Welp, we all knew it was going to happen, but Tom Brady’s retirement announcement still caught several people off-guard. Even after Adam Schefter tweeted out that Brady was likely going to hang up his cleats this offseason, the fact that Brady would do so despite being a frontrunner for the MVP Award and failing to win a Super Bowl seemed suspicious. But alas, the time has finally, officially come. Brady is officially retired. The Canton-bound quarterback took to Twitter to make his announcement.
Brady offered his thanks to everyone in the Buccaneers’ organization. Brady also took time to mention the companies he’s helped cofound during his career (TB12, Autograph.io (, etc.), his agents Don Yee and Steve Dubin, his trainer Alex Guerrero, and of course, his wife, kids, family, and friends. However, most of the attention Brady’s retirement announcement drew revolved around who he didn’t mention. Not once in his eight-page thread did Brady mention Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, or anyone from his time as a member of the New England Patriots.
Brady spent two decades with the Patriots. He won six Super Bowls during his time there. Clearly, Brady failing to mention anyone from his time in Foxborough was a blatant slap in the face to the franchise that drafted him! He knew what he was doing!
If you’re one of the people who agrees with the statement I just made, I’m going to need you to put a quarter in your ass, because you just played yourself. Yes, there were rumors that Brady’s departure from New England wasn’t the cleanest. Yes, he and Belichick may not have been on the best of terms when Brady made the move to Tampa Bay, but come on. If you truly believe Brady was acting viciously, you’re just looking for drama.
Did all of you just forget about the message Brady gave to Patriots’ fans when he announced he wouldn’t be returning to the team? In that message, he made sure to specifically mention Belichick, Kraft, and all the teammates he’d had as a member of the Patriots. It’s almost like that’s how Brady wanted to end his Patriots’ career. That chapter of his life had officially closed and he wanted to give all the thanks he could for the people who made it happen. There was no need to mention any members of the Patriots’ organization in his letter this morning, because he’d already said everything he could’ve possibly wanted to say two years ago.
This letter was all about two things: what led Brady to make this decision, and the team that took a chance on a 43-year-old quarterback when so many other teams would not. Sure, Brady made sure to give thanks to a few other people, but do you know how many people who were mentioned in his message today were mentioned in his first message? Zero. Brady didn’t even mention his family in that first message. It’s almost like those two messages were meant for entirely different people! Wow! What an insane thought that is, huh?
If Brady doesn’t mention the Patriots during his Hall of Fame induction speech five years from now, that’s something Patriots’ fans should be upset about, but this message wasn’t for Pats’ fans. This message was meant to give Tampa Bay their moment in the spotlight, much like how Brady’s message in 2020 was meant to shine one final light on his time in New England.
While Brady still might hold some ill-will toward the Patriots’ organization for moving off of him in 2020, he made too many memories and too many friends (Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, several of his offensive linemen, etc.) to just abandon them all on his way out. Surely, he’ll mention each and every one of them in retirement, or during a Super Bowl anniversary night at Foxborough, or during any one of the numerous ‘Tom Brady’ nights the Patriots will hold for years to come, or during the unveiling of the enormous statue he’s bound to get. He’ll have all that time to give thanks to the people in New England who helped make him who he is today.
Tom Brady doesn’t need to give the Patriots’ organization thanks every time he has the opportunity. You think he should give thanks to Belichick and Kraft every time he sits down at the dinner table and says grace? No. That’d be ridiculous!
The overreaction to Brady’s “dismissal” of the Patriots is absurd. You don’t have the greatest career of all-time staying in one city for 20 years just to totally avoid them when your career finally comes to a close. There is no story here. This should not be making national headlines. Stop looking for drama when there is none.
Oh, and by the way, when the Patriots released a statement from Robert Kraft on Brady’s retirement, Brady immediately retweeted it with the caption: “Thank you Patriots Nation. I am beyond grateful. Love you all.” Yeah, that definitely sounds like someone who holds malice against his former team.
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