Bill Belichick has a gift for glowering at reporters. He gets testy, snarky, grumpy and bristly when reporters dig at topic which he would prefer went undiscussed. Even when he’s making a joke, he deadpans. And so he has made an uncountable number of headlines for his unkind treatment of reporters. But on Friday, he was actually kind of sweet to the Boston Herald’s Kevin Duffy, who is leaving the field of journalism.

A Patriots spokesman gave Duffy the chance to ask the final question of Friday’s press conference, but because they didn’t inform Duffy ahead of time, he didn’t have a question to ask.

“Stumped you, huh?” Belichick said with a big smile. “That’s ok, you’ve asked plenty of good ones in the past.”

Let’s be clear: Belichick isn’t a changed man. He took his normal approach when asked if Antonio Brown would play for the Patriots in Week 2 against the Dolphins. He dodged questions and sassed a reporter, just liked you’d expect him to do.

Even after his evasive tactics, it’s nice to see Belichick break his robotic tendencies, even for just a moment.

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