Tom Brady’s decision to leave the New England Patriots and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of the 2020 season ultimately led to a Super Bowl victory in his first year with the team.
However, the reasoning behind his departure had remained somewhat of a mystery – until now.
Brady recently opened up about the moment he realized his tenure in New England was nearing its end, shedding light on the growing divide between himself and longtime head coach Bill Belichick.
“For me, it was a creeping decision that lived passively in the back of mind for 2-3 years until March of 2020 when a whirlwind of a few days made me realize that a decision was coming sooner rather than later,” Brady wrote on his website.
After two decades with the Patriots, Brady said a natural tension had developed between his own professional aspirations, Belichick’s vision, and the overall direction of the franchise.
“The reality was, after twenty years together, 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.”
When the time came to choose his next destination, Brady approached the decision analytically, creating a detailed list of priorities to evaluate potential landing spots.
“What I ended up with was a list of about twenty things that I then ranked and graded on a weighted scale from 1 to 3,” Brady continued.
“The presence of skill players was a 3 in terms of importance, for example, and the Bucs graded out as a 3 because of guys like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin The same was true for the head coach. That was a 3 in importance, and Tampa scored a 3 with Bruce Arians. Game day weather was a 2, practice weather was a 3.”
While financial compensation factored into the equation, Brady noted it wasn’t his top concern.
“Financial compensation was on the list, obviously, but it wasn’t first, it probably wasn’t even top 10, and it definitely didn’t rank as a 3 in importance,” Brady added.
“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 twenty or so dimensions.”
Brady’s calculated decision paid off immediately, as he led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title in his first season – cementing his legacy in a second NFL city.
As impressive as his title with the Bucs was, it is somewhat sad that things fell apart between Brady and Belichick in New England.
While the two seem to be on much better terms now, you can’t help but wonder if they could have won another Lombardi – or two or three – had they stayed together.
What are your thoughts on Brady’s admission???
