New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick only smiled seven times this year

Most NFL coaches who were able to guide their team to a great record and a first round bye in the playoffs would be happy about it, but New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is clearly not like most coaches.

Now there’s proof.

The Wall Street Journal analyzed 114.5 minutes of video footage from every Patriots postgame news conference this season and counted only seven smiles from the typically somber Belichick.

By the numbers, Belichick smiled only once every 16 minutes and this was during a year when his team won 12 games and finished first in the AFC East. To look at it another way, that’s substantially less than a smile per win.

Here are a couple of the things that got Belichick to turn his frown upside down, per the Wall Street Journal.

“After beating the Saints in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion, Belichick smiled when he opened the meeting with an apology for forcing the reporters to rewrite their game stories He then frowned for the next 13 minutes.”

“Former Patriot linebacker Rosevelt Colvin surprised his old coach in the press room with a question about who was the best linebacker he ever coached from the city of Indianapolis. Belichick said Colvin and then laughed (the only documented laugh).”

“At the end of the news conference following a wild comeback win over the Browns, Belichick smiled at his own joke about how, in addition to practicing comebacks, the team should practice not falling behind, too.”

The Patriots face off against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium and there’s a sliver of a chance that Belichick will crack a grin if New England gets the win. If they lose, forget about it.

[Wall Street Journal]