Just before the holidays when I said on WEEI that Bill Belichick ran Tom Brady out of town I was pummeled with the short-sided and shallow rebuttal that Brady wanted to leave and there was nothing Bill could do.
Brady wanted to leave because of what Bill didn’t do years ago.
DEFLATEGATE - 2014
The NFL accuses Brady of deflating the footballs before the game. What does Bill say? “I don’t know anything about it. Go talk to Tom.” Talk about throwing the best quarterback of all time under the team bus! Don’t put me in a foxhole with Bill. The coach was worried about his own hide because of his previous Spygate scandal. All Belichick had to say was I stand by my quarterback and we will let the NFL investigation play out. The point is he never displayed any support for his guy.
ALEX GUERRERO - 2017
This was Bill’s biggest mistake. Look, we all think Guerrero is a quack but he’s Brady’s quack and Tom believes in him and that’s all that matters. This was a guy who had Brady pushing concussion water. Yeah, he’s slime, but so what? So, the Patriot training staff was offended by Guerro’s presence – GET OVER IT! I thought that Brady’s having to get his rub down, as shown in Tom vs. Time from Alex in a luxury suite instead of the Patriot’s training facility was absurd.
MALCOLM BUTLER - 2018
I believe this has been underplayed greatly. In what could have been another Patriot’s Super Bowl win, Belichick’s plays Butler – his starting cornerback – out for one special team’s play. ONE. Obviously, this was personal. We have all heard the rumors that there was something between Butler and Steve Belichick, the secondary coach at the time and that’s why Bill embarrassed Butler with the move. Bill preaches to do what’s in the best interest of the team. Benching Butler was certainly NOT in the best interest of the team and may have cost Brady and is five hundred yards plus passing another ring. The moral to my story is if Bill doesn’t do what’s best for the team, why should Tom?
THE $20 MILLION MAN -2020
Bombshell dropped this week by Mike Florio of Pro Football talk – Bill Belichick makes upwards of $20 million per year. Has he been worth it? Of course. HOWEVER, he offered the GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME reportedly twenty-five million for TWO YEARS. WHAT!? I don’t Andy think Andy Reid makes more than Patrick Mahomes.
I would like to note that Bill did tweak Tom’ ego by drafting Jimmy G, but I have no issue with this. The competition lit a fire under Tom’s butt and extended his career. This was a good move by Belichick. And as pointed out to me by Christian Fauria, Belichick did try to get Brady weapons by bringing in Antonio Brown and drafting N’Keal Harry. Brown didn’t work out and Harry stinks. (My triple move is faster than N’Keal’s double move.)
Finally, I firmly believe that Bill misread the Brady situation and felt he would come crawling back like he had so many times before. The decision to start Tom Brady in 2001 eventually lifted Belichick to the top of the all-time coaching ranks. Running him out of town in will eventually lead to his demise.
