A lot of teams do that. Care less about winning than keeping fan favorites. This is a TEAM sport. It's not about one player and to quote Herm Edwards,
You play to win the game.
Winning is what matters and as Bill has shown with other players, better to move on too soon than too late.
Besides, despite your narrative, Brady didn't want to be here. Forcing him to stay would not have served him or the team. They didn't have to give him that contract with the no franchise clause. He wanted to go, and after 20 years they were nice enough to let him. Even if they didn't want him, they could have made it a lot uglier by trading him where they wanted to.
Enjoy watching him light it up in Tampa. Enjoy it when they most likely beat the Patriots and you can use it as an 'I told you so.'
But there is no need to change history to make Brady smell like roses and make Belichick out to be a buffoon.
It is done and over.
I was referring to winning the Super Bowl as he did in Tampa which everyone seems convinced he was never going to be able to do here again despite winning 6 rings, 3 of which he won at ages 37, 39, 41. So all he proved when he went to Tampa is that he was
still that guy to bring a team to championship with a roster that was not bottom third in the league. Something NO ONE around here seems to want to acknowledge on any level - that Bill totally mismanaged the roster forcing us to take a mulligan on last year scraping Newton off the trash heap because he was cheap and then this year attempt to literally rebuild on the fly by spending $150 the first week of FA. That's what losing orgs have done for years but somehow when Bill does it, it means he is smart. No. He completely mismanaged the roster in Jete like fashion for years.
This narrative that Brady did not want to be here is complete revisionist history. As I posted earlier in the thread but will post again:
1. Brady tells everyone that's listening he wants a multi-year contract and wants to play until 45 (but he really doesn't want to be here);
2. Bill only offers a one year extension (w/ couple of void yrs) because he doesn't believe Brady actually wants to stay (but is surprised when he leaves);
3. Brady rejects offer and enters FA (which is what he really wanted?). But what if Bill would've offered a multi-year contract? Does he reject that as well?
4. By all accts Bill was surprised with Brady leaving (see zero QB succession plan).
Had the Patriots wanted Brady to stay and committed to him, as they had a long window of opportunity, he'd still be in New England. If you're arguing Brady didn't want to be back, based on where Brady's mindset was in February 2020, then you're absolutely right. It's like treating a woman like garbage for a few years, refusing to get engaged, then as you're breaking up, pointing out that she has moved on and wants out, so therefore it's a mutual breakup. Hey look, she found a new guy, so it was mutual. She's happy to be away, so I guess she never wanted to stay here. Total BS ... Tom had talked for years about wanting to continue playing into his mid-40s and to go out on his own terms. Years.
The team clearly, obviously was skeptical about Brady for years leading up to this. You never once heard from the organization the standard statement that
"we want him to retire here and go out on his own terms" or anything like that, like you do with virtually every other athlete. It was always about an inevitable head-on collision because Brady wanted to play for longer than Bill wanted him, and Bill would have a younger, prettier successor who cost less money.
Brady wanted out in the end ... because he wasn't wanted. Certainly not on the level that someone should be wanted when they've played for that same organization for 20 years, won six championships, been widely regarded as the GOAT, and been a model citizen. If the Patriots wanted him to stay, they would have done so much more than they actually did.