After spending 13 seasons with the 49ers and leading the organization to four Super Bowls, Joe Montana left San Francisco and spent the final two years of his NFL career in Kansas City playing for the Chiefs.
Tom Brady, who has spent the past 20 seasons with the Patriots and brought six Super Bowl wins to New England, will be a free agent in March and could potentially leave the Pats for what he deems to be greener pastures.
While speaking to NFL.com columnist Michael Silver, 63-year-old Montana offered some advice for 42-year-old Brady: stay put.
“Don’t [leave] if you don’t have to,” Montana told Silver. “It’s a process to go through, and it takes time to get used to the team. I was fortunate because (former 49ers quarterbacks coach) Paul Hackett was there running the offense, and so I was pretty familiar with probably three-quarters of the offense going in. And, if they let [Brady] have his own offense (with a new team), yeah, that makes it a little bit easier. But still, the transition of moving … I just can’t see how they would let him leave there, myself.”
While Patriots fans probably hope Brady heeds Montana’a advice and works out a deal to stay in New England, there are a number of other fanbases that would welcome the 14-time Pro Bowler to town. Still, Montana cautioned that going to a new city often isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
“It’s not easy to go to another team and get accepted, no matter how much success you’ve had and how many years you’ve played,” Montana said. “They still want to see you come in and be the same player and be that loyal to them as you were to the other team you just left. So, it’s not easy (for) guys looking at that change, especially at the quarterback position.”
Brady officially becomes a free agent for the first time in his career on March 18.
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