Tom Brady doesn’t blame Bill Belichick and 3 other things he told Howard Stern

Tom Brady was on Howard Stern to discuss his divorce from the New England Patriots

For the first time in his NFL career, Tom Brady is going to suit up for a team other than the New England Patriots.

The iconic quarterback will be taking his talents to Tampa Bay in 2020, thus ending a two-decade marriage that has proved to be one of the most fruitful in sports history. Six championships, countless league records, and Hall of Fame careers across the board, the Patriots have been a dynasty against which all past and future dynasties will be compared.

But Brady’s role in that is now over, and what lies ahead is as intriguing as it is uncertain.

Adding to his list of offseason firsts, Brady joined Howard Stern to dish on his divorce from the Patriots, what really happened and what didn’t, and whether or not blame needs to be handed out by fans.

Tom Brady says he doesn’t care about legacy

More specifically, Brady rather explicitly said he doesn’t care about his legacy.

“I never cared about legacy, I could give a shit about it,” Brady told Stern. “Why would I choose a different place? It was just time.”

Is that raw honesty or a safeguard?

Whether he wants to accept it or not, how he does in Tampa Bay compared to how the Patriots do without him will be a part of his legacy. Like the Jordan vs. LeBron debate, these next few seasons will draw a line in the sand between those who think the Patriots dynasty was because of Brady and those who think it was all Belichick.

Brady may not care about his legacy, but there are legions of football fans eager to see how this next chapter of his career shapes exactly that in their minds.

Tom Brady knew he was going to leave the Patriots before Week 1

We have to wonder how much of Brady’s current feelings about the Patriots is hindsight, but from the sounds of it he was ready to leave New England long before his contract was up. Brady told Stern that his decision to leave the Patriots was made before the start of the 2019 season, which means he played his entire final year with the team knowing it would be his last.

“I don’t think there was a final, final decision until it happened, but I would say I probably knew before the start of last season,” Brady said. “I knew it was just our time, our time was coming to an end.”

It also makes that video with Julian Edelman from February hit different. What we all thought was a joke by Brady was actually a moment of raw honesty.

Knowing now that Brady had made up his mind in September, this just serves as an extra twist of the knife for Patriots fans.

Kobe’s death was an eye-opener for him

“Kobe thought he was going to have a long life too”

Brady didn’t spend much time talking about Kobe Bryant, but he did come up when the discussion turned towards life away from football. In a very candid moment, Brady talked about how Kobe’s death jarred him into realizing that life is about more than sports (a cheesy cliche that’s nonetheless true, even if Brady is only now arriving at it), and that he needed to think about his legacy away from football.

He even went as far as to tell a story about how his wife, Giselle, called him out a few years ago for not being as present in their marriage or the lives of their children as much as a good father and husband should be. This lines up with when we saw a shift in Brady’s personality, watching him become more of a father in addition to being one of the greatest football players ever.

Tom Brady doesn’t hold anything against Bill Belichick

Perhaps the biggest reason we all thought Brady might leave the Patriots was Bill Belichick. Brady downplayed the idea that his legacy had anything to do with his exit to Tampa Bay, but the debate of who should get more credit for the Patriots dynastical success is one that has been raging for years.

It reached a fever pitch in 2018, when the Patriots were seemingly forced to trade Brady’s heir, Jimmy Garoppolo. The story behind the scenes was that Belichick wanted to get rid of Brady and keep Garoppolo to secure the best possible future for the Patriots. It was the proverbial straw that sucked the wind out of the Patriots sails, as despite the fact they’d go on to win the Super Bowl that year, the Jimmy G trade is largely seen as the beginning of the end.

Brady told Stern that not only did he think little of the idea that Belichick was setting up plans to replace him but he’d have done the same thing.

“I got to a point where I was old, and he’s starting to plan for the future. Which is what his responsibility is,” Brady told Stern. “I don’t fault him for that.”

While it will do little to settle the debate about who gets more credit for the Patriots success, Brady taking the high road is an unexpected twist. It could be interpreted as Brady saving face, but to the degree in which he doesn’t fault Belichick for replacing him does kick at least a little sand on the notion that bad blood is what forced Brady to leave the Patriots.