In the end, one truly couldn’t separate the fates of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. As it stands, neither is destined for NFL Sundays, at least not until the latter’s deal with Fox is officially announced.
If the football world was waiting for one former New England Patriot to comment on Belichick’s job status … or lack thereof … it was Brady, who collaborated with the head coach on five Super Bowl runs. Brady broke his silence on the latest edition of his “Let’s Go!” podcast, offering a somewhat passive yet sympathetic response.
“I don’t know the criteria for hiring coaches. I’ve never been a part of it. I mean, I’m surprised the greatest coach ever doesn’t have a job, absolutely,” Brady remarked to co-hosts Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray. “But I’m surprised by a lot of things in the NFL. There’s a lot of things that happen, for one reason or another, that don’t go exactly the way you think they should go.”
Brady and Belichick’s fates and legacies have been attached to the hip ever since the former’s breakout during the 2001 season, igniting one of the longest … and perhaps most tumultuous yet victorious … collaborations in NFL history. All but 84 of Belichick’s 333 victories as a head coach have come with Brady leading the way under center.
For his part, Brady did manage to sympathize with Belichick’s situation, remarking that it was similar to his own time on the free agent ledger before signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.
“When I was a free agent, there were a lot of teams that didn’t want me,” Brady recalled.
The latest spin on the NFL coaching carousel had eight vacancies but Belichick received interviews from only one team, the Atlanta Falcons. Unlikely to accept a defensive coordinator spot, Belichick’s next stop could well be television, much like his close friend and fellow coaching trailblazer Nick Saban.
