Brady knew it was time to make change in career
Tom Brady entered his final season in New England with a strong inkling that it would be his last with the Patriots.
The six-time Super Bowl champion who signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency last month said Wednesday on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” it was “just time” for a change, reiterating he has no hard feelings about coach Bill Belichick not making him a Patriot for life.
“I think he has a lot of loyalty and I think he and I have had a lot of conversations that nobody’s ever been privy to, and nor should they be,” Brady told Stern during a wide-ranging interview lasting more than two hours.
“So many wrong assumptions were made about our relationship, or about how he felt about me. I know genuinely how he feels about me,” the four-time Super Bowl MVP added.
Brady, who’ll turn 43 in August, said he entered “unchartered territory as an athlete’’ when continued to perform at a high level in recent years.
“I was an older athlete, and he started to plan for the future, which is what his responsibility is. And I don’t fault him for that,” Brady said of Belichick. “That’s what he should be doing. That’s what every coach should be doing.”
Brady signed a two-year, $50 million contract with the Bucs last month, joining a team with the worst winning percentage in league history.
Tampa Bay hasn’t made the playoffs since 2007 and doesn’t have a postseason win since its lone Super Bowl championship run 18 years ago.
“I never cared about legacy . ... I never once, when I was in high school, said, ‘Man, I can’t wait for what my football legacy looks like.’ I mean, that’s just not me. That’s not my personality. So why would I choose a different place? It’s because it was just time. I don’t know what to say other than that,” Brady said.
Brady also talked about his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
“What was important to her, what was important to me was our family and our relationship, and at different times, like any married couple, things need to be changed,” said Brady.
“A couple years ago she didn’t feel like I was doing my part for the family . ... She felt like I would play football all season, and she would take care of the house, and then all of a sudden when that season would end I’d be like: ‘Great, let me get into all my other business activities, let me get into my football training,’ and she’s sitting there going, ‘Well, when are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school?’ ” Brady said.
“I had to make a big transition in my life to say, ‘I can’t do all the things that I wanted to do for football like I used to,’ ” he added. “I’ve got to take care of things with my family,’ because my family ... the situation wasn’t great. She wasn’t satisfied with our marriage.”