The cracks in Tom Brady’s and Bill Belichick’s two-decades-long partnership had been splintering long before the quarterback left the Patriots in free agency.
When reflecting on the developments of this year’s NFL free agency in his 199 newsletter, the seven-time Super Bowl champion expanded on his decision to sign with the Buccaneers in March 2020, calling attention to “natural tension” that developed with Belichick, 72, and how a breakup was the best path forward.
“For me, it was a creeping decision that lived passively in the back of mind for 2-3 years until March of 2020 when a whirlwind of a few days made me realize that a decision was coming sooner rather than later,” Brady, 47, expressed.
“The reality 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. It was the kind of tension that could only be resolved by some kind of split or one of us reassessing our priorities.”
Prior to Brady’s departure, rumors of friction between the quarterback-coach duo had surfaced.
When contemplating his future in Tampa Bay, Brady — who won six Super Bowls in New England with Belichick — said coaching factored into his decision-making.
“When Tampa Bay came into the picture as a serious option for me, all I did over those few days in March was assess and reassess my priorities. I asked myself, as someone headed into their forties with school-age kids and twenty years worth of battle scars, what truly mattered to me now? What I ended up with was a list of about twenty things that I then ranked and graded on a weighted scale from 1 to 3,” Brady shared in the 199 newsletter. “… Tampa scored a 3 with Bruce Arians.”
In his first season with the Buccaneers, Brady, 47, guided the team to a Super Bowl win over the Chiefs in February 2021.
The future Hall of Famer played two more seasons, the final under Arians’ successor, Todd Bowles, before retiring in February 2023. He played 23 seasons in total.
Brady returned to football in 2024 as Fox’s lead NFL analyst and called his first-ever Super Bowl last month.
Meanwhile, Belichick and the Patriots parted ways in January 2024 after 24 seasons together.
The eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach took a year off from the sideline and focused on sports media opportunities, not to mention his burgeoning romance with former college cheerleader Jordon Hudson, 23.
Nearly a year after exiting New England, Belichick was hired to be the next football coach at the University of North Carolina.
The Patriots hired former linebacker Jerod Mayo as Belichick’s successor in January 2024 but fired him following a bleak 4-13 campaign.
The organization once again looked to its alumni, hiring Mike Vrabel as Mayo’s replacement.
