Tom Brady ‘got tired’ of Bill Belichick: ex-Patriots CB Asante Samuel

Former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel thinks he has a pretty good understanding of why Tom Brady ultimately left New England.

“He probably just got tired of it,” Samuel, 39, told TMZ Sports. “He probably got tired of some inner-circle things that he wanted. Maybe he wanted receivers and tight ends to stay there with him, and maybe [coach] Bill [Belichick] tried to trade them. Who knows what happened?”

Samuel, who played his first five NFL seasons and won two Super Bowls with the Patriots, isn’t the first to believe there were tensions within the organization. Reports of a strained relationship among Brady, Belichick and owner Robert Kraft have surfaced over the last few years.

But the former cornerback has seen firsthand what it’s like to play for Belichick and the Patriots, who drafted Samuel in the fourth round (120th overall) in 2003. He said he was appreciative of his time in New England, but wasn’t so keen on playing under such a demanding coach.

“It worked out for me, man,” said Samuel, who signed as a free agent with the Eagles in 2008. “It made me a better man, but it’s not something I enjoyed.”

Samuel accumulated 22 interceptions and 237 tackles in 75 games for the Patriots from 2003 to 2007.

Brady, 42, signed a two-year, $50 million guaranteed contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last month. Soon after, he told Howard Stern he knew he was leaving the organization before the start of the 2019 season.

In a Players Tribune article published April 6, Brady expressed his appreciation for his time in New England but made it clear that he plans to find out what he can do without the organization he’s been with for 20 seasons.

“Right now, though, I have things to prove to myself. The only way is through,” he wrote. “If I don’t go for it, I’ll never know what I could have accomplished. Wanting to do something is different from actually doing it. If I stood at the bottom of a mountain, and told myself I could scale the highest peak, but then didn’t do anything about it, what’s the point of that?”