New England media has officially entered the vilification stage of the Tom Brady grief cycle.
In a column published by the Boston Sports Journal on Saturday, founder Greg Bedard claims that former Patriots signal-caller was “largely checked out” during the tail end of the 2018 season in spite of a successful Super Bowl 53 campaign.
“This stuff that you’re hearing — he felt he was being phased out, (offensive coordinator) Josh McDaniels was no longer his buffer, Brady lacked the same input — is what you get from an aging athlete, who has always been worried about being replaced, seeing ghosts,” Bedard wrote. “What you won’t hear from Team Brady is that Brady largely checked out in 2018 after the loss to Pittsburgh and hated how the offense pivoted to a more run-based attack.”
Brady threw just one touchdown and was intercepted once during the Patriots’ 17-10 loss to the Steelers in Week 15 of the 2018 season. However, the notion that he mentally threw in the towel after that is suspect in light of their subsequent success. He finished the regular season with 4,355 yards, 29 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a 65.8 completion percentage and the team won its next five games, including a 13-3 Super Bowl victory over the Rams.
“Was Brady being phased out in ’18? Was the offense becoming less Tom-centric? Of course not,” Bedard wrote. “The Patriots were trying to win football games with what they had on hand. And it worked … so I guess we won’t hear any public complaints about that season.”
On Sunday, Bedard slightly backpedaled the bold assertion on Twitter and said that the “checked out” statement did not apply to the playoffs, though it certainly seems like it was implied.
“Brady probably hated the Rams Super Bowl gameplan as well and how it only produced 13 points,” wrote Bedard, who is known as one of the more plugged-in reporters around the team.
Brady completed 21 of 35 pass attempts in Super Bowl 53 for 262 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. The lone touchdown in the game was scored by running back Sony Michel.
“Brady was so dead-set on being the one to orchestrate the final years of his career, that he was paranoid about [head coach Bill] Belichick beating him to the punch,” Bedard added.
Bedard is far from the first to postulate that Brady’s fraying dynamic with Belichick and McDaniels, in conjunction with palpable frustration with the offense in his final season were contributing factors towards his departure. Shortly after Brady signed with the Buccaneers, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham wrote that “Brady seemed so driven by an animus toward Belichick that they couldn’t tell if he actually wanted a fresh start or if he just needed leverage to force [Robert] Kraft to step in.”
Earlier this month, former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel said Brady “probably just got tired of [New England]” and NFL insider Gary Myers called Brady’s relationship with Josh McDaniels, “deteriorating.”
Brady quickly refuted Myers’ report on Instagram: “Please stop this nonsense! 19 years together and brothers for life.”