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          New England Patriots

          Bill Belichick crashes NFL combine broadcast, chats with Willie McGinest

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          Depth a factor to watch heading into draft (1:06)

          Louis Riddick points to the impressiveness of the TE group while Mark Dominik touts the overall quality of depth as the biggest storylines that stuck out from the Combine. (1:06)

          • Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff WriterMar 5, 2017, 07:10 PM
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              Mike Reiss is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the New England Patriots. Reiss has covered the Patriots since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2009. In 2019, he was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. You can follow Reiss on Twitter at @MikeReiss.
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          FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick "crashed" NFL Network's combine broadcast Sunday afternoon, spending time in the press box and then taking host Rich Eisen's headset so he could chat with NFLN reporter Willie McGinest on the field.

          Belichick and McGinest go way back, of course. McGinest played for the Patriots from 1994-2005.

          "Willie, how are you doing, man?" Belichick asked. "I'm up here in the press box, where I'm usually not."

          "Hey Coach, you're pretty much VIP all over the place these days," McGinest responded.

          Belichick, who was wearing a VI Rings sweatshirt, then told McGinest he hasn't been in a press box since 1996 when he was a special assistant/secondary on Bill Parcells' Patriots staff.

          At that point, analyst Mike Mayock, whom Belichick has spoken highly of over the years, asked McGinest about his best memories with Belichick. The two reminisced a bit, with Belichick reflecting on his best memories of McGinest, recalling two games against the Indianapolis Colts. With the combine held in Indianapolis, the memories were timely.

          "You know, Willie, one of my best memories is right here on this field [the old RCA Dome] when you made the short-yardage stop against the Colts [in 2003]," Belichick said. "And then the next year, we opened with them, and you made the sack that took [Mike] Vanderjagt out of field-goal range. I think that's where [Mike] Vrabel got them on the fake timeout, too, and then they changed the rule on that. But anyway, you got the Colts back to back, two years in a row -- here and in Foxborough."

          That led to laughter from Mayock, with McGinest joking that when he talks about those plays, he doesn't receive top-level service in Indianapolis.

          Belichick took that one and ran with it.

          "Trust me, Willie, when I came to Indianapolis, they threw stuff at me, yelled at me and everything else. Then when I went for it on fourth-and-2 [in 2009] and we got stopped, ever since then it's been 'Hey Coach, good to see ya. How is it going?'"

          Lots of smiles and laughter after that one.