Tom Brady Reveals ‘Natural Tension’ With Bill Belichick Led To Departure From Patriots

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.