No one ever expects Bill Belichick to smile or laugh, much less to jump on television for live coverage of the NFL Combine and crack jokes. But that’s exactly what he did on Sunday when he popped in the NFL Network booth with Rich Eisen and Mike Mayock.

Eisen and Mayock were talking with fellow NFLN colleague Willie McGinest, who was down on the field during defensive linemen drills, when they announced they had a pal of McGinest’s coming into the booth. To everyone’s surprise, Belichick was in the press box (“where I’m usually not,” he said), hanging out.

“I hadn’t been in a press box since New England in ‘96, when I coached the secondary,” Belichick said.

The two then went back and forth about some memories, and Belichick pointed out that in a game at the old RCA Dome in Indianapolis, McGinest once stuffed a short-yardage play late (he tackled Edgerrin James at the 1-yard line in 2003 on fourth-and-1 to win 38-34), and the Patriots would go on to make the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. The next year, McGinest help beat the Colts in New England during the first week of the season as well. 

McGinest noted that he doesn’t like to tell stories about taking out the Colts while he’s in Indy, for obvious reasons.

“Coach you know when I talk about those Colts stories here, the service becomes a little slower, I don’t get my room made up as fast. It’s not a warm welcome, so I don’t tell those stories when I’m here,” McGinest said.

Belichick -- who, by the way, is wearing a VI Rings sweatshirt while in Indy -- then noted that he’s been more than welcome in Indy ever since he decided to go for it on a short-down play late with the Pats leading the Colts by 6. He probably meant the infamous “Fourth-and-2” play from November 2009, or, as Pete Prisco likes to call it, “Fourth and Jackass.”

“When I came to Indianapolis, they, everything, threw stuff at me, yelled at me and everything else,” Belichick said. “Then when I went on it for fourth-and-1 and got stopped, ever since then it’s been ‘Hey coach, good to see you, how’s it going?’”

The Colts wouldn’t actually win the whole thing that year, but they did go 14-2 and make it to the Super Bowl. The Patriots would finish 10-6 and lose to the Ravens in the first round of the playoffs (you may recall Ray Rice ripping off a huge run to start the game).