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Weekend wins vault Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to the top of AHL standings

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Barletta: No talks (yet) with Trump about joining administration

<p>FOXBOROUGH, Mass. &#8212; New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Wednesday the letter he wrote to Donald Trump before Election Day was done out of a friendship that goes back many years and was not politically motivated, while Tom Brady said he preferred to focus on football and wouldn&#8217;t elaborate on his relationship with him.</p><p>Belichick addressed the letter during a regularly scheduled news conference held hours after the billionaire business was elected president and two days after he read it aloud at a campaign rally in New Hampshire.</p><p>The letter congratulated Trump on his campaign and praised him for overcoming &#8220;slanted and negative media&#8221; to &#8220;come out beautifully.&#8221; But Belichick said he writes hundreds of notes every month and that it &#8220;doesn&#8217;t mean I agree with every single thing that every person thinks about politics, religion or other subjects.&#8221;</p><p>At the same campaign rally Monday, Trump alluded to a phone conversation with Brady in which he said the quarterback offered his support. Brady wouldn&#8217;t confirm or deny that Wednesday.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just going to talk about football this week,&#8221; Brady said. &#8220;I talked to my wife, she said I can&#8217;t talk about politics anymore. I think that&#8217;s a good decision made for our family.&#8221;</p><p>But when pressed, he went a little further.</p><p>&#8220;I just want to focus on Seattle,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I have a lot of relationships with a lot of people in the press and I don&#8217;t think a lot of people are entitled to what my conversations are with friends of mine or people I may speak with.&#8221;</p><p>Belichick reiterated that his comments were not about making a political stance.</p><p>&#8220;I think anybody that&#8217;s spent more than five minutes with me knows I&#8217;m not a political person,&#8221; Belichick said. &#8220;My comments are not politically motivated. I have a friendship and loyalty to Donald. A couple of weeks ago we had Secretary of State (John) Kerry in our locker room. He&#8217;s another friend of mine. I can&#8217;t imagine two people with more different political views than those two. But to me, friendship and loyalty are just about that. It&#8217;s not about political or religious views.&#8221;</p><p>Kerry visited the Patriots&#8217; locker room when they played at Pittsburgh on Oct. 23.</p><p>&#8220;I have multiple friendships that are important to me and that&#8217;s what that was about,&#8221; Belichick said. &#8220;So it&#8217;s not about politics, it&#8217;s about football.&#8221;</p><p>When Belichick was asked follow-up questions about the letter and whether it caused any division in New England&#8217;s locker room, he repeated &#8220;Seattle&#8221; five times, referencing that the team is focused on preparing for Sunday&#8217;s game against the Seahawks.</p><p>&#8220;We got a huge game this week against a great football team, and a great organization,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And that&#8217;s where it all is going forward. On Seattle.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reads a letter from New England Patriots NFL football coach Bill Belichick to a campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_113462662-fe5ea4acff7d4691965ef203a6a69369.jpg</photo0><caption0>Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reads a letter from New England Patriots NFL football coach Bill Belichick to a campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Kyle Hightower</p><p>AP Sports Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

Patriots’ Belichick says letter to Trump ‘not politically motivated’