The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Belichick, Brady open up about what made them click
The success of the relationship between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick was evident in six Super Bowl championships for the New England Patriots, but “how” and “why” were always questions the two preferred to cloak in mumbles and cliches — until Monday.
Belichick joined Brady’s “Let’s Go” podcast for the first episode since his former quarterback retired, and the coach offered the kind of gushing praise and analysis he usually reserves for defensive players. The conversation provided insight into the debate about which man was more important to the Patriots’ run of success.
“There’s nobody I’d rather be associated with,” Brady said. “I think it’s always such a stupid conversation to say ‘Brady versus Belichick’ because, in my mind, that’s not what a partnership is about. Coach couldn’t play quarterback, and I couldn’t coach.”
The partnership was fueled by regular meetings between the two. “Tom talks about how much I taught him in those meetings, but I learned so much from Tom because I never played quarterback and I never saw the game through the quarterback’s eyes,” Belichick said. “I saw it through a coach’s eyes, and what Tom would tell me — what he saw and how he saw it — it was incredible how he’d come off and I’d say, ‘What happened on that play?’ and he’d go through eight things that happened. ‘The tackle flashed in front of me. This guy slipped. I saw the linebacker drop wide. The safety was a little deeper than I thought he would be. Then this guy stepped in front and I kind of put it a little bit behind him because I saw this other guy closing.’
“And then you would go back and look at the film and every one of those things happened in the exact sequence that he explained it to you on the field coming off. I’m like, ‘This guy sees everything.’ ”
“I remember so many situations that came up in games where Tom would refer back to, ‘Yeah, that’s what we talked about when we watched the Detroit-atlanta game’ or, ‘Yeah, remember when they ran this play in this situation two years ago?’ I mean, the memory and the capacity that Tom had to remember plays, situations and finer points like hard counts and getting-out-of-bounds plays and things like that from years before in the exact same situation and time frame was remarkable.”
Brady was emotional at times during the conversation, particularly when co-host Jim Gray asked what Belichick did to bring out the best of a player taken with the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL draft. “I think it’s more, what did he not do?” Brady said. The two went to nine Super Bowls together and teamed to win 30 of the Patriots’ 37 postseason victories. Their 20 years together ended when Brady left after the 2019 season for Tampa Bay, with whom he won another Super Bowl.
“People were always trying to pull us apart,” Brady said Monday. “I don’t think we ever felt like that with each other . ... We actually were always trying to go in the same direction.”