Brady talks of leaving Pats, trouble in his marriage
TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady entered his final season in New England with a strong inkling that it would be his last with the Patriots.
The sixtime 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 head 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 wideranging 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,” said the fourtime Super Bowl MVP, who insisted there has never been a rift between him and the coach over who was most responsible for New England’s success.
With Brady and Belichick leading the way, the Patriots won 17 division titles and appeared in nine Super Bowls and 13 AFC Championship Games over the past 20 years.
Brady, who’ll turn 43 in August, signed a twoyear, $50 million contract with the Bucs last month, joining a team with the worst winning percentage in league history.
“I never cared about legacy,” Brady said. “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 moving his family into a furnished mansion he’s renting from Derek Jeter in Tampa, as well as his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bundchen, trying marijuana and alcohol as a teenager, and his college career at Michigan.
The quarterback also spoke in detail about his decision to skip OTAs in recent years with the Patriots after reading a letter from his wife, who at the time was unhappy with some aspects of their marriage.
“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, who said he kept the letter.
“A couple of 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.”