Tom Brady announced his retirement from the NFL Tuesday morning and didn’t mention the coach and the team that made him a superstar. Brady, who spent 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, didn’t mention the team or head coach Bill Belichick. Instead, the seven-time Super Bowl Champion thanked everyone else, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he spent the last two seasons.
Brady sent messages to his Buccaneers teammates, the fans, the city of Tampa, Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, Bucs general manager Jason Licht, the coaching staff, his agents, Alex Guerrero and his family. While Brady showed loved to the Patriots when he left the team in 2020, it’s interesting that he didn’t mention the Patriots in his retirement message.
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On Brady’s docuseries Man in the Arena, Brady talked about his relationship with Belichick. “Coach Belichick and I had for so many years a really great relationship — but it was always player-coach. He was there to coach football, I was there to play football,” Brady said, per Fox Sports Radio. “He had always said there’s nobody I’d rather have play quarterback for our team than you, and I felt that same way about him as a coach.
“I had a great relationship with Coach Belichick. I think he wanted a quarterback to show up every day and put the team first, and I wanted a coach that showed up every day and put the team first. And we found an amazing working relationship together. And I think he was the best coach I could ever ask for. We had our challenges at different moments, but they were just moments. They don’t define what the relationship was. And in the end we accomplished things that no one had ever accomplished in NFL history.”
Brady had a lot of success with Belichick and the Patriots. During his time in New England (2000-2019), Brady led the team to nine Super Bowl appearances with six Super Bowl wins and won the Super Bowl MVP award four times. He was also won the NFL MVP award three times and only missed the playoffs twice after becoming a starting quarterback in 2001. Brady signed with the Buccaneers in 2020 and led the team to a Super Bowl title that season.
