New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick received a gift from one of his players on Sunday, but he was not exactly a gracious recipient. Patriots rookie safety and special-teamer Brenden Schooler handed his head coach the football after a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter during the Patriots' 38-15 victory against the Cleveland browns at FirstEnergy Stadium, and Belichick did not know what to do with the present.
After he went over to the sideline, Schooler found Belichick and silently handed him the recovered football. Looking confused, the typically emotionless coach immediately handed the ball off to someone else on the sideline, who then gave the ball back to Schooler.
Take a look at the awkward, yet funny, exchange:
Rookie Brendan Schooler tries to give Belichick his fumble recovery. Belichick wasn’t having it pic.twitter.com/Z63qErocby
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) October 16, 2022
At the time, what Schooler expected Belichick to do with the ball is a mystery and there was no way Belichick would keep the souvenir in his hands while he continued to coach the game.
Schooler than explained his reasoning, saying he was excited to help his head coach win against the team where he first became a head coach.
"I was just trying to … it was obviously a big game for him coming back to Cleveland," Schooler said laughing, in the locker room after the game, per NESN.com. "So, just a nice gesture: 'Here's the game ball.' But I think I was a little too excited and should've waited until after."
With the win, Belichick tied George Halas for second-most wins by a head coach in NFL history and Schooler in part was celebrating that as well.
"I think it's a little bit of everything," Schooler said. "And it's just like, you know, you obviously want to win on the road especially. It's a big win on the road for us. It just happened to be in Cleveland this week. So, just trying to, you know, know the situation."
He did regret immediately running up to Belichick, admitting that maybe he should have gone about things in a different way.
"But I think I should've waited a couple of minutes to go give it to him," he said, still laughing.
Schooler joined the Patriots as an undrafted free agent this offseason. This was his first fumble recovery of his NFL career and he was clearly excited about it.
