Former NFL wide receiver Josh Gordon is giving fans new insight into what made Tom Brady one of the greatest quarterbacks ever.​

Gordon appeared on a recent livestream with streamer Neon, recalling his brief time with the New England Patriots and Brady’s preparation. It was unlike anything he experienced elsewhere in the NFL. According to Gordon, Brady’s commitment to improvement wasn’t limited to practices at the team facility; it extended into the offseason and even into his own home.​

“He made us live with him in the offseason,” Gordon explained. Brady invited him, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski to stay at his house while they trained together. Gordon said the group spent hours running drills and catching passes, working to perfect every detail of the passing game.​

According to Gordon, Brady demanded repetition above everything else. He recalled standing in one spot catching the same type of passes dozens of times before moving on to another route. The goal was to build chemistry so that every throw and catch would be automatic by game day. Gordon praised Brady’s obsessiveness with preparation, saying it helped the quarterback maintain such a high level of success throughout his career.

Gordon also recalled the atmosphere away from football. He said Brady’s family was very welcoming, with teammates in his home and his wife preparing meals as well. All the players focused entirely on football. The environment, Gordon explained, led him to believe that championships were earned long before Sundays arrived.

Gordon spent part of the 2018 season with the Patriots after arriving in a trade from the Cleveland Browns. Although his time in New England was brief, he developed a strong, natural relationship with Brady and praised the quarterback’s willingness to communicate and help him adjust to the Patriots’ offense.

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Tom Brady revealed he considered returning to the NFL in an interview with CNBC. 

Brady has not played in the league since 2022. Despite this, his recent performance in a flag football league sparked rumors of his possible return to the NFL.

Brady revealed he has talked with NFL executives about a possible return. However, he said the NFL opposed the idea. Brady is currently a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. NFL executives told CNBC that an owner playing for a team could raise salary cap issues.

Although coming back from an extended retirement is difficult, it’s not impossible. Philip Rivers returned to the Indianapolis Colts after being retired for four seasons. Rivers threw four touchdowns and three interceptions in three games.

If Brady returned in 2026, it would be a shorter gap of time than Rivers. He’d likely want to play for his Raiders.

Last year, the Raiders had Geno Smith at quarterback. Smith led the league in interceptions. It makes sense that Brady thought he might be able to do better. 

However, the QB position will be changing for the Raiders this season. The Raiders have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. They are projected to draft Fernando Mendoza. 

If Brady were to be a player-owner, he’d be following in the footsteps of Michael Jordan. Jordan owned the Washington Wizards while playing for them in 2001-02 and 2002-03. Jordan paid himself $1 million a year while he was a player. However, he donated his 2001-02 salary to Sept. 11 relief efforts.

As of now, Brady will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the 2028 class. Brady is expected to be a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee, but his head coach, Bill Belichick, didn’t get in on his first year on the ballot, with cheating scandals being cited as the reason for the snub by voters.

Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is in the headlines for an awkward moment two weeks ago when he remembered the late MLB analyst Tim McCarver, even though he died in 2023. Brady made sure to apologize to McCarver’s family for the mistake.

Brady wrote in his email titled “Leading Through Likability,” describing McCarver as “insightful, analytical, passionate, and immensely likable,” as he talks about leadership.

The issue with the piece was that it seemed to be breaking news that McCarver died, when in fact that was not the case.

Brady said he was thinking about the anniversary of McCarver’s death, but apparently, some words were cut during editing, leading to confusion among readers.

“I feel badly about it, still,” Brady said in a post, understanding he messed up and is taking full accountability.

Brady vowed to learn from the mistake and be better next time, saying, “There are no excuses.”

The original email was fixed, but not quickly enough, as the internet found it and wondered how a slip-up like this is even possible, especially coming from Brady, who is known for being prepared and precise.

Tom Brady reacted to his former head coach, Bill Belichick, being snubbed from the Hall of Fame.

On January 27, it was announced that Belichick didn’t receive the 40 votes required to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The football world was shocked, including Brady.

“I don’t understand it.” Brady simply said on a radio show. 

Belichick started his coaching career in 1975 as a special assistant for the Baltimore Colts. In 1985, he finally landed a major role as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator. He won two Super Bowls with the team.

In 1991, Belichick got his first chance to be a head coach for the Cleveland Browns. In 1994, he led the Browns to the playoffs. They defeated the New England Patriots in the wild-card round before losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round. 

In 1997, he joined Bill Parcells on the New York Jets as the defensive coordinator. Parcells and Belichick worked together with the Giants. The Jets had a top-10 defense in each of Belichick’s three seasons as defensive coordinator. They made the playoffs in 1998 but lost to the Denver Broncos in the conference championship. 

The Patriots hired him in 2000, and the rest was history. Belichick won six Super Bowls and three Coach of the Year awards in New England. In 2023, the two mutually agreed to part ways after a legendary run.

If you just look at his resume, Belichick’s exclusion from the Hall of Fame is simply insane. Pro Football Hall of Fame ballots are not required to be publicly released. The few voters who have publicly admitted to not voting for Belichick have cited his cheating scandals (Spygate and Deflategate) as reasons. Coaches remain on the Hall of Fame ballot indefinitely.

The NFL is loosening restrictions that banned Tom Brady from team and coaching production meetings for the 2025 season, a decision ESPN confirmed.

These restrictions, informally dubbed the “Brady Rules,” previously limited Brady’s access because he holds minority ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders. The league implemented these rules to prevent conflicts of interest, restricting access to production meetings and direct pregame preparations with coaches and players.

Brady will be able to attend production meetings alongside head coaches and players remotely, but he is still banned from attending practices at team facilities. The shift follows an exception the NFL made during last year’s Super Bowl LIX, which permitted Brady to attend production meetings despite conflict-of-interest concerns.

During Brady’s first season as a Fox top analyst, play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt would relay information after the meetings to keep the analyst in the loop. The process has introduced additional challenges, which are expected to ease as the policy changes take effect in the 2025 season.

The NFL has not publicly addressed the policy change. Fox Sports has also not released an official statement.

Brady is entering the second season of his 10-year contract with Fox Sports, worth $375 million. He began his broadcasting career one year after retiring from the NFL for a second time, where he played 23 seasons, appeared in 10 Super Bowls and won seven championships with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The policy changes will grant Brady access similar to that of other network analysts, while still respecting concerns about conflicting interests. This change opens doors for a more flexible integration of former players into broadcasting positions.

Tom Brady is a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, but it’s the quarterback of the AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs he most respects in the NFL today.

Asked on the Joel Klatt Show if there are any quarterbacks he respects for how they go about their business or remind him of himself, Brady named only Patrick Mahomes, as he gave a long answer about everything a quarterback has to do to win.

“It’s always that line about who wants to win versus who’s willing to do whatever it takes to win,” Brady said. “Everyone wants to win, but what are the habits and the daily habits and the actionable things you need to do every day to put your team in a position to win? So Patrick Mahomes, to me, is the one [who] does that the most often because [of] who he is, obviously his physical talent, how he understands what he needs to do offensively, and he brings a consistent winning attitude to work every single day. In the biggest moments, you can depend on him the most. That’s clear.”

Brady didn’t mention any other active quarterback by name but indicated that the other top quarterbacks in the league still have more to prove before they’re on Mahomes’ level.

“There’s other guys that are still developing, and they need to prove it before, in my mind, I can say, ‘Oh yeah, he’s done it.’ Well, obviously, he hasn’t done it yet,” Brady said. “They’ve all shown flashes of amazing things. They’re all great players. All of them can make tremendous plays. At some point, they need to take the next step and take, in my mind, more ownership of what they’re doing, in terms of the organizational level, to do more things, empower more people, to get more people on that train of that bus with you to head in the directions you want to go.”

Brady said he isn’t sure if the current quarterbacks in the NFL today, outside Mahomes, are doing every single thing they need to do to be the leaders of a franchise.

“The quarterback, in many ways, is the CEO of the team,” Brady said. “Certainly, on game day, there’s nobody that impacts the game more than the quarterback in NFL football. Now, you have to have the ability and the belief from the entire team, offensively and defensively, that your word means so much. And how you act every day matters to all three phases of the game. As a quarterback, you don’t just punch the clock, ‘I did my job, I threw for 40 touchdowns, why are we not winning?’ What are you doing in the offseason to help your defense? What are you doing to push the personnel department to get people doing the right thing? Are you involved in game planning? I used to do my own walk-throughs. I used to say, ‘Alright, guys, I don’t give a f— if the coaches want to come, we’re doing our walk-throughs.'”

Brady has reached 10 Super Bowls and won seven of them, the best in NFL history. Mahomes has been to five Super Bowls and won three. Time will tell if Mahomes is ever going to jump Brady as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, but Brady thinks Mahomes is doing the right things at the position. Brady also thinks that Mahomes is doing the right things to get to being the greatest quarterback of all time – even as the team Brady co-owns tries to prevent that from happening.

Heading into the offseason, it was widely reported that minority owner and future Hall of Famer Tom Brady would have input into the Las Vegas Raiders’ offseason decisions.

The Raiders, who won just four games last season, entered the offseason needing a new quarterback. The QB room in 2024 featured Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder.

Michael Silver of The Athletic revealed that Brady did not want the Raiders to invest in Sam Darnold.

“While some believed the Las Vegas Raiders would try to sign Darnold, minority owner Tom Brady—a seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback whose opinion held great sway—was not in favor of that approach,” Silver wrote.

Going into the offseason, the Raiders were considered one of the favorites to sign Darnold. Brady’s opinion pointed the team in a different direction.

The Raiders instead opted for free-agent quarterback Geno Smith, whom they signed to a two-year, $75 million contract.

Darnold signed with Smith’s former team, the Seattle Seahawks, on a three-year, $100.5 million contract.

Last season, Darnold threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns. He led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record and a playoff appearance.

The Raiders’ offense is primed to take a step up behind a former Pro Bowl quarterback and sixth overall pick, Ashton Jeanty.

Future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady became the first ever winner of the Fanatics Games in New York on Sunday.

The event puts athletes and fans against each other in a series of competitions. The 100 participants compete in a quarterback skills challenge, a basketball shooting challenge, a soccer goal-scoring challenge, a baseball pitching challenge, a hockey shooting challenge, a WWE-style entrance challenge, and a closest-to-the-pin golf challenge.

Brady finished with 399.1 points to win. UFC fighter Justin Gaethje finished in second with 345.5 points, winning a Ferrari 812 GTS.

Brady’s reward, a $1 million prize, he said, will be split among the 50 fans who competed in the event, with $5,000 each. The remaining money will be donated to charity.

Six fans finished in the top ten, with the third-place winner being third-grade teacher Matt Dennish. Dennish won a 2003-04 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor LeBron James rookie card, which he reportedly sold to Brady for $250,000.

Other athletes who competed in the event include James Harden, Eli Manning and Tyreek Hill, among others.

Travis Hunter finished with the lowest score of any athlete with a 51.6.

The games were part of the Fanatics Fan Fest weekend, which included other events such as athletes speaking live, autographs and a press conference for the fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.

Bill Belichick no longer has the record for the most championships for a head coach with six wins. The record now belongs to Paul Brown who won seven as head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced at the league meeting that statistics from the All-America Football Conference will be incorporated into the NFL record books.

When the NFL took the AAFC teams that didn’t disband in 1949, the league ignored the statistics from the AAFC. Now that those records are officially recognized, Brown now has seven championships under his belt, not just three.

However, Belichick is not the only person to be affected by this change.

Tom Brady held the title of the quarterback with the most championships of any quarterback in history. With this change to the record books, he is now tied with Cleveland Browns quarterback Otto Graham, who won his championships with Brown as his coach.

Brady still holds the record for Super Bowls played in and won, but he is now tied with Graham for championships. The same goes for Belichick and his Super Bowls.

There’s another twist to the record books with this change. The Miami Dolphins’ 1972 season is no longer the only undefeated season in the record books.

The 1948 Browns went 14-0-0 as a member of the AAFC. The Browns and the Dolphins are the only two teams to finish with an undefeated season.

There has been no shortage of thinkpieces regarding future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady‘s departure from the New England Patriots, where he spent his first 20 seasons in the NFL. Now, just over six years on, the man himself briefly discussed his experience in a newsletter about free agency – and opened up about the role legendary head coach Bill Belichick played.

Brady dubbed the exit a “creeping decision that lived passively in the back of mind for 2-3 years,” but which eventually came to fruition in 2020.

“The reality was,” Brady wrote, “after 20 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.”

Brady’s story supplements Patriots owner Robert Kraft‘s version of events – during the Apple TV documentary, Dynasty, he described a tension between Brady and Belichick that eventually got so thick the men barely spoke to each other for a season.

With six years and another Super Bowl (this time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) gone by, though, that tension seems to have mellowed. Brady invited Belichick to his “roast” in May 2024, and reportedly reached out to him about the Las Vegas Raiders coaching job before Belichick chose the University of North Carolina.

Tension or not, what Brady and Belichick did together in New England was nothing short of monumental (not that anyone’s challenging that) – and it leaves a legacy that sees them intertwined in football memory forever.

The Las Vegas Raiders quarterback room has been a revolving door for the past two seasons.

It began when they released mainstay Derek Carr (who has also now been released by the New Orleans Saints). Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and even Desmond Ridder all took snaps in the 2024 season, none with particular success. And now the Raiders find themselves in the same situation as an offseason ago, searching for a bona fide starting quarterback.

The team’s 4-13 record looks nicer than it felt, bolstered by two late-season wins that took them out of the running for the first few draft picks. Picking sixth, the Raiders were all but consigned to finding a quarterback through free agency – where they were reportedly targeting Los Angeles Rams veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was granted permission to discuss with other teams amid a turbulent contract renegotiation.

The offseason courting process is generally a straightforward one. Through a serendipitous and still-murky series of events, though, the Raiders’ quest for Stafford may have become quite nontraditional.

Fox Sports insider Jordan Schultz reported on Wednesday that Raiders minority owner Tom Brady had “hosted [Stafford] at his home in Montana, where they spent time together and went skiing,” presumably as a part of the Raiders’ “aggressive” pursuit of Stafford. The report raised resistance – alternate reports called the meeting “unplanned” and “an Internet rumor” – along with scrutiny about potential tampering.

The Raiders were reportedly willing to give Stafford $90 to $100 million, and Brady was indisputably a part of the “strong pitch” they offered. As it turns out, though, any of the Raiders’ alleged tactics have fallen by the wayside. Stafford, who agreed to a restructured deal with Los Angeles on Friday, isn’t heading to Vegas.

Despite their dismal last couple seasons, the Raiders continue to insist they’re in ‘win-now’ mode. With Stafford off the table, the temperature is only increasing for the team to secure a viable quarterback – or resign themselves to another year of flat mediocrity.

The NFL is reportedly considering changes to overtime rules in the regular season. Instead of allowing the receiving team to automatically win with a touchdown, the league may adopt the current playoff rules that give both teams a chance to score regardless of the first drive’s outcome.

In addition to adapting the rules, the league is also considering extending the overtime period to 15 minutes. Some combination of these two changes could complete the NFL’s departure from sudden-death regulations.

Controversies over the years concerning overtime rules are countless. Every fanbase has a story about its team getting denied possession at the end of a close game. The 2019 AFC Championship between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes ended this way, with the Chiefs losing a coin toss and never getting a chance on offense. Three years later, Mahomes beat the Bills and Josh Allen in identical fashion. 

The league has taken many steps over the years to tinker with the longstanding rules, but this prospective change could put the issue to rest forever. Without instituting something as radical as the NCAA’s format with untimed downs, the NFL can still create a system where both teams get a chance to score throughout the season. 

“Should it be the same overtime rules as it is in the postseason?” Troy Vincent, executive vice president of football operations, said this week. “This is one when you think about themes coming out of the season, overtime would be one that I would say is one that universally the committee thought we need to address this.”

In an effort to increase competition within football, changing the overtime rules to promote parity after the coin toss feels like a natural direction for the league. With considerable momentum reportedly behind the movement, it seems like more changes to the existing format are imminent.

The Super Bowl trophy is named in honor of Vince Lombardi, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Packers to back-to-back wins in the first two Super Bowls.

Bill Belichick, who coached Tom Brady to six of his seven Super Bowl wins, argued that coaches alone don’t win games and proposed renaming the Lombardi trophy after the legendary quarterback.

Now coaching at the University of North Carolina after his decorated tenure with the Patriots, Belichick shared his thoughts on the Let’s Go! podcast this week while speaking with co-host Jim Gray.

He pointed out that players, not coaches, determine success, insisting that it’s impossible to succeed without talent on the field.

“Players win games. You can’t win games without good players. I don’t care who the coach is, it’s impossible. You can’t win without good players. You know, I found that out when I had [Lawrence] Taylor and [Carl] Banks and Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson, Jim Burt, Everson Walls, all those guys at the Giants. And same thing when we got good at Cleveland and then at New England. I mean, it’s [Tom] Brady, it’s [Willie] McGinest, it’s [Mike] Vrabel, it’s [Tedy] Bruschi, it’s Corey Dillon, it’s Randy Moss, Troy Brown, Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison. Those are guys that won the games, man. I didn’t make any tackles. I didn’t make any kicks. That was [Adam] Vinatieri that made that kick in four inches of snow.

“You got to have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win,” Belichick added. “You want to put them in a position where if they go out there and play well, they’ll have a chance to win. That’s what Coach [Bill] Parcells taught me, is there’s always a way to win. You just got to figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance.”

Gray was quick to note, “They don’t name it the Starr Trophy,”  referencing to Bart Starr, who quarterbacked the Packers to wins in the first two Super Bowls. “It’s named the Lombardi Trophy.”

Belichick countered, “Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them.”

Brady led the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and one more with the Buccaneers. His five Super Bowl MVP awards stand as the most ever by a player.

New UNC football head coach Bill Belichick has reportedly declined several opportunities to return to the NFL next season, including a position with the Las Vegas Raiders. Minority owner Tom Brady is said to have personally delivered a pitch to Belichick, but the 72-year-old coach is standing by the Tar Heels.

At Belichick’s introductory press conference last month, he told reporters that he didn’t “come here to leave,” expressing a deep interest in coaching at the collegiate level.

Bell Belichick News

“I always wanted to coach in college football but it never really worked out,” Belichick said. “I did some good years in the NFL, and that went OK, but this is really kind of a dream come true.” 

With the game of coaching musical chairs starting up at the end of the NFL’s regular season, it’s natural that Belichick would be one of many coaches to receive calls from rebuilding teams. He has not been afraid to quickly jump ship in the past; his decision to leave the Jets in 2000 without ever having coached a game for the team led directly to his dynastic years in New England. 

Within two days of the 2024 season ending, the Jaguars, Patriots and Raiders all parted ways with their head coaches. The Jets, Bears and Saints did so earlier in the season and are looking for ways forward as well. All six teams are at some stage of a rebuild, as opposed to the relatively clean slate Belichick is receiving at UNC.

Some speculated that Belichick, the oldest coach in college football when he steps on the sidelines next fall, would struggle to adjust to the rapidly shifting NIL landscape. But the eight-time Super Bowl winner has hit the ground running, stepping directly on the recruiting trail in an effort to build a new core in Chapel Hill.  

After a moderately successful foray into the transfer portal, through which Belichick has already gained at least 13 players, he began recruiting high school prospects earlier this week. In his first stop Monday, he met with edge rusher Zavion Griffin-Haynes, a four-star recruit who decommitted from UNC when the program parted ways with head coach Mack Brown. Griffin-Haynes was reportedly impressed by his conversation with Belichick, however, and could rejoin the Tar Heels’ incoming class.

“He was telling me stuff coaches never told me,” Griffin-Haynes told Rivals. “Showing me stuff about my game, and just telling me stuff about the NFL and the program’s come up.”

Brady and others may make a few more calls to get Belichick back in the big leagues, but within a month, the future Hall-of-Famer has jumped into his new position feet-first. New talent is pouring into Chapel Hill already, and the off-season is far from over.

Following his 24-year tenure with the New England Patriots, nobody would have predicted Bill Belichick to have trouble finding a job.

Belichick, 72, holds the record for the most Super Bowls as a head coach (six), and led the Patriots to a 266-121 regular season record in his time there, including 19 consecutive winning seasons. He received NFL Coach of the Year honors three times in that span and held down the largest coaching contract in sports at $25 million a year.

After Tom Brady‘s departure and retirement in 2020, though, the Patriots fell into decline. Belichick was finally fired after a 4-13 season in 2023, and Jerod Mayo assumed the head coaching position in 2024.

Belichick was considered one of the top available coaches for ailing franchises such as the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans, all of which were looking for coaches following the 2023 season. Belichick interviewed with the Falcons – twice – but the team ultimately elected to hire Raheem Morris from the Rams.

“People need to adapt, and if they don’t… things can change,” said Patriots owner Robert Kraft, discussing the choice to fire Belichick, later adding, “I had given him so much power. He had full control over everything. And shame on me, I should’ve had some checks and balances better.”

Belichick is reportedly “very surprised” he hasn’t heard from NFL teams about coaching in 2025, despite three teams – the Jets, Saints and Bears – having vacancies, according to NBC Sports. One team that has reached out, though, is the University of North Carolina, which has been looking to hire since firing Mack Brown at the end of their season.

The Tar Heels finished 13th in the ACC this season, totaling a 6-6 record and a 3-5 conference record. A Belichick hiring would open the door to other former NFL hires, including potentially Matt Patricia and Ben McDaniels, in addition to capitalizing off his expertise and experience.

One factor for Belichick’s openness to college sports is likely a plan of succession. His son, Steve Belichick, currently serves as defensive coordinator for the University of Washington. Per Ollie Connolly of The Guardian, the elder Belichick is seeking “a guarantee that Stephen Belichick will be named the school’s coach in waiting,” which would be much easier to obtain than in the NFL.

Beyond that, a collegiate head coach generally has much more autonomy than one in the NFL, controlling a number of the responsibilities of an NFL general manager. That system would arguably be more familiar to Belichick than a traditional NFL system, given the amount of power he had in New England.

With this news, former Patriots Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman were asked on Fox NFL Kickoff whether they could imagine Belichick in a college program. All three issued emphatic no’s.

“I think there’s a lot of things he could do,” Brady said. “And obviously he’s tremendous—even showing his personality. But getting out there on the recruiting trail and dealing with all these college kids? That would be frightening.”

“Any time as a coach you join with an organization, whatever level it’s at, you just want a shared vision with that person,” said Belichick on The Pat McAfee Show, noting, “I don’t think it really matters where the program is.”

Belichick is expected to accept a UNC offer if one is extended.

Tom Brady called the third game of his broadcasting career last Sunday in Tampa Bay as the Buccaneers took on the Philadelphia Eagles and did not pull any punches.

Earlier in the week, current Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield explained how he turned his career and team around when he arrived in Florida.

“They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football to guys that were not having as much fun.”

Some took that as a shot to Brady’s no-nonsense approach to the game, so the G.O.A.T let his opinion known when given the opportunity.

“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings. This wasn’t daycare… If I was going to have fun, I was going to Disneyland with my kids. There’s a way to approach this game, and it’s with the right mindset to push teammates.”

After the game, each side gave the other their flowers as Mayfield walked back his comment, saying, “I think a lot of that got taken out of context. Nothing personal,” he said. “He did it his own way, and that’s why he’s got seven rings.”

Brady gave Mayfield his MVP as Tampa Bay blew out the Eagles at home.

Mayfield accounted for the game’s first three touchdowns as the Bucs launched out to a 21-0 first-half lead. He threw for 347 passing yards on 47 passing attempts with no interceptions as his team bounced back from a loss the week before and improved their record to 3-1.

In case anyone forget, Brady played the final three seasons of his career in Tampa after spending the first 20 years in New England. He won a Super Bowl in his first season with the Bucs and made the playoffs the following two seasons.

The New England Patriots have named Jacoby Brissett as their starting quarterback for Week 1 of the 2024 season, sending rookie Drake Maye to the bench for the time being. Brissett played for the Patriots as a rookie in 2016 and has since earned a reputation as a reliable journeyman quarterback.

Maye, who was selected with the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, will begin the season as Brissett’s backup, ahead of third-stringer Joe Milton III. While Maye has been described as “impressive” by the Patriots coaching staff, head coach Jerod Mayo said that Brissett’s experience will benefit the team while the rookie continues to develop.

“I feel like we’re all on the same page from an organizational perspective,” Mayo said. “There were a lot of factors that led to this choice. I think the hard part is thinking in the short term and the long term at the same time. As an organization, though, we feel like Jacoby gives us the best chance to win right now.”

Of the six quarterbacks drafted in the first round this year, Maye is just one of two who is healthy but will not start Week 1. Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix all earned the starting job. J.J. McCarthy likely would have started for the Vikings but suffered a season-ending injury earlier this month. Maye’s only fellow backup will be Michael Penix Jr., who had virtually no chance of taking the starting job from newly acquired Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins.

While it may seem like Maye is beginning his career on the back foot in comparison to his rookie peers, there is considerable evidence to suggest that giving quarterbacks time to develop behind a starter helps them in the long run.

The Patriots are especially well known for this, having allowed Tom Brady to sit behind Drew Bledsoe for nearly his entire rookie season. He led the team to a championship the following year. More recently, the team was also patient in handling quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who eventually went to the 49ers and started in the Super Bowl in 2019.

Brissett is another quarterback who did not start for the Patriots in his rookie season, and while he has not attained the success of other New England passers, he has still become a solid NFL player. While Deshaun Watson served an 11-game suspension last season, Brissett started for the Browns and did well enough to keep the team in playoff contention.

In fact, the only notable failure in Patriots quarterback development in recent memory is Mac Jones, who started for the team right out of the gate and even made it to the Pro Bowl. Jones failed to sustain this momentum in subsequent seasons and the team around him cratered. He is now backing up Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville. Maybe Maye is better off for now.

Hall-of-Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens claimed in an interview Wednesday that he asked Tom Brady for a chance to play on the Buccaneers in 2021, only to be ignored by the eight-time Super Bowl champion. Owens was 48 at the time and has not played in the NFL since 2010.

Owens told the story about Brady on The Bubba Dub Show podcast in an episode released Wednesday. He claimed that he reached out to Brady ahead of the postseason, asking for a limited opportunity after Antonio Brown’s abrupt release.

“Tom Brady ignored me,” Owens said. “The year that AB went crazy … they just needed somebody to fill some holes with AB leaving at the receiver position. I reached out to him through Randy [Moss] and some other people just to come in and play third down and red zone situations. This dude ignored me. It just shows you the lack of respect there, but then when they get in front of you, they want to act like they respect you.”

Owens referred to Brown’s outburst, in which he left the field early during a Week 17 game against the New York Jets, as the motivation behind his request to play again. A six-time Pro Bowler, Owens never won a Super Bowl and has tried many times to re-enter the league at an advanced age.

In 2012, Owens made his first comeback attempt when he signed a one-year deal with the Seattle Seahawks. The team released him after just 20 days. He went on to play that season for the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League before getting released. In 2014, he denied having retired and claimed to be training with several NFL teams in the hopes of getting another chance.

Owens was briefly in contact with teams in the Canadian Football League in 2018, but nothing ever materialized. He was last rumored to be in contact with the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams during the 2022 season, but no one ever signed him.

Between his age and checkered reputation off the field, Owens has repeatedly been denied a place in the NFL since his prime playing days ended. His poor behavior is also widely speculated to be a reason for his delayed induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is not confirmed whether or not Brady truly ignored him, but if he did, he certainly would not have been the only one to do so.

Tom Brady was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame Wednesday, donning the red jacket in a ceremony that included owner Robert Kraft and former head coach Bill Belichick.

Brady became the 35th member of the team’s Hall of Fame, though it likely didn’t require much deliberation to induct the seven-time Super Bowl winner. Committees in Canton should have a similarly easy time in a few years. In his address, Kraft offered kind words to Brady and said that he wanted to hold a special ceremony for a “one-in-a-kind player.”

While the owner shared a meaningful moment with Brady during the ceremony, an exchange between the quarterback and Belichick more effectively recalled memories of the team’s dynastic run.

“Thank you for all that you’ve done for us,” Belichick said to Brady in his speech. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me. And thank you for the example and model that you’ve been for all of us, on a daily basis, for 20 years. You’re unbelievable.”

In his induction speech several minutes later, Brady returned the favor.

“Thank you for your tireless commitment to develop and push me to be my very best,” Brady said to Belichick. “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t you, it was us. Let me make this crystal clear — there is no coach in the world I would rather play for than Bill Belichick.”

Since Brady’s run in New England came to an end in 2019, public relationships between the team’s former titans have seemingly eroded. Kraft and Belichick have been at odds for years now, with Kraft reportedly going so far as to advise the Atlanta Falcons to avoid the head coach. Belichick did not have a job in the NFL in 2023. Brady’s relationship with the two figures also reportedly grew contentious and ultimately led him to finish his career with the Buccaneers.

In recent months, however, it seems that the key contributors to the Patriots dynasty have gone to great lengths to pull back the curtain and dispel rumors of hard feelings. Countless Patriots legends were in attendance for Brady’s roast last month, and this ceremony was a similarly united outing.

TNT basketball broadcaster Charles Barkley shared an astonishing story that displays the mutual respect among sports legends. The tale involves an unexpected and extravagant gift from future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, reinforcing that greatness in sports often comes with remarkable generosity and humility.

In a recent appearance on the Sports Illustrated podcast, Barkley recounted an incident from a TNT charity golf match broadcast a few years ago. While on air, Barkley complimented Brady on his expensive watch. “I make a nice comment about this watch, which is a pretty penny,” Barkley recalled. “I’m talking double-digit thousands.”

The comment soon became something far more memorable.

After the broadcast, one of Brady’s associates approached Barkley, informing him that Brady wanted to see him. Barkley, intrigued, went to find Brady, who then made an unexpected offer. “Tom, what’s up?” Barkley recounted asking. To his surprise, Brady responded, “‘Chuck, take my watch.’ I go, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Tom, I’m just saying you have a nice watch.’ [He says], ‘I appreciate the compliment,’ and he gives me this watch.” Despite Barkley’s initial reluctance, Brady insisted, and Barkley gratefully accepted the gift.

As Barkley later revealed, the watch is worth a staggering $250,000, a figure collectors have offered him. However, Barkley values the gesture far more than any monetary offer. “I wouldn’t sell it for any amount,” Barkley stated. This act of kindness left a lasting impression on Barkley, who admired Brady’s humility and generosity. “That’s what a guy Tom is,” he said. “Him and Wayne Gretzky, for being the GOATs of their sports are two of the nicest, most humble guys I ever met.”

Barkley emphasized that he never intended for his compliment to result in receiving the watch. “I didn’t want him to think I gave him a compliment on the watch because I wanted the watch,” he explained.