Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick admitted that Tom Brady made the right decision to leave Foxborough for Tampa Bay.
Brady, who was drafted by the Patriots and won six Super Bowls with the franchise, departed the team after the 2019 season and headed south to the Buccaneers.
He would go on to win Super Bowl LV over the Kansas City Chiefs and clinched his seventh and final title.
During an appearance on Fox News Media’s ‘Hang Out with Sean Hannity’ podcast that airs at 10am ET on Tuesday, Belichick admitted that the quarterback did what was best for him.
‘You know, Tom leaving was absolutely the right thing for him to do,’ Belichick told the news anchor. ‘We didn’t have a good team in 2020. We just didn’t have a good football team.
‘We had all those guys that left – Gronkowski [who joined Brady in Tampa] and Edelman [who retired after 2020]. Most of our team was gone. McCourty and a few others were still there, but they were about to go too.
Bill Belichick admitted that Tom Brady left the New England Patriots at the right time
Brady departed after the 2019 season ended and won his seventh title with the Buccaneers
‘We were just at the end. And honestly, I was happy for him that things worked out well for him in Tampa, because he was with a team – and then he went on and won. That made me happy for him, because Tom – it wouldn’t have gone well in 2020 in New England. On this, I can guarantee that.
‘We put everything we had into the 2019 season, including paying him a lot of money at the end of the year without anything attached to it. There was no first right of refusal, there was no franchise tag, nothing.
‘And so we all understood that there was a good chance he would leave. And I think he made a great career decision, obviously. I wish we could have done more, but we went as far as we could.
‘And look, he proved it – he played longer than anybody, played at a higher level than anybody. And again, tremendous credit to him. Nobody else did that – that was him.’
Belichick also got a laugh out of Brady’s joke during a commencement speech he gave at Georgetown University.
The 48-year-old former quarterback ended his speech by advising the graduates to surround themselves with people who push them to greatness, ‘even if one of those people is a cranky old coach who cuts the sleeves off their sweatshirt and screams at you all day.’
Belichick got wind of that dig and replied, ‘It is funny. It is funny. We look back at those moments and laugh, but honestly, he was a great, great quarterback, a great teammate.’
In the interview, Belichick also admitted he and Brady ‘learned a lot from each other’ with Bill praising the quarterback’s desire to be coached.
Belichick also indicated that he had a laugh at Brady’s jokes about him during a commencement speech the former quarterback gave at Georgetown University
Belichick praised Brady’s ability to be coached and to take criticism from himself and others
‘People say, well, I was hard on Tom and I yelled at Tom,’ Belichick recalled. ‘Yeah, I mean, at times, sure – that’s part of coaching.
‘But Tom was great about that. A lot of times he would say, “You know, it might be a little rough in there today in this meeting because of what happened in the game yesterday or whatever.”
‘And he’d say, “Yeah, I understand – we probably need it.” And he goes, “Make sure you include me, because then I’m one of the guys. If you leave me out of it, then it’s like, well, Tom’s great but everybody else is the problem.”
‘So he kind of said, “Don’t forget to include me.” Yeah, no problem, Tom. Sure, I’ll yell at you too. It’s easy.’
