As ‘wars’ go, this one was very civil
Belichick, Brady turn podcast into lovefest
The undeclared Civil War between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick that raged for 1 score and 3 years came to an end Monday on the “Let’s Go” podcast.
Host Jim Gray brought together Brady and his former coach in what turned out to be the biggest expression of peace, love and music to one’s ears since the original “Woodstock.”
Valentine’s Day came a week early as a pair of GOATs showered each other with the sort of praise you might hear at a funeral, or outside of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
“Brady vs. Belichick” had been considered the most-intense rivalry east of “Coke vs. Pepsi.”
Instead, theirs was a passionate bromance that resulted in six rings, 249 wins and 614 touchdowns (including the postseason).
“The greatest player, the greatest career. A great, great person. It was such an opportunity and an honor for me to coach Tom. I guess it’s gotta end at some point. But it’s the greatest one ever. So, congratulations, Tom.”
Belichick, or someone pretending to be Belichick, really said that.
Brady was shocked as the rest of us.
“Appreciate it,” he stammered, seemingly choking back tears.
“I think it’s more what he did not do to bring out the best in me,” Brady replied when asked about how Belichick made him better. “I was just very lucky.”
The “Brady vs. Belichick” argument that forced brother to take sides against sister against father against first-cousin apparently only existed in our imaginations.
The Ancient Greeks had eight words for “love.”
If we’re to believe what we heard Monday, the relationship between Brady and Belichick covered at least three:
“Phila” — Friendship “Storge” — Affection “Pragma” — Compromise
If you ask Brady and Belichick — and Gray to his credit did — there was never any “Brady vs. Belichick” war inside the walls of the Kremlin on Route 1.
“For me there’s nobody I’d rather be associated with,” Brady, or someone pretending to be Brady, said of Belichick. “From my standpoint, I think it’s always 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.”
Neither Belichick nor Brady was bold enough to declare victory in New England’s 21st Century Civil War.
We called it for Brady after he and his Buccaneers drove the Chiefs into the sea in the Super Bowl two years ago. Sherman himself wasn’t that dominant in SEC Country. Belichick’s Patriots, meanwhile, haven’t won a playoff game since Super Bowl 53.
Before his death, President Lincoln (whose 214th birthday is Super Bowl Sunday) made it clear that he did not want the Union to punish those who fought for the Confederacy. Soldiers who wore the grey in the War Between The States were not to be treated as if they were a vanquished foreign army. They would be, after all, Americans again once hostilities ceased.
When the Civil War ended, General U.S. Grant offered these terms to Robert E. Lee. Grant even sweetened the deal, allowing Confederate soldiers who brought their own horses into battle to take them home so that they could work to rebuild their lives. Soldiers below the rank of general who laid down their arms (they were allowed to keep their own personal weapons) and vowed not to take up another fight against the Union would not be persecuted.
A conflict that claimed more than 620,000 American lives concluded with a “Gentleman’s Agreement” executed at the most unassuming of venues, a courthouse in Appomattox, Va.
Such beneficence seems impossible today, where even the most innocuous misstatement can bring ruin to one’s life. Or trigger gunplay in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They don’t put just any president on the $5 bill, even if some mental midgets and short-sighted activists want to purge Lincoln from our past or present.
Brady, following the path of Lincoln, was magnanimous in victory. He simply declared the “Brady vs. Belichick” debate was rooted in pulp fiction.
“People (were) always trying to pull us apart, and I don’t think we ever felt that with each other,” Brady said. “We never were trying to pull each other apart, we actually were always trying to go in the same direction. 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, they just start going: ‘Well this works, let’s start trying to divide them.’ ”
It’s hard to lay all the blame on us for thinking Brady and Belichick had grown apart. Brady’s exwife made it crystal clear in “Tom vs. Time” that her hubby’s relationship with his coach had long soured.
Absence made Brady’s heart grow fonder in Tampa Bay. Todd Bowles made Brady’s heartburn grow.
Belichick spoke of Brady as if he were the greatest long-snapper in Navy history. Of course, there was the required Lawrence Taylor nod. But his praise of Brady was without reservation.
“He was always the target every week, he had the bullseye on his back every week, and every week he came through and delivered,” Belichick said of Brady.
The end of any great war, cold or hot, real or imagined, brings peace and reflection.
It also opens the door for future conflict.
But this time, we’ll have to look for new combatants.
Brady and Belichick are out.
They have a hug to share.