Vince Wilfork says Bill Belichick made practices fun, explains why he's the best coach ever

Matthew West | Boston Herald

From an outsider's perspective, one wouldn’t expect New England Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick to make practices ‘fun.’

From his infamous, “On to Cincinnati” press conference to his “No Days Off” mantra, it’s easy to see why we would all think this.

But when former Patriots’ defensive tackle Vince Wilfork recently joined a Barstool Sports podcast, he offered a whole new outlook on Coach Belichick and why he’s the greatest coach of all time.

Here’s some of what Wilfork had to say in his episode of “Pardon My Take:”

“He’s funny, and he enjoys what he does,” Wilfork said, “That’s one thing people don’t understand about Belichick is he’s so down to earth. He’s such a good dude. His players love him. He knows how to turn a key to get you to get right, and then he also knows how to back off and have fun. That’s one thing I always noticed, and we always had fun at practice. I always had fun at practice.”

“Friday would be our cool down day and a light practice, and we would always kick the ball off,” Wilfork continued, “And he’d have the team, we’d all cover the kick, like a kickoff team. Every day, I would go to Bill and say, ‘I’m gonna make the tackle.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you’re not gonna make the tackle.’ So, every day we would bet some type of food or something, pushups or anything. We would bet something if I would make the tackle or not. That tradition carried on throughout – they probably still do it now.”

“That was just a side of Bill understanding and having fun with his teammates. Even if it was something conditioning-wise, we’d always have fun doing it. He made the game fun, but at the same time he’d make it tough for you, too. It’s a reason he’s the greatest coach of all time, because he can relate to his players.”

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