Tom Brady Sr. enjoys rubbing his son’s excellence in Bill Belichick’s scowl.
Let the proud dad gloat.
On Tuesday, Brady Sr. spoke with NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran about whether he felt vindicated for his son last season. The short answer is: “Hell yes.”
“Damn right," he said. "Damn right. Belichick wanted him out the door and last year he threw 56 touchdowns. I think that's a pretty good year.”
Brady Sr. is engaging in some hyperbole: Brady threw 50 touchdowns in the regular season and playoffs combined last season — not 56. Then again, Cam Newton threw eight.
For years, we’ve viewed Brady Sr. as a conduit into his son’s closely guarded ego. Daddy Brady was the first person to raise the possibility of TB12 leaving the Patriots, predicting way back in January 2015 it would “end badly” between Brady and Bill Belichick. "It does end badly,” he said. “And I know that because I know what Tommy wants to do. He wants to play till he's 70.”
He was right. It’s apparent Belichick never felt comfortable extending Brady into his 40s. In each of Brady’s final two seasons in New England, the Patriots passed up the opportunity to sign Brady to a long-term extension. Prior to the 2019 season, they agreed to place a provision in Brady’s restructured deal that prohibited them from placing the franchise tag on him — all but guaranteeing the GOAT his freedom.
“Tommy is extraordinarily appreciative of everything that happened during his New England career, and he's more than happy that he's moved on because it was pretty obvious that the Patriot regime felt that it was time for him to move on," Brady Sr. said.
Brady Sr. has spent the last year going on a victory tour, taking at least three public jabs at Belichick over the last nine months. The first came when he told Karen Guregian of the Herald in January that he thinks Belichick “is on a little bit of a hot seat.” When the NFL schedule was released, he called the other guys, and said he was “salivating” when he saw “we play the Patriots in the fourth game of the season.”
“We're coming up here to make our record 4-0 after the fourth game,” he added.
You’ve got to love that. Brady Sr. sounds just like any other dad, cheering on his son. That’s why his continued smack talk is endearing, and not annoying. Tom Brady isn’t all that relatable anymore, but he does have a dad who will defend him in any medium.
That’s pretty cool.
And let’s be honest: Brady Sr. is right. Belichick’s decision to replace Brady with Newton was one of the worst personnel decisions in Boston sports history — right up there with Harry Frazee selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees. At 44 years old, Brady actually looks as good as ever. He leads the league with nine touchdown passes through the first two weeks.
Four of those were to Rob Gronkowski, who leads the NFL in touchdown receptions. Tired of the austerity in Foxborough, Gronk retired prior to the 2019 campaign, only to return last season to hook up with Brady in Tampa Bay.
Meanwhile, the Patriots were stuck spending $87.5 million on Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry.
The maturation of Mac Jones would make Brady’s departure sting less. But Brady may win another Super Bowl, or even two, between now and then.
To quote Brady Sr., that’s vindication.
