Watch: Awkward moment between Bill Belichick, Adam Thielen

Their postgame greeting was more of a blow by.

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
Nov 25, 2022 9:13 AM EST

Is there still beef between Adam Thielen and Bill Belichick?

In 2018, Belichick appeared to scream "shut the f*** up" at Thielen after Thielen became irate at the officials' decision to allow Belichick to throw a challenge flag despite it taking the iconic head coach way more time than usual to find the flag tucked in one of his socks.

Just exchanging holiday greetings? "Yeah, pretty much," Belichick said then.

There's a new layer of drama after Minnesota's 33-26 win over the Patriots Thursday night.

It happened after the game ended, when the cameras caught Thielen patting Belichick on the back while the 70-year-old coach kept moving. No words, no return pat on the back. Maybe – and it's hard to tell – the briefest of handshakes.

The 2018 incident resulted in Thielen saying he's fiery and that he lost his cool, but in a more recent interview with Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, Thielen admitted that Belichick cursing him out bugged him.

“It was definitely over the top,” Thielen said. “It honestly got to me because two plays later I dropped a ball. I was getting past that threshold.”

Earlier this week, after Belichick said Thielen is good at making tough catches, a reported asked about Thielen being fiery. Belichick's one-word answer: "Yeah."

At a minimum it's an interesting subplot for any time the two meet in the future.

Thielen had nine catches for 61 yards and the game-winning touchdown Thursday night. The win puts the Vikings at 9-2 and the Patriots dropped to 6-5.