Tom Brady made the Patriots look foolish after the sides went their separate ways.
New England markedly regressed after Brady’s departure, going under .500 in two of its first three seasons at the turn of the decade. Brady, meanwhile, guided three straight playoff runs in Tampa Bay, where he helped the Buccaneers win two NFC South titles and a Super Bowl championship in his very first season outside of Foxboro, Mass.
That Lombardi Trophy, the seventh of Brady’s career, was the gavel on the soundblock. Brady won the breakup with the Patriots, who didn’t give him the contract he wanted after the 2019 campaign. While Robert Kraft played a hand in the star quarterback’s New England exit, the owner reportedly took aim at Bill Belichick after Brady won it all immediately after leaving the Patriots.
“Bill had told me he couldn’t play anymore, and then he goes out and wins the (expletive) Super Bowl,” Kraft said privately, according to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Wright Thompson.
At the time, Brady likely basked in the feeling of sticking it to his old colleagues. But time has passed, and it no longer seems like the legendary signal-caller holds any sort of ill will toward Belichick or Kraft. Brady penned a lengthy heartfelt message for his former head coach after Belichick was relieved of his duties in New England on Wednesday.
Belichick also has a chance to tweak the narrative. Brady made a statement when he won a Super Bowl outside of New England, and now Belichick has an opportunity to do the same with whichever team brings him aboard.
