Tom Brady thanked many people in his letter to Patriots Nation, but left this person out
Tom Brady has a lot of love for New England.
Six Super Bowl rings, nine AFC championships, three NFL MVPs — how could you hate the place where you have dominated for the past two decades? But as previous reports have indicated, Brady’s love for the Patriots might not extend to former coach Bill Belichick.
The future Hall of Famer’s article in the Player’s Tribune serves as the latest example. Reflecting on his time in New England, Brady’s emotions bled through the page as he explained why he left. One part, though, raised some eyebrows.
“But more than any one physical place, it’s the relationships I made in New England that I’ll miss the most,” he wrote Monday. “Of course, it starts with the entire New England Patriots organization, and Robert Kraft and the entire Kraft family. It extends to countless other individuals who played such a valuable role in my 20 years as a Patriot. Teammates and coaches, past and present.”
Strange right? Kraft gets name dropped meanwhile Belichick, the very coach with whom his relationship had reportedly deteriorated, gets relegated to “coaches.”
That can’t be a mistake. As media savvy as Brady is, there’s no way he unintentionally left out his former future Hall of Fame coach.
Another line also stood out. When discussing his decision to go to Tampa Bay, Brady used a rather unique phrasing.
“Playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a change, a challenge, an opportunity to lead and collaborate, and also to be seen and heard,” he wrote.
Here, focus on the words “collaborate,” “seen” and “heard.” Belichick’s seemingly autocratic leadership style doesn’t really allow for any of that. Brady had probably grown tired of this even before ESPN’s Seth Wickersham noted it in January 2018.
If there’s one takeaway from Brady’s piece, it’s that he and Belichick weren’t that close in spite of their intertwined legacies. The two appeared friends at times, but it must have truly been a working relationship.
More than anything, however, fans can rest on one fact: the next Buccaneers-Patriots matchup, likely in 2021, will be one for the ages.
