It’s safe to say that Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t part of the TB12 fan club.
In a recent appearance on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast, the longtime NFL quarterback said Tom Brady disrespected him during his playing career.
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Most egregiously, Fitzpatrick says Brady never shook his hand.
“I've told this story before, but he just pisses me off. Because you're in Buffalo, you're playing New England, they're kicking our ass every single year they're beating us. We finally in 2011 knocked them off,” he said. “It was right at the beginning of the season. We had this great start and he threw five interceptions in the game, which was just wonderful to see every single one of them. Just wonderful to see.
"And [Brady would] run straight off. Like, no handshake, no quarterback middle of the field, no, 'Where are the cameras? OK, hey, stay healthy buddy.' Just ran straight off. So it bothered me so much because there was no respect there. Every time I played him after that, I was like 'All right, let's make this dude respect me.’”
Fitzpatrick, who spent eight seasons playing with the Bills, Jets and Dolphins, faced off against the Patriots 14 times in his career. He lost 11 of those 14 games.
One of Fitzpatrick’s three wins against Brady came during the season finale of the 2019 campaign, when the Dolphins stunned the Patriots 27-24, denying them a first-round bye. Fitzpatrick found tight end Mike Gesicki in the end zone to take the lead with 24 seconds remaining.
That’s when Fitzpatrick finally received his handshake.
“Ended up in New York with the Jets and with Miami beating him. The last one was especially sweet because it was the Tank For Tua year. ... They beat us by 40-something points at the beginning of the season,” he said. “They needed to beat us to get home-field advantage and it was his last regular-season game as a Patriot, and we go and we score at the end of the game and beat them.”
Fitzpatrick also mentioned he thinks he was the “motherf—“ to whom Brady was referring in that infamous clip from HBO’s “The Shop.” That could be true: an NFL investigation concluded the Dolphins were tampering with Brady as early as August 2019.
But it’s more likely that Derek Carr is the mystery QB, if UFC president Dana White’s story about the Raiders declining to sign Brady is accurate.
Still, Fitz Magic can dream.