Tom Brady admitted that his exit from the Recent England Patriots was sparked by a “tension” with then-head coach Bill Belichick.
Brady, 47, who played quarterback for the Patriots under Belichick’s leadership from 2000 to 2019, detailed the pair’s dynamic within the Monday, March 24, edition of his weekly 199 newsletter.
“The truth was, after twenty years together, a natural tension had developed between where Coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers, and where the Patriots were moving as a franchise,” Brady wrote. “It was the form of tension that would only be resolved by some form of split or one among us reassessing our priorities.”
The revelation got here after Brady confirmed within the February 2024 documentary, The Dynasty, that having Belichick, 72, as his coach would fail to entice him back for a twenty first season with the Patriots.
“Me and coach Belichick, we did what we loved and competed for 20 years together,” the seven-time Super Bowl champion said within the documentary, per The Athletic. “But I wasn’t going to sign one other contract [in New England] even when I desired to play until [I was] 50. Based on how things had gone, I wasn’t going to enroll in more of it.”
Brady’s newsletter detailed his decision to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 after some careful consideration. “When Tampa Bay got here into the image as a serious option for me, all I did over those few days in March was assess and reassess my priorities,” Brady wrote, before adding that his family also factored into his decision. (Brady is father to a few children: son, Jack, 17, whom he shares with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan, in addition to son, Benjamin, 15, and daughter, Vivien, 12, whom he shares with ex-wife Gisele Bündchen.)
“I asked myself, as someone headed into their forties with school-age kids and twenty years value of battle scars, what truly mattered to me now?” Brady wrote. “What I ended up with was a listing of about twenty things that I then ranked and graded on a weighted scale from 1 to three.”
Despite Brady and Belichick’s controversial ending, Brady has expressed gratitude for Belichick and his time in Recent England, during which he won three MVP awards. When Belichick left the Patriots himself on January 11, 2024, Brady took to Instagram to pay tribute to him. (Belichick is now coaching college football on the University of North Carolina.)
“I’m incredibly grateful to have played for one of the best coach within the history of the NFL,” Brady shared that day via his account. “He was an ideal leader for the organization, and for all the players who played for him. We completed some amazing things over a protracted time period, lots of which will likely be hard to copy.”
Brady continued, “He set the tone for the organization to never falter within the face of adversity, and to do what we could do, and what was in our control, which was to exit and DO OUR JOB. I could never have been the player I used to be without you Coach Belichick.”
