If Patriots quarterback Tom Brady contemplated a divorce from Patriots coach Bill Belichick, Belichick may have contemplated a divorce from Brady.
The new book from Ian O’Connor regarding the long-time Patriots coach contains a potentially inflammatory quote from an unnamed assistant coach regarding Brady and the team’s ability to win without him.
“[If] you gave us any of the top 15 [quarterbacks in the NFL], we could do it,” the unnamed assistant coach told O’Connor. “I don’t think the coaches view Tom as special as everyone else in football does. [Owner Robert Kraft] thinks Tom is the greatest gift ever, but the coaches don’t.”
If that’s the case, then why did Belichick flatly reject a request from 49ers G.M. John Lynch to trade for Brady last year, sending instead Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco? Maybe Belichick knew Kraft wouldn’t have allowed it. But if that’s the way the coach feels, he should have been spending plenty of time over the years pushing back at the owner’s belief that the team’s success flows directly and in some respects exclusively from the presence of Brady.
Bottom line: If the coaching staff truly believed what the unnamed assistant said (and I don’t doubt that the unnamed assistant said it), they had a chance to put their money where the unnamed assistant’s mouth is, and they didn’t. Regardless, Brady may now be putting his fist and/or foot in the unnamed assistant’s mouth, if Brady can ever figure out who it is.