I'll put this here, but I did feel it was worth responding to this, as frankly I don't think I agree with any of it.
"He checked out" - The guy met with his teammates to practice outside of team activities. He threw for 3x the TDs (24 vs 8) Cam did last year with much the same as far as offensive weapons, and nearly 2x the yards (4000 vs 2600). He led us to 12 wins (instead of 7), and unlike Rodgers, even if he WAS "planning his exit", never said a word to the media to express dissatisfaction with the team, the coach, the organization, or otherwise sow dissent or reduce their chance to win. Here's Jakobi Meyers talking about working with Tom, who blew a gasket after failed execution on a play (not something typically seen when someone is checked out)
Jakobi Meyers has developed into an important receiver for the Patriots since going undrafted in 2019. He explained to our Tom E. Curran how playing with Tom Brady helped him to “learn fast.”
www.nbcsports.com
"Threw the ball away any time someone got close" - He still does that, that's how he's still playing at 44. Brees took a good hit last year, stood in there despite no one being open and someone getting close, and broke several ribs, and is now retired from football. Brady chose 100% of the time to live to fight another day, and not only did he play for more games than Cam did last year and put up Way better numbers, but on a team able to support that philosophy with offensive weapons able to consistently and quickly get open, he still won a Super Bowl, so clearly that strategy is not "phoning it in" in and of itself, right?
"Refused to mention this team by name" - That is simply not true, he has on many occasions. Here's a couple of quotes from the time since he's moved on:
'"I had an incredible 20 years. I wouldn't change anything over the course of 20 years that were magical and all the relationships that I developed," Brady told reporters earlier in the week. "Those shaped me into who I am as a person [and] as a player. My kids were born in Boston [and] I have great affection for the city and everything that Boston has meant to me and my family. All of New England – not just Boston."
"I didn't even know where New England was when I got picked by New England – that was always a funny story," Brady said. "They called me and said, 'You've been picked by New England.' I was like, 'That's amazing! Where is New England?' I landed in Providence [Rhode Island], which really screwed me up because that's not even in Massachusetts. It was a great 20 years."'
"I have a great deal of respect for, there's nobody who's been a bigger fan of
Patriots than me," Brady said. "So, I have nothing but total respect and love. I'm so grateful to Mr. Kraft and the organization and coach Belichick and all the coaches and obviously all my teammates. It's been a lot of days responding to incredible text messages from my teammates, from former teammates, from just a lot of the great people that I've got to meet over the years."
Those are just some of them, there are many, many others. The narrative that he's refusing to mention the Patriots by name is just untrue.
"Chose to be a football robot, now he gloats that he's finally able to express himself" - I think it's fair to say that the Patriots media policy and the Bucs media policies differ, right? Belichick has talked about it many times, and indeed preaches over and over to his players to BE very careful with every syllabal that escapes their mouth. So him doing so, is not a knock on him, since it's by design in accordance with the desires of the team, right? The Bucs clearly don't care, which is in my opinion unwise. However, him taking advantage of that, and Enjoying taking advantage of that, how is that a knock on him either? Not once have I heard a complaint about how the Patriots "stifled" him or "forced" him to act in a certain way, as you say, a grown ass man, who made his own choices. But how is any of that bad?
"Biggest phony in Patriots history" - A phony: "Something not genuine, not what something is said to be, fraudulent". What Tom Brady is said to be: A Maniacal worker, fantastic teammate, the GOAT, obsessive compulsive about his mechanics, his diet, and taking care of his body, and a winner who demands excellence from those around him. What part of that is not genuine or is fraudulent?
Obviously folks are free to feel whatever they're going to feel and believe whatever they want to believe. I just think that the amount of reality warping being done to justify those feelings can be excessive. Brady did not phone it in, does not refuse to mention the Patriots by name, and is not gloating and never has. If you want an example of what it would look like if he was, look at Aaron Rodgers.
. Sadly I don't think that's going to happen, and though the future is unknown, I doubt Mac Jones will do so much better than 3 Super Bowls in 4 years to start his career that it somehow 'tarnishes' the legacy of TFB.
