Tom Brady and Bill Belichick spent 20 seasons together in New England. They won six Super Bowls with the Patriots, and their legendary careers will forever be intertwined.
And while the two admittedly had their differences at times, Brady and Belichick both seem willing to take the positives from their time together over the negatives.
In a recent appearance on the Let’s Go podcast, both Brady and Belichick spoke about their working relationship in New England. Brady painted the feuds — particularly later in his Patriots tenure — as a media narrative that tried to tear them apart. Belichick also offered fond memories of his time with Brady.
Really enjoyed listening to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick shoot down the "Brady vs. Belichick" narrative that people have tried to create.
This is worth the listen.
(via “Let’s Go!” podcast) pic.twitter.com/SdSWv5rdYi
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 7, 2023
Brady said:
“I think for me, there’s nobody I’d rather be associated with. And I think from my standpoint, I think it’s such a stupid conversation to say Brady vs. Belichick. Because, in my mind, that’s not what partnerships are about. Coach couldn’t play quarterback, and I couldn’t coach. I think the best part about football is — coach says it a lot — do your job. And he asked me to play quarterback. He didn’t ask me to coach. I didn’t want him playing quarterback. I just wanted him to coach. … In my view, it was just people always trying to pull us apart. And I don’t think we ever even felt that with each other. We were never trying to pull each other apart. We were actually always trying to go in the same direction. And I think when we were in New England for 20 years together, they get tired of writing the same story. So once they write all the nice things, championships and this and then they start going, ‘Well, this works. Let’s start trying to divide them.’ I never really appreciated those ways people would try to do that.
“He and I always had a great relationship. We met all the time. Did we always see everything exactly the same way? Who does in life? What close relationship can you have where everything goes like a bright, sunny day? No, there are moments that it was never intolerable, but I would say it was just healthy debates about certain things. We always talked about them face to face. And I think that’s one thing I appreciate about Coach Belichick in life is that he’s not afraid to have a hard conversation too. And we didn’t always agree, but we always respected each other. I know he respected me for the job that I did and I certainly did the same. And I think even when you go away from each other, you respect each other that much more.”
Belichick added:
“I’ve always said this, Tom’s heard it every year, time after time: Players win games. You can’t win games without great players, and coaches can lose them. And if coaches don’t give players a good opportunity, give them a chance where they can have a fair fight and can win on their ability then great players can overcome bad coaching. So to me, my job was always to give the team a chance to win, put together a good team. And Tom was the greatest player on many, many good teams that we had. But it’s teams that win championships. And I’d say the one thing about Tom — it was always impressive how he was the target every week. He had the bullseye on his back every week, and every week he came through and delivered. Tom could always bring out the best of their skills … he made all those players great by understanding what their strengths were and understanding how to use their strengths. Ultimately out of all the things Tom was great at, that was really his top quality was he made everybody around him better and utilized the skills that those players had and avoided the ones that maybe they weren’t as good at.”
The two will also have plenty of time to reflect on their 20 seasons together as Brady won’t start his broadcasting career until 2024.
You can listen to the full podcast here.
