Tom Brady Will Finish Career as Patriot, On His Own Terms

After almost a whole two days of talking about real Patriots news and the draft, the focus was ripped back away from football and back to the 2017 season and just how happy Tom Brady really is after he sat down for a rare offseason interview with Jim Gray. His lengthy talk gave plenty of fodder to whichever side you choose to take in the spring of the Patriots’ alleged discontent.

No matter what you want to believe, the remaining fact is Brady will be quarterbacking in Patriots training camp in July, where football betting lines still have New England as Super Bowl favorites. We are of course nearing the end of the Belichick-Brady run, and things have certainly evolved, but the important issue — going after Super Bowl 53 — remains unchanged and unlikely affected.

It didn’t take long before the warring factions who cover and follow the Patriots started trading jabs over Brady’s answers. One side focused myopically on Brady’s “plead the fifth” comment at the start, while the other pointed to Brady’s later comments on how much respect he has for Bill Belichick, and around and around we go. Social media can be so fun these days.

The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. And as usual, the arguments are often in bad faith. Brady is clearly transitioning to the end phase of his career. He’s making more time for his family and he’s training his way. He has said those things implicitly a number of times. He knows Belichick can no longer unexpectedly ship him out of town so he’s doing what he wants.

For other players, it would be a one-way ticket to an NFC bottom dweller, but this is Tom Brady, and Robert Kraft has his back so Brady’s going to end things on his own terms. He’s earned that, even if this feeling unappreciated act is getting annoying to the fan base.

Trying to pretend nothing at all has changed between Brady and the organization is just as disingenuous as those seemingly praying that this rift is what will bring down the ship, and making details that might support and fuel that their sole focus. That’s what riles fans up and why it gets beaten into the ground by those who need clicks, by those who have been biding their time to find something to make people turn on Belichick, or by those who just love the drama.

Whether you participate in their respective passion plays is up to you. No one is forcing you to listen to Felger and Mazz. There are a billion other things to listen to that might actually bring value to your life instead of frustration and anger, but as I’ve learned, everyone “enjoys” sports in their own ways.

“We’ve had a great relationship, a very respectful relationship for a long time. I feel like he’s the best coach in the history of the NFL. He has a management style [with] players, and he would say, ‘Look, I’m not the easiest coach to play for.’ I agree. He’s not the easiest coach to play for.

“But he’s the best for me. I think what he’s proven is that whatever talent he has, he maximizes his talent. What more could you ask of a coach than that? That’s what I want as a player. … He’s been an incredible coach, he’s been an incredible mentor to me. He’s taught me so much football. To be a 22-year-old kid and come and learn from him, I wouldn’t be sitting here without his coaching. I wouldn’t have the success without how incredibly talented he was, along with a lot of the other coaches, a lot of the other players, a lot of the other people in the organization. Because it takes everybody to do it.”

Brady really did lay it all out in this interview. Belichick is hard to play for. Belichick is especially hard on Brady. After 18 years it can get a little old. I get it. But Brady admits it’s for the best and knows that it’s that very coaching style that has squeezed the absolute best out of him and numerous Patriots teams that have dominated the NFL for nearly two decades.

Is Brady going to force a trade? Force Belichick out? Nope and nope. So here we are, stuck waiting until July, when the training camp opens, the entire focus shifts to 2018 as it should already be. Only then will we know if there’s any fallout from Brady’s shifting priorities, or if simply being the GOAT is enough.