Chapter Twenty-One
18 March 2020
Pinch me. This is all just a bad dream. Tom Brady is a Buccaneer. Trust me it sounds weirder when you say it than it does in your head. What started off as a 40 some degree morning in Foxboro, Massachusetts turned into a cold, cold day. Tom Brady announced he was no longer staying put with the organization that drafted him two decades ago. The decorated signal-caller took it to social media to share the shocking news.
"Although my football journey will take place elsewhere, I appreciate everything that we have achieved and am grateful for our incredible TEAM accomplishments."
- Tom Brady via Instagram
Photo: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
If you are a Patriots fan, this sucks. There is no way to sugar coat it. Yes it was and always will be the glory days. You can’t draft any signal-caller 199th overall, let alone 1st overall and expect them to be the next “Tom Brady”. A few can try, many will fail. There will be no quarterback/head coach duo that will come close to what Brady and Belichick accomplished together. They were the heart and soul of this Patriots organization for the past two decades. Would you believe me if I told you that these two football gods were also the reason for one of the most unexpected breakups in NFL history.
Offseason 2014/15
When push came to shove, things got ugly in 2015. It was after the Patriots 2014 season that reports of “deflategate” had surfaced. The Patriots were playing in their 4th consecutive AFC Championship game in hopes to clinch a Super Bowl trip for the first time in 3 seasons. According to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, those close to Brady reportedly felt like the 3-time champ at the time was ‘abandoned’ and left out to dry by Bill Belichick (Head Coach) and Robert Kraft (Owner) during the deflategate controversy. A 4-game suspension was issued on perhaps the greatest QB to ever throw the pigskin. Does this sound far-fetched in terms of denting Brady’s relationship with both Kraft and Belichick? Yeah, a bit… but it most definitely was a small crack that the Patriots organization clearly did not acknowledge.
October 2017
Sure, Brady might have been left out to dry by the Patriots organization during the infamous deflategate scandal, but if there’s one thing that we as fans have noticed is winning solves everything. The Patriots went on to win another Super Bowl ring, and this was a special one. They were coming off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history against the Atlanta Falcons. Down 28-3 midway through the 3rd quarter against the Falcons, Brady led his troops in the first Super Bowl game to go into overtime only to end in a fifth championship victory for both him and Belichick.
Winslow Townson/USA Today Sports
The good fortune continued into the offseason for New England. They made a big trade with the Saints for WR Brandin Cooks, another weapon for Tom Brady’s aerial attack. With WR Julian Edelman (ACL) out for the 2017 season, Cooks found himself a nice niche in New England early on. Meanwhile the Patriots’ QB room was crowded with talent across the board with a 40-year-old Tom Brady, 25-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo and 24-year-old Jacoby Brissett. Spoiler alert! none of them are Patriots anymore.
Belichick messed up. The Patriots went ahead and traded QB Jacoby Brissett to the Indianapolis Colts as Andrew Luck at the time was coming off shoulder surgery (unlikely to play week 1). Brissett went on to play the entire 2017 season leading Indy to a 4-12 record. Meanwhile in New England, things began to get heated before winter settled in…
It might have been the day before Halloween but nothing is scarier than Belichick who was business as usual. There was no surprise that teams had inquired about the 25-year-old Garoppolo.
“We used to call him about once a week back then asking if he'd move one of them," says an NFL executive whose team needed a quarterback. "And we weren't alone, either.”
In fact, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that the Cleveland Browns offered the Patriots "a second and change" before the 2017 draft. The offers were there and teams did not stop calling. The sense of urgency to move Garoppolo was growing… or was it? Belichick had Brady but many around the league believed it was Garoppolo who he was grooming for the future. Before they knew it, the month of October was coming to an end as the trade deadline loomed… decision time.
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"I remember getting down to the wire and telling our QBs coach that we'd just make a run at Jimmy in free agency," says the player personnel director.
It was around 8 p.m. ET and the news broke out. The Patriots had agreed to trade a signal-caller out west to San Francisco… but not the one Belichick wanted to trade.
There was an unforeseen amount of buzz around the NFL that the 49ers originally asked for Jimmy Garoppolo, however Belichick instead offered Brady. Yes the one and only Tom Brady. A Patriots source confirms that's how it went down, and a 49ers source close to GM John Lynch says Lynch found himself dumbfounded when he heard the counter offer. The first-time general manager had the chance to bring the “GOAT” back to his hometown, but it obviously did not happen as a source close to Belichick said “Kraft shut that sh*t down fast”. In fact Bill Belichick was reportedly 'furious and demoralized' after practically being ordered to trade Jimmy Garoppolo in a move that benefited the 25-year-old more than the Patriots.
So the day that the 49ers got Jimmy Garoppolo, the Patriots got a second-round pick, a pissed off Tom Brady and a ‘demoralized’ Bill Belichick. The head coach that Brady had spent 17 seasons and won 5 championships with wanted to trade him away in favor of the 25-year-old backup. Sounds about right!
"You have to remember, this guy has a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Everest," says a former player who knows Brady well.
Putting myself in Brady’s shoes would make me feel like a pawn. You think you’d known a guy let alone your own head coach after 5 championships. Brady, a 199th draft pick who was a 5-time champ at the time, still felt like he had something to prove. But once again reality kicks in. Sports is a business and winning solves everything. But that was not the case going forward. Brady and the Pats reached the promised land over the next two seasons building on an untouchable legacy he and Belichick shared. A Super Bowl loss to the Eagles was not the best of memories but the Patriots bounced right back and earned their 6th championship victory against the team they had beat 17 years earlier in the Super Bowl… the Los Angeles Rams.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
"He tore up deals after '17, after '18, and got it so the Patriots couldn't [franchise] tag him. Dude was planning this day all along," speculates another former teammate.
Winning this time did not bring closure. It did not bring validation. It did not change the fact that Bill Belichick wanted to get rid of Brady. Tom knew this day was coming and he orchestrated his final act as a Patriot… an infamous departure. If he was going to leave the franchise that he won 6 championships with, best believe he was going to do it on his own terms. He deserved this. He earned this.
The Break-Up
According to multiple reports, Brady made no calls to the Patriots to work on a deal for the upcoming season. Instead, he waited it out and evaluated all of his options, ultimately picking the best situation for himself and his family. That was Tampa Bay. They say all good things must come to an end. But this is not the end for Tom Brady. His chapter with the Patriots has closed. 20 years down, time for the next one. Patriot fans, save your tears for his retirement.
