Bill Belichick goes way back with Chad Ochocinco

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- A few quick hits from Bill Belichick's news conference to kick off Day 2 of training camp at Gillette Stadium:

Tight-lipped on trade acquisitions: Belichick opened his conference by noting he still couldn't say much on the trades that are expected to bring Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco to New England.

Process of working through the trades with Albert and Chad. They still haven’t officially been completed yet, so there’s really nothing I can comment on them. We're working through the process and when it's complete -- if it's complete -- we can talk about it then. It was good to get on the field yesterday, good to see the team actually come out of the huddle, line up in a formation, run some pays -- start getting underway. We obviously have a long long long way to go. But all thing considered, I thought the players had some recall, tried to do what we asked them to do, but we just got a lot of work to do. We’ll take it one step at a time, try to get better each time we step onto the field, each time we come out of a meeting. Try to take advantage of all of them. Day 2 here, we’re on step further than we were yesterday, which isn’t very far, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Pressed on the trades, Belichick noted, "As it relates to Albert or Chad, any comment would be premature. We are in the process, no doubt about it. But they are not officially on our team and, until they are, I don’t think it's appropriate to talk about it as is they are.

It was the beginning of an affair that came to fruition yesterday when Belichick sent two late-round, future draft picks to Cincinnati for Ochocinco, who then restructured his contract into a three-year deal.

At the Pro Bowl following the 2006 season, the relationship really took off. When the Bengals visited the Pats a few preseasons ago, Ochocinco wound up kicking an extra point. Belichick gushed about him afterward.

“He’s a fun-loving guy, very competitive,” Belichick said in August 2009. “When he’s on the field, he loves to compete and he works very hard, practices hard. He challenges guys in every situation. I respect that, I think he’s a terrific player. I love his competitiveness. He’s a hard guy to compete against. He’s very good.”

Unhappy with the Bengals and the path they were headed, Ochocinco took his feelings public in January by tweeting this Herald reporter: @RapSheet, PePe and Bill #EPIC.” “Pepe” is his alter ego.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis answered the suggestion that the pair could be united by telling the Herald during the Senior Bowl, “Belichick’s smarter than that.” Wrong.