What exactly is going on with Tom Brady right now, especially when it comes to his relationship with his head coach Bill Belichick?
Speaking to Jim Gray at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Santa Monica, California on Monday, Brady went pretty in-depth on his feelings a few months before he plays his 19th NFL season.
Gray directly asked Brady if he feels appreciated by Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft.
"I plead the fifth," Brady said initially before going into a longer response.
"Man, that is a tough question," he continued. "I think everybody in general wants to be appreciated at work and in their professional life. There are a lot of people that appreciate me more than — way more than I ever would have thought was possible as part of my life. You have different influences in your life and I think the people that I work with are trying to get the best out of me. They are trying to treat me in a way that is going to get the best out of me and I have to get the best out of myself.
"What I am learning as I get older is it comes from within — the joy, the happiness, those things come from within the inside. To seek that from others, from outside influences, people you work with, people that cheer against you or cheer with you, I feel like it comes from within for me. I am trying to build up what is within me so I can be the best for me so that I can be the best for other people."
Gray also asked Brady if he's happy with where he is.
"I would say absolutely," Brady said. "In general, I am a very happy person and I am a very positive person. It is just my personality. I always look at things as if the glass is half full. When you have been on the same team for a long time, you have relationships for a long time, they ebb and flow like every relationship, but there are no people I would rather play for than the team I have been with for a long time."
Everyone knows the end of Tom vs. Time and the ominous feeling it gave.
Brady said he's still seeking the answers to the questions and went into his mentality this offseason of it being about his family, but he also said it could allow him to come back to the team an even better player.
"For me, I am still thinking about those things," Brady said. "Every year I have a chance to evaluate how things went for the season. I think part of this offseason for me is certainly about still preparing for what is ahead in my next journey, my next mountain to climb with my next group of teammates, but it's also — a lot of people are getting the short end of the stick in my life. Certainly my wife and my kids.
"I think I told them even before the season ended — football is a year-round thing for me. It is a lot of thought, a lot of energy and emotion I am putting into it, but I need to invest in them too. My kids - 10, 8, and 5 — they are not getting younger, so I need to take time so I can be available to them, too. I think being a good dad, I had the best dad, and I want to be the best dad for my kids. I can't use football as an excuse and work as an excuse always to allow them not to get the time they need. They are going to look back and go, 'Dad, you weren't there for me. You weren't at that. You didn't drive me to school. You didn't do this.' The model I had as a father was he was at all the things and I am not at all the things. I can't be because I am there for a lot of other people.
"Every Sunday for the last 25 years I have been playing in the fall and winter. I need these opportunities to invest in my kids, too. And my wife, too, so I can be available to them. I have really spent the last two and three months doing those things.
"I think I am really trying to fill my tank up so that when I do go back and I think in my mind I can actually be a better player, a better teammate because I will be really rejuvenated and the fact I want to be there doing the work for them is still very enjoyable to me."
Brady also maintained he still wants to play into his mid-40s.
