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After trading out of the first round, Belichick
was set to make his second-round pick from a relatively spare
home workstation, as coaches across the league settled in for
the evening under coronavirus lockdown.
But as the camera cut to the his compound, it was a friendly
pooch named Nike and not the grim-faced, eight-time Super Bowl
winner who appeared to be calling the shots, sitting in the
coach's chair with its eyes glued to a laptop0.
"Who's taken Belichick's chair there?" the television announcer
said, as the Patriots fetched Kyle Dugger 37th overall out of
Division-II Lenoir-Rhyne University.
As the draft rolled onward, the camera cut back to Belichick as
he gave the dog a treat, no doubt pleased with its selection of
the 24-year-old safety.
NFL experts, analysts and fans immediately seized on the moment,
after a Thursday night opener that went smoothly but offered
little in the way of surprises.
"I just want Bill Belichick to trade me his dog," tweeted @bridgetbaseball.
"A Division II second-rounder shows Bill Belichick can sniff out
talent anywhere," wrote @JennyVrentas, a senior writer for
Sports Illustrated.
The draft, taken indoors and onto a "virtual" format for the
first time to accommodate social distancing regulations, is
among the rare few live sports events remaining on the
professional sports calendar, drawing record viewership on its
first round Thursday.
(Reporting By Amy Tennery; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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