Early indication is Light’s injury not season-ending
Published: December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Bill Belichick, Matt Light, New England Patriots
Patriots coach Bill Belichick indicated on Monday that the shoulder injury suffered by LT Matt Light, which kept him out the majority of the win over the Raiders, wasn’t of the season-ending variety. Light left the game during the second quarter after he was injured making a run block, and did not return.
“It’s still pretty early here in the week,” Belichick said. “We’ll see how it goes, but I’m sure at this time of year everybody is less than 100 percent. We’ve got a lot of guys with bumps and bruises and are sore and all that. … But no, there’s nothing that I would say from the end of the game yesterday till today that I know is going to be of the major season ending nature. That could all change too but right now we’re just revaluating.”
As for Belichick, he joined some exclusive company with Sunday’s win. Belichick won his 100th career regular-season game with the Patriots (a franchise record), reaching the mark in his 142nd game to become the fourth-fastest in NFL history to do it with one team. He trails only John Madden (136), Don Shula (137) and Paul Brown (138).
Those who know the admiration that Belichick holds for his coaching predessesors like Brown know that it’s a mark that likely means a lot to the understated Belichick.
“It’s nice to have those wins,” he said when asked about the mark. “When I started coaching or even became a head coach I never really pictured myself as winning that many games or being in the company that some of those wins put me in. I’ve been very fortunate to have coached a lot of great players and have a lot of great assistants on my staff for those wins. I just did my small part as all of them did theirs and, collectively, those wins really belong to the teams that got them.
“As I said, I’m fortunate to be a part of those and I certainly appreciate all the success that’s come. There have been so many people that contributed to all of those that it’s not really an individual thing, but it would be nice to add one more on Sunday.”