There were subtle hints along the way, some tea leaves to be read and even a few reports that tried to warn New England that the end was near.
But only Tom Brady knew all along that last season was going to be the final one of his 20-year tenure with the Patriots.
“I don’t think there was a final, final decision until it happened, but I would say I probably knew before the start of last season that it was my last year,” Brady said Wednesday morning in an expansive, two-hour interview with Howard Stern on SiriusXM. “I knew it was just our time, our time was coming to an end.”
And so less than three months after Brady threw his final pass in a Patriots uniform — a pick-six in a first-round playoff loss to the Titans —the 42-year-old left New England and pulled a stunner by signing with the Buccaneers on a two-year, $50 million contract.
Brady said there “wasn’t a ton of substantial conversations” with the Patriots this offseason about a new contract, but that didn’t make his goodbye any less emotional. He said he was in tears when he told Patriots owner Robert Kraft of his decision to leave, driving to his house to break the news and then calling Bill Belichick to do the same.
Still, the fact that Belichick didn’t make him a Patriot for life didn’t irk Brady, he claimed.
“I never cared about legacy,” Brady said. “I could give a s–t about that. … It was just time. I had accomplished everything I could in two decades with an incredible organization, an incredible group of people. That will never change and no one can ever take that away from me.”
Brady and Belichick won six Super Bowls together, but now all eyes will turn to whether either can win one without the other. That has been debated for years, but Brady doesn’t buy it.
“I think it’s a pretty s–tty argument, actually, that people would say that,” Brady said. “I can’t do his job and he can’t do mine. The fact that you could say, would I be successful without him? The same level of success? I don’t believe I would have been. But I feel the same and vice versa as well.”
Brady was complimentary of Belichick throughout the interview, despite Stern’s repeated attempts at getting him to bite. Brady had every opportunity to dish on Belichick and wouldn’t do it.
Stern alluded to the reports of discontent between Brady and Belichick in recent years, which reportedly stemmed from Belichick’s unwillingness to commit to Brady beyond a year-to-year basis and wanting to keep Jimmy Garoppolo as the Patriots’ quarterback of the future.
“I think [Belichick] has a lot of loyalty,” Brady said from Davis Islands in his new mansion, which he is renting from Derek Jeter. “He and I have had a lot of conversations that nobody’s ever been privy to and nor should they be. So many wrong assumptions were made about our relationship or about how he felt about me. I know genuinely how he feels about me.
“I got to a point where I was an older athlete and he’s starting to plan for the future, which is what his responsibility is. I don’t fault him for that. That’s what he should be doing.”
Of course, Belichick eventually lost Garoppolo when Kraft reportedly forced him to trade the rising star quarterback to the 49ers in 2017. Now, the Patriots are left with 23-year-old Jarrett Stidham as the likely next man up with veteran Brian Hoyer, Brady’s longtime backup, also on board.
Brady also had to focus on a more pressing relationship late in his Patriots tenure — his marriage. He revealed that his wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, “wasn’t satisfied with our marriage,” so Brady had to make changes, which included skipping OTAs in recent years.
“There was a couple years ago, she didn’t feel like I was doing my part for the family,” Brady said. “She felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house, and then all the sudden when the season would end, that I’d be like, ‘Great, let me get into all my other business activities. Let me get into my football training.’ And she’s sitting there going, ‘Well, when are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school and do that?’
“It’s a good reminder for me that things are going to change and evolve over time. What happened and what worked for us 10 years ago won’t work for us forever.”
Brady, meanwhile, has turned his attention to the Buccaneers after a recruiting process that he said “felt good.” Ultimately, he said he wrote down 20 things that were most important to him, including family decisions, being close to his son Jack (in New York City), playing with good players, coaching and the chance to play in a warm climate.
“I wanted to make a decision where I thought I could really excel as a player,” Brady said. “I chose this one and time will tell what kind of decision [I] made.”