After Tom Brady and the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2021, one of the first messages he received came from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
It was one of the examples Brady cited in a recent interview with ESPN this week to demonstrate that his relationship with Belichick — despite all the reported disagreements near the end of his New England tenure — has always been “positive and always will,” Brady said.
“Were there times where you know it wasn’t always eye to eye? Very few and far between, actually,” Brady said, while also adding that he “was very fortunate to play for him” and “learned so much” from Belichick.
Belichick was the only NFL head coach that Brady had ever played for until he departed as a free agent and signed with the Bucs ahead of the 2020 season, remaining with Tampa Bay for the final three years of his career before retiring in February.
Together, Brady and Belichick reached the Super Bowl nine times, won six of them and secured the Patriots’ position as an AFC dynasty during their 20 seasons together.
“He very much trusted what I was out there doing in the field, and it went both ways,” Brady told ESPN. “Ultimately our success was because so many people in the organization, as coach Belichick always said, ‘do your job,’ and I did as quarterback and leader.”
But near the end of Brady’s career in New England, friction between the quarterback, Belichick, owner Robert Kraft and personal trainer Alex Guerrero surfaced, including a report from Seth Wickersham’s book “It’s Better to be Feared” that said the Belichick-Brady breakup meeting happened over the phone since the head coach allegedly wasn’t available for an in-person conversation.
Belichick and Brady denied that report at the time, while Brady said during a Buccaneers press conference later in the week that “everything was handled the right way.”
The pair have worked to change the perception of their relationship, though, and Sports Illustrated reported that the duo spent 20 minutes together following an October 2021 game between the Patriots and Buccaneers.
When Brady retired in February, Belichick appeared on the “Let’s Go!” podcast — with Brady and Jim Gray — and said, “it was such an opportunity and honor for me to coach Tom.”
“I was very fortunate to play with him and be a member of those teams,” Brady told ESPN this week, according to the Boston Globe. “With him and his leadership and his ability to coach and put our team in a great position to succeed, I think we had a great relationship.
“I think we always had a great amount of respect for each other, and I think as time goes by we’ll have more respect for one another because there will be more perspective on those things.
“I’m taking a lot of things that he taught me in terms of his leadership into the different opportunities that I have in front of me.”
In two of the three seasons after Brady left for Tampa, the Patriots have finished with a losing record and missed the postseason.
