Belichick fires back at Gilmore over CB's comments about Pats exit originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Stephon Gilmore's comments last week apparently left a sour taste in Bill Belichick's mouth.
The Panthers cornerback said last Wednesday he was unhappy with how the New England Patriots handled his quad injury prior to trading him to Carolina on Oct. 6.
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"I wasn’t ready at the beginning of training camp, I’ll be completely honest with you," Gilmore said. " ... I didn’t like how they handled my situation with my injury. A lot went on with that that I didn’t agree with."
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Belichick was asked Monday morning what he thought Gilmore meant by those comments, and the Patriots head coach gave a pretty candid answer.
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"Surprised to hear him say that, because we had several meetings and laid out a plan on how he would rehab once he came back to training camp," Belichick told WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show."
"Of course, he wasn't here all spring, so we really didn’t have any idea where he was. But when he came back we had several meetings and talked about that. You’d have to ask him."
Gilmore missed all of minicamp, training camp and the preseason while recovering from a partially torn quad and began the season on the Patriots' physically unable to perform list. While Gilmore insisted he wasn't healthy to start training camp, the 31-year-old also was holding out for a reworked contract and skipped the team's spring workouts.
The Patriots never gave Gilmore his reworked contract, and it sounds like there was a disconnect between Belichick and Gilmore on both the injury and salary fronts.
That disconnect is still lingering, it seems: Gilmore caught up with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and several of his former teammates before and after Carolina's 24-6 loss to New England on Sunday but didn't interact with Belichick at all.
"No, I didn't," Belichick said when asked if he got the chance to speak with Gilmore on Sunday.
