFL announcing that the Miami Dolphins tampered with Tom Brady before and after the 2019 season, Brady's final year in New England.

"Yeah, I'm not really worried about that. I'm just trying to have a good training camp here," Belichick said when asked about the NFL's ruling.

"Yeah, I'm focused on training camp here," Belichick said when asked if he "had any idea" that the Dolphins were tampering with his quarterback in 2019. "That's all in the past."

The Dolphins on Tuesday were stripped of a first-round pick and a third-round pick, while owner Stephen Ross was suspended for six weeks of the season and vice chairman/partner Bruce Beal was suspended for the 2022 season. The NFL concluded that Brian Flores' claims of the Dolphins tampering with Brady were true, with commissioner Roger Goodell stating the violations were "of unprecedented scope and severity."

Brady played the 2019 season with the Patriots after he and the team agreed to a contract that would void at the end of the league year, thus making him a free agent. The Dolphins' contact with Brady began in August of 2019, according to the NFL, and picked up again after the Patriots lost in the wild card round to the Titans the following winter.