Mike Onwenu couldn’t remember.
Maybe that was for the best.
Three years ago, the Patriots spent a week in South Florida ahead of their season opener against the Dolphins. Bill Belichick camped the team at Palm Beach Atlantic University, a private Christian school that competes at the Division II level. Because Palm Beach Atlantic doesn’t have a football program, the Pats practiced on soccer fields with makeshift field goal posts.
Everything that week was built around the idea of eliminating the Dolphins’ homefield advantage: their players natural acclimation to the overwhleming heat and humidity. The Patriots’ travel plans that week could be argued as the greatest lengths the franchise ever went to beat a division rival under Bill Belichick.
But only that’s if you remember that week.