FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- One of my favorite things to do each week is to watch the locker-room video after victories posted by the New England Patriots on their official website. While obviously edited, it still provides an essence of the mood of the room and sometimes delivers a behind-the-scenes nugget of note.
From this past Sunday, after the 30-23 win over the New York Jets, my curiosity was piqued when Bill Belichick shook the hand of one guest and said, "Thank you. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything you do for us."
To which the guest replied, "This is a special place."
The guest, it turns out, was Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.
He was in town for the game as a special guest of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, here to commission a new submarine, the USS Massachusetts, which was done at the team's Patriots Hall of Fame on Friday.
Belichick's ties with the Naval Academy are well documented.
