“I Don’t Want to Play for Bill Belichick Anymore”: Tom Brady Was Reportedly Sick of His Head Coach Years Before the Downfall of the New England Patriots Dynasty

There’s no question that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick formed the most successful player-coach partnership in NFL history. However, details of their strained relationship have been coming to light ever since Brady left.

During Tom Brady’s 20 years in New England, he won 6 Super Bowls alongside famed head coach Bill Belichick. The duo set all types of records and will undoubtedly go down as the best to ever do it in their respective roles.

But while they had unbelievable success on the field, things weren’t so dandy off of it. When Brady left for Tampa Bay, most people weren’t exposed to the ugly realities of the greatest dynasty in football history.

Of late, this has been changing. Just in the last month, Brady’s personal trainer and close friend Alex Guerrero as well as his father have publicly spoken about how the situation in Foxboro with Belichick was bordering on toxicity.

But neither of their comments come close to the excerpts from “It’s Better To Be Feared”, a book released by senior ESPN writer Seth Wickersham. The clippings from the book have been making waves in the media, showing there was definitely no love lost between Brady, Belichick, and even Robert Kraft.

ESPN Writer Details the Collapse of the Patriots Dynasty

Here are some of the most interesting quotes:

• “Kraft sometimes groaned to confidants that Belichick didn’t show him the respect he deserved, but he was in no rush for life after him. Brady, though, seemed ready for it. … ‘I don’t want to play for Bill anymore,’ he told people close to him in 2017.”
• “Brady was tired of taking team-friendly deals with no input into how the money saved was spent — and still wanted a long-term contractual commitment”
• “Belichick told associates that every organizational decision now was in support of Brady, geared toward pleasing him and making him successful — and that Kraft meddled with the team, sometimes with opinions, sometimes with restrictive budgets”

Bill Belichick Questions the Reliability of the Book

The book is set to release on October 12th, and if it contains more insights like these, fans could be in for a real eye-opener on the most successful football partnership ever.

However, there’s really no way to ascertain whether Wickersham’s claims are completely valid or not, and this is the point that Belichick is trying to make about a particular excerpt related by ESPN today.

“In the end, Tom Brady just wanted to say goodbye — in person — to his longtime coach,” ESPN previews. “But according to a new book to be published next month, Bill Belichick said he wasn’t available and insisted the two New England Patriots legends talk on the phone.”

“Even though Belichick told Brady that he was ‘the best player the league had ever seen,’ Brady told a friend the fact it came over the phone was ‘telling’ about how badly the duo’s relationship had deteriorated over the years.”

That being said, Belichick wasn’t ready to be slandered like that, and insisted that he was more focused on beating Tom Brady’s Buccaneers on the weekend than on the book.

“That’s not true,” he said when questioned about the claims regarding Brady’s departure. “I’ve heard a few things about this book and it sounds like it’s a lot of second, third and fourth-hand comments. But I’m not going to get into that. I’m going to focus on this game and try to prepare for the Bucs.”

Also read: “You’re like the kid with the divorced parents”: Tom Brady vs. Bill Belichick has Julian Edelman torn on his allegiances