Gronkowski, Amendola active for Sunday night - or are they?

Bill Belichick leans back in his uber-comfy reclining office chair, lights dimmed to twilight setting, some of Jon Bon Jovi's softer ballads barely audible - the only other noise coming from the soft hum of the central air that keeps his secret office in the basement of Gillette Stadium fresh and the humidity level tolerable.

He is safe here.  Only his most trusted advisers and a few select servants know about it, along with Gene Hackman, Will Smith and Jon Voigt - Hackman modeling his character in the film Enemy of the State after the paranoid coach of the New England Patriots - and this secret office, his "Jar", no phone or utility lines coming in, completely self-contained.

This is where Belichick conducts his most secret of tasks, the injury report for this Sunday night's matchup with the Atlanta Falcons among them.

Only he knows whether the dynamic duo of Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola will be suiting up for the game at the Georgia Dome, the rest of the world left to ponder and speculate - and every two-bit journalist from Maine to California is doing just that.

Belichick picks up the sheet and glances it over for a moment then letting it slide out of his hand to the middle of the desk, leaning back in the chair again, his head against the head rest, eyes closed, a slight smile escaping his features, knowing that his silence is frustrating many, many people - his grin becoming Cheshire Cat-like when he thinks of Albert Breer washing down a couple of xanax to ease the tension...

And, yes.  An absurd notion, but Bill Belichick has never been fond of the members of the media and is, in fact, downright terse with them at times - but even that was taken to a new level in Belichick's weekly press conference on Monday, when NFL.com's Albert Breer got a little too uppity and took a demanding tone with Belichick...

...the ensuing Monty Python style banter now the stuff of legend, Belichick the taunting French Soldier to Breer's narcissistic King Arthur - Belichick's animosity toward Breer coming to the surface not in words, which were few anyway, but in attitude as the tight-lipped coach answered the former Patriots' beat writer's questions regarding Gronkowski's availability on the previous day's game:

Breer:  How close was Rob Gronkowski to playing yesterday?

Belichick: I don't know, he was inactive.

Keeping in mind that everyone in the English speaking world and Canada knows that Belichick doesn't speak about players who aren't going to play or who didn't play, Breer could easily be accused of badgering Belichick by asking a question - repeatedly, if rephrased - that he knew there was no way in hell he was going to get an answer for, even if Belichick liked him - which he doesn't, so he decided to give Breer The Business:

Breer: Did he have a shot to play?

Belichick: He was inactive.

Breer:  Going into the day, was there a shot he'd play?

Belichick:  He was inactive for the game.

Breer (switching gears):  What about Danny Amendola?

Belichick:  He was inactive, too.

Breer (becoming agitated):  I know they were inactive.

Belichick:  They were inactive, so they didn't play.

Breer (with an accusing tone):  I think you have an idea of how close they were.

Mother of God, here it comes...

Belichick: Well, they weren't able to play.  What do you want, percentage points?  They couldn't play.

Breer:  Going into the day, did you know they couldn't play?

Belichick:  They were inactive.

Breer (face melting):  That doesn't answer my question.

Belichick: They were inactive.  It's as simple as that.

Translations?  Breer:  I hate you.  Belichick:  They were inactive - and I hate you more...

Albert Breer's childish and hateful diatribe was the equivalent of throwing meat to a wolf, and Belichick's calculated responses went viral on social media mere moments after the exchange, making Breer look like a fool almost instantaniously - and why wouldn't Belichick want to keep that momentum going?

So somewhere along the line in the past couple of days, news leaked out that neither Gronkowski nor Amendola would play against the Falcons on Sunday night, Amendola due to a torn adductor muscle and Gronkowski supposedly because his surgically repaired forearm isn't quite ready to go - some sites reporting that it could be because of a recurring infection in the arm...

...which anyone who believes that has poo for brains - but then late on Friday night it was reported by several other sites that Gronkowski and Amendola would play in the game...

Ah, Bill.  You can always count on Belichick to take gamesmanship to a new level, especially when pushed by a cyber-bully reporter on a subject that made no difference to anyone - except to the reporter who seemed to want to paint Belichick into a corner, but was instead left grasping at straws while the Patriots' coach stonewalled him and openly mocked him.

Meanwhile, the rest of us should know by Saturday afternoon whether or not Gronkowski and Amendola made the flight to Atlanta with their teammates, which if so would be a very good indication that they are going to play - or not, but it would probably be worth it to Belichick to take both along for the ride regardless of status, just to keep everyone guessing until 90 minutes before kickoff, when he would be forced by league mandate to spill the beans.

And the sports books are probably just as antsy about their status as anyone, probably more so since they've established the Falcons as a shaky 1 1/2 point home favorite based on the assumption earlier in the week that neither player would be suiting up - but either dressing could wipe out Atlanta's margin, maybe even send the betting line the opposite direction

But Belichick couldn't care any less about any of that.  Sure he knows about it and, sure, he knows what kind of impact his decision could make to millions of Fantasy team owners, the bookies and to the media - but the only thing he cares about is the Falcons, and he's not tipping his hand to them any sooner than he has to.

Q: How close was Rob Gronkowski to playing yesterday? BB: I don’t know. He was inactive. Q: Did he have a shot to play? BB: He was inactive. Q: Going into the day, was there a chance he’d play? BB: He was inactive for the game. Q: What about Danny Amendola? BB: He was inactive too. Q: I know they were inactive. BB: They were inactive so they didn’t play. Q: I think you have an idea how close they were. BB: Well, they weren’t able to play. What do you want, percentage points? They couldn’t play. Q: Going into the day, did you know they couldn’t play? BB: They were inactive. Q: That doesn’t answer my question. BB: They were inactive, it’s as simple as that.

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2013/09/bill-belichick-media-have-hilarious-exchange-regarding-rob-gronkowski-danny-amendola-updates