Apple TV's "The Dynasty" documentary released in 2024 confirmed that legendary quarterback Tom Brady left the New England Patriots in March 2020 because he "wasn't going to sign up for more of" playing for head coach Bill Belichick.
In the latest edition of his weekly newsletter published on Monday, Brady expanded on his decision to reach free agency and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roughly five years ago.
"After 20 years together," Brady wrote, "a natural tension had developed between where coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers and where the Patriots were moving as a franchise. It was the kind of tension that could only be resolved by some kind of split or one of us reassessing our priorities."
Belichick allegedly "never truly believed Brady would leave" what was the only home of his NFL career from the sixth round of the 2000 draft through the 2019 season. However, Patriots owner Robert Kraft noted this past fall that Brady "lived under an arrangement that was very difficult for him the last decade" of his New England tenure.
Together, Brady and Belichick guided the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships. While Brady later helped the Buccaneers win Super Bowl LV in his first season with that organization, Belichick never won a playoff game without the signal-caller from January 2021 up until he was shown the door by Kraft in January 2024.
"What I ended up with was a list of about 20 things that I then ranked and graded on a weighted scale from one to three," Brady added about choosing the Buccaneers as a free agent. "The presence of skill players was a three in terms of importance, for example, and the Bucs graded out as a three because of guys like (wide receivers) Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. The same was true for the head coach. That was a three in importance, and Tampa scored a three with Bruce Arians. Game day weather was a two, practice weather was a three. ...In the end, I chose Tampa almost exactly five years ago now because, in the aggregate, it graded out higher than New England along those 20 or so dimensions."
For a different piece published on Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated wrote that "Brady's lasting impact on" the Buccaneers as it pertains to "doing deals that would make sense both for the player and the team" impacted Godwin's decision to take less money and re-sign with Tampa Bay this offseason.
"That’s a pretty cool legacy and a pretty cool thing the Bucs have built—and a reason why they’ve come out of their Brady era in much better shape than the Patriots," Breer continued.
One can only wonder what could've been for the Patriots had Kraft been able to convince Brady to stay a one-club man through the remainder of his playing career.
