FOXBORO — Tom Brady’s legacy as the greatest quarterback of all time was confirmed long before his final New England season. Those six Super Bowl banners will forever hang in Gillette Stadium. His photos will likely linger around Patriot Place, as this region will never forget the ‘GOAT’.
Tuesday’s latest NFL news doesn’t change that.
During the 2019 season, Brady communicated with Miami Dolphins vice chairman and limited partner Bruce Beal. The conversation started in August when the quarterback was in his final training camp with the Patriots. According to the NFL, the Dolphins organization then began tampering with Brady in an attempt to lure the quarterback to Miami when free agency arrived the following offseason. The NFL says those conversations with Beal, who relayed the message to the property, continued throughout the 2019 and off-season.
The Dolphins organization was given the first round of 2023 and the third round of 2024 due to the manipulation charges announced on Tuesday.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told The Providence Journal that Brady will not be punished for what happened to the Dolphins buyers.
The news on Tuesday complicated matters somewhat for Brady, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and the New England organization. Brady doesn’t look like he was talking to the Dolphins while his team was in training camp or fighting for a playoff spot in the regular season. While it doesn’t seem like the news was enough to deal a blow to Brady’s relationship with owner Robert Kraft or alienate himself from a loyal fanbase, it certainly makes things a bit uneasy.
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Does it complicate Brady’s legacy? Not really. He helped bring six Super Bowl championships to the Patriots.
Does it shed more light on how badly he wanted to leave New England, why things didn’t go well in 2019? Absolute.
On Wednesday, Belichick declined to comment on the dolphins’ situation.
“Yeah, I’m not really worried about that,” Belichick said when asked about the news. “I’m just trying to get into a training camp.”
When asked if he knew the dolphins were messing with Brady in 2019, Belichick said, “I’m focusing here on the training camp. That’s all in the past.”
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However, if we look back into the past, it starts to make more sense why Brady seemed “out” that summer. In fact, several events that happened then have shed light on the quarterback, and now it’s clear that he had been one foot out of the Gillette Stadium door during his last season at Foxboro.
In August things started to get weird – when the mess with the dolphins started.
On August 4, 2019, Brady signed a new extension with the Patriots that was unlike anything we’ve seen before in New England. This new deal was automatically voided at the end of the 2019 season and prevented the Patriots from placing the franchise tag on the quarterback.
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Two days later, on August 6, Brady and his wife, Gisele Bundchen, put their Massachusetts mansion up for sale. It wasn’t long before Brady’s trainer, Alex Guerrero, put his house up for sale as well. The fact that Brady put his house up for sale two days after signing that new deal should have told us something wasn’t right.
As the 2019 season progressed, Brady was rarely seen in the locker room when the media was present. That was not usual for him. When he spoke, he even expressed frustration with roster changes, such as when the team briefly released Ben Watson, and he didn’t comment on younger receivers like N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers. Brady seemed excited when the team also released veterans Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon that season.
On November 17, things were tense around the quarterback. After the Patriots’ 17-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Brady was angry on stage and gave short answers to reporters’ questions. He answered nine questions in just under a minute and 50 seconds.
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On December 10, Brady stepped down as co-chair of the Best Buddies Challenge. The quarterback was affiliated with the organization, which benefits people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
In January 2020, after the Patriots’ 20-13 wildcard loss to Tennessee in the playoffs, Brady and his family did not stay in Massachusetts. A source told The Providence Journal at the time that the Bradys picked up their children from their Massachusetts school and briefly moved to their hometown in New York.
All this led to free agency and Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, not the Dolphins. The strange events throughout the 2019 season predicted Brady’s departure. This week’s NFL news shed more light on why the Patriots legend then looked like he wanted to leave. At that point, Brady was clearly done with the Patriots.
Does that stain what the quarterback has accomplished in New England? Absolutely not.
It can make a reunion with Belichick or Kraft more awkward, but championship rings solve most problems. Thanks to Brady, the Patriots have plenty. That will never change.