Jimmy Johnson believes Bill Belichick wants Tom Brady to win No. 7

Hall-of-Fame coach Jimmy Johnson believes his good friend Bill Belichick is rooting for Tom Brady in Super Bowl LV.

Tom Brady has moved on better than most football fans thought possible with perhaps a few unique exceptions. Let’s be honest: Maybe you thought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would make the playoffs. Perhaps you had some level of confidence Tompa could win a playoff game or two. But back in the Super Bowl with three road wins to get there?! That’s amazing even by Brady standards.

Two-time Super Bowl champion Jimmy Johnson, who knows a thing or two about competing at the highest level, believes there was at least one person who thought all this was possible and was the main reason that person chose to leave the only NFL home he ever knew. It wasn’t for the increased sunshine.

“I think [Tampa] was another challenge for Tom Brady,” Johnson told FanSided. “He saw an opportunity with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have tremendous talent. Brady saw how much talent the Buccaneers had and said, ‘I want to be a part of that.’

The ultra-competitive Brady seeing a pathway to lift his incredible legacy to the next level is superstar-level strategic. Not as impressive as what he does on the field, but definitely praiseworthy.

Meanwhile, back in Brady-less New England, the Patriots suffered though a disappointing 7-9 season. The Hall of Fame coaching skills of Bill Belichick came up short in 2021 without Brady.

Another point to Brady, but Johnson sees a New England roster devoid of talent partly because of him.

“You look at the talent level with the New England Patriots right now, it’s way down because they spent so much money previously to try and win Super Bowls,” Johnson said. “Bill Belichick had pretty well leveraged their salary cap to try to win as much as they could for that period of time, so they started running out of players.”

Johnson and Belichick have been good friends for a long time, so it makes sense Johnson would underline the current talent level in New England. If anyone understands the mindset of Belichick, it would be Johnson, and it sounds like he is almost speaking for Belichick explaining why the Patriots missed the playoffs.

But Johnson does not think his friend is bitter towards Brady. He even believes Belichick is rooting for Brady to beat Kansas City like a proud parent and former coach.

“He’s rooting for Tom,” Johnson said. “I think Bill Belichick has got to take a lot of pride in developing Tom Brady and making him who he is today. Obviously Brady had a lot to do with it, his own makeup, but Belichick was guiding the way to make sure he was a great quarterback.”

That feels like Johnson is talking to his friend. ‘Hey, Bill, enjoy this. You have a big part in it.’ It is true that Belichick should have immense pride in the success of Brady and their six Super Bowl rings together.

However, these are incredibly competitive people. Belichick sitting on his couch pumping his fist rooting for Brady on Super Bowl Sunday seems … unlikely. If the roles were reversed, would Brady throw a Super Bowl party for all his Patriot friends and root for Belichick? Doubtful.

What people say about you matters to most of us. It seems to matter to both Brady and Belichick. Johnson did his best to split the credit of their success together evenly.

“People say, well, ‘Brady or Belichick?'” Johnson said. “Tom Brady wasn’t the greatest of all-time when he was a seventh [sixth, No. 199] round pick coming out of Michigan. Not a lot of teams even wanted him.”

True. Brady is the greatest winner of all-time and he didn’t do it alone. But, championships matter when debating legacies, and if Brady wins again, he will have one-upped his former head coach.

That also doesn’t mean Belichick isn’t rooting for Brady to win Sunday.

Jimmy Johnson is working with Michelob ULTRA who just pre-released a Super Bowl commercial that asks an interesting question: are you happy because you win, or do you win because you’re happy?