We enjoyed the hilariously awkward interview with David Letterman and Bill Belichick on Wednesday's edition of the "Late Show with David Letterman," which was, as expected, mostly an exercise in frivolity.
But was there actually some breaking news from it?
As Frank Schwab detailed previously, Letterman and Belichick volleyed around the deflate-gate silliness for a few minutes with the New England Patriots coach not giving the late-night talk show host much.
But Belichick, in what sounded like an attempt at humor, offered one interesting detail to the still-ongoing investigation into what the Patriots did and didn't know about ball pressure.
"We're gonna bring you in," Belichick said to Letterman, "to testify when we get the investigation next month."
Wait, what? Next month?
It makes some sense that with the Patriots still basking in the afterglow of a Super Bowl title and Belichick and his players embarking in the talk-show circuit — and the NFL combine next week closing fast — that there might not be a lot of time for NFL investigator Ted Wells to get an audience with Belichick, Tom Brady, the "elderly" ball boy or Bill Nye, for that matter.
But goodness, what is the darned hangup here? Looks like we'll be waiting for a while to find out if the Patriots will be fined. After all, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank all but admitted that his team pumped in fake crowd noise, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam did the same with GM Ray Farmer illegally texting down to the sideline, and we don't have any resolutions in those cases yet, either.
The difference with deflate-gate? Belichick wasn't admitting to anything Wednesday night.
But for fun, let's roll through a Top 10 list — in the Letterman tradition — of our favorite moments from Belichick's appearance:
10. Belichick clumsily high-fiving band director Paul Shaffer on his way out on the stage.
9. After sitting down, Belichick heard mostly cheers from the audience, with a few scattered boos. "I hear the Jet fans," he said to Letterman with a smile.
8. Belichick, responding to the Patriots' AFC title game win over the Indiana-bred Letterman's Indianapolis Colts: "Well, it was only a 38-point win."
7. After Letterman segued away from that game, Belichick zinged him a bit. "We get off that Colts subject in a hurry, didn’t we?"
6. Letterman imitating Belichick's mumbling "We're onto Cincinnati" statement. Funny stuff.
5. Asked by Letterman about Jonas Gray, the regular-season Colts killer who disappeared down the stretch, and whether he missed a meeting (and pressing on the issue), Belichick didn't exactly deny it. "Well," he said, laughing, giving us all we needed to know on that "Fifty Shades of Gray" issue.
4. Do fans and neighbors and armchair coaches offer up fancy plays to Belichick? Perhaps, but the coach made a funny paper-crumpling motion with his hands and said that it's harder to pass a bill through Congress than for an outsider to wedge their way into the Patriots' playbook.
3. Do Brady and Belichick hang out outside the facility? Belichick said Brady gave him a "good licking" while playing golf together at Pebble Beach.
2. Letterman making a few funny age jokes, saying Brady is his age (Letterman is 67; Brady is 37) and asking Belichick (who is 62) if he takes 90 seconds in the men's room, like the ball boy did on that fateful night.
1. Letterman referring to deflate-gate as "horseplay" and doing the whole "you know that I know that you know" routine about what actually happened. Belichick didn't bite, of course, but it was a fun bit of "Three's Company"-esque humor.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
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