Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will regret ending Patriots dynasty early

Tom Brady wants this chance to show the world that he can win a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick, more than Belichick wanted him to stay and win their seventh Super Bowl championship together.

Tom Brady wants this chance to show the world he can win a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick, more than Belichick wanted him to stay and win their seventh Super Bowl championship together.

It is stunning Brady — 43 next summer — reached the conclusion he believes he has a better chance to win that seventh Super Bowl championship with a head coach not named Belichick.

And so Life After Bill Belichick begins under Bruce Arians.

For a franchise whose mascot is a Caribbean pirate captain named Captain Fear.

It means Brady will be throwing to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. He will be playing in a warmer climate.

For a kinder, gentler coach.

“I’m the cool uncle you’d like to have a drink with,” Arians told reporters in November.

Tom Brady, gunning to be the $30 million host quarterback, first quarterback to win a Super Bowl in his home stadium, at Super Bowl LV.

It all looks good on paper.

But be careful what you wish for, Tom.

Of course there is cheering today — as much cheering as you can do in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic — in Florham Park, Buffalo and in Miami.

The greatest dynasty in NFL history — the Evil Empire, as we have known it for two decades — is dead.

Or as dead as you dare to pronounce it knowing that there is one GOAT still standing, still wearing that hoodie, still scheming, still looking for every possible edge, come hell or Spygate.

The court of public opinion will now be able to debate who was more responsible for those six championships:

Tom Brady or Bill Belichick?

Neither, of course, would have six rings without the other.

But remember this: There is no crying in football, no room for sentimentality in Belichick’s world. Call it pragmatism, or call it arrogance, but Belichick grew to believe that there could be Life After Tom Brady. And there will be.

Brady will now attempt to prove that it was foolishness.

Belichick to Brady: Goodbye and good luck, Tom.

“He didn’t just perform,” Belichick said in a statement. “He didn’t just win. He won championships over and over again.”

His tribute ended with: “He is a special person and the greatest quarterback of all-time.”

For so long, year after year after year, Belichick would tell everyone that there was no other quarterback he would rather have than Brady.

Brady was an extension of Belichick on the field, in the locker room and in meeting rooms. Brady was much more than just another pretty face. He had an unmatched competitive fire that raged inside and it was relentless. Only Belichick could match his commitment to excellence.

“With his relentless competitiveness and longevity, he earned everyone’s admiration and will be celebrated forever,” Belichick said in his statement.

And Brady himself tweeted: “FOREVER A PATRIOT.”

On a day we were reminded that nothing is forever.

Forever will now have to wait until his mad dash against Belichick to 7th Heaven ends, likely at age 45.

“I had hoped this day would never come,” team owner Robert Kraft told ESPN.

The handwriting, however, was on the wall for all to read. There was no long-term extension available for Brady last training camp, only an $8 million raise to $23 million for 2019 on a two-year deal that he agreed would void at the end of the season. There was that friction with Belichick over Brady’s promotion of personal trainer Alex Guerrero. There was no Rob Gronkowski and no replacement for him. Belichick tried to get Brady help with a troubled Antonio Brown, but that lasted one game. Who was left for Brady to trust aside from Julian Edelman and James White out of the backfield?

So sure, the new grass looks green to Brady.

It was greener for Peyton Manning in Denver, yes. It was greener for LeBron in Miami, yes.

But the grass isn’t always greener.

Brady can ask his idol, Joe Montana — who left his heart in San Francisco to finish his Hall of Fame career in Kansas City — about that.

“I love him like a son,” Kraft said.

Loved him so much that there was no room at the Foxborough Inn for Jimmy Garoppolo to stay to succeed Brady.

As well he should have … this skinny sixth-round draft choice out of Michigan who stepped in for Drew Bledsoe and engineered that shocking upset of the Rams, The Greatest Show on Turf, in Super Bowl XXXVI, the beginning of a two-decade reign of terror.

This is more deflating for Patriots Nation than Deflategate was in the days and weeks and months following the 2014 AFC Championship game against the Colts. Brady helped Belichick lift the franchise the way Bill Russell helped Red Auerbach lift the Celtics. He was their football Ted Williams, with six more championships than the Splendid Splinter. He was their Larry Bird, with three more championships than Larry Legend. Their Tom Terrific.

Alas, Belichick has long prepared for the day when Tom Versus Time was headed for a death struggle. It is why, as much as Kraft implored him to retire a Patriot or simply retire, there was no negotiation. Kraft would not stand in Belichick’s way.

I had to see Brady leaving to believe it. Now I believe it. Belichick will chase that seventh Super Bowl championship with someone not branded TB12. Jarrett Stidham? Andy Dalton? Who knows?

Tom Brady deserves to ride off into the sunset the way Manning and John Elway did.

He could have stayed. He should have stayed. He and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels were two minds in one body. Belichick will be highly motivated — no more than usual, of course — to find replacements all over the roster and continue to field a contender.

Tom Brady would have had a better chance with Belichick, as QB of the NEP.

But Tom Brady is no longer QB of the NEP.

Brady earned this right to be a free agent for the first time in his life.

“My football journey will take place elsewhere,” Brady wrote.

Forever a Patriot.