Julian Edelman has one more unique perspectives on Tom Brady’s return to New England to take on Bill Belichick when the Buccaneers face the Patriots Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.
Edelman, who was honored just this past weekend in a halftime ceremony at Gillette, arrived in New England in 2009 as an unheralded Kent State QB just looking to find a football future in Foxborough as a seventh-round pick.
Over time he became Brady’s pal, trustiest slot target and one of the more clutch Patriots stars, a Super Bowl MVP himself who helped Belichick land three more Lombardi Trophies.
Now retired and dabbling in media duties on “Inside the NFL,” Edelman would certainly qualify as an expert witness on Brady’s Super Bowl champion Bucs taking on Belichick’s rebuilding Patriots.
“They definitely want to win. Both of them. They definitely want to beat each other,” Edelman said on this week’s Inside the NFL on Paramount+. “They understand the perspective of this game and it’s a Week 4 game. The situations of the teams are completely different. But you have one GOAT against another GOAT. This is a GOAT bowl.”
Edelman joked that he would have to watch the battle between his ageless playmaking pal and his beloved coach from a dark room.
Whether there is a truly personal battle between Brady and Belichick is debatable, but Edelman believes the two elite competitors will approach it that way.
“I played a long time with Tommy and Coach Belichick and when you get to a level of success that these two have gotten to, and with Brady, he’s had seven Super Bowls. It’s just like Michael Jordan. These guys have to fabricate things in their head to go out and motivate them. They have to take things personal…And I think that is the case here,” Edelman said.
Personal feelings for each other aside, Edelman reiterated that he’s 100-percent sure they want to beat each other on Sunday night, a victory that would be another log on the fire burning strong of one of the most enflamed sports divorces in history.
“Coach Belichick, from the day I got in there until the day I left, he was the same exact person throughout the whole thing. Not one bit of complacency kicked in. He had three Super Bowls at the time. By the time I left, he had six. These guys are ultra-competitive guys. You’d be ignorant to think they don’t want to win this game because they’re playing each other. Do I think they respect each other? Of course,” Edelman concluded.