In a phone interview with USA Today, Hall-of-Fame quarterback Joe Montana said the Patriots “made a mistake” by letting future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady leave New England as a free agent.
“I think when you look at the whole situation, you try to figure out how you want to get away from things that are there,” Montana said. “I had a different story, where they had made a decision. He, obviously, they never would have gotten rid of. I still don’t understand how New England let him get away. I don’t understand that.”
Montana has some expertise in these matters as he was famously traded away from the San Francisco 49ers, the team he led to four Super Bowl wins, to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Sixty-three-year-old Montana — who was one of Brady’s heroes while the six-time Super Bowl winner was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area — offered his take on why the 42-year-old QB decided to leave New England after two decades.
“It’s not about appreciation,” Montana said. “He wants control. I mean, he wants a lot of control. I don’t know what Tampa Bay gave him, but at some point in time, you’re just a player. You can try to get what you can and do what you want, but in the end, you’re still not in the hierarchy when it comes to hiring people, firing people and all that.”
Montana’s recent remarks are interesting because as recently as January, he was advising that Brady should stay put in New England with the Pats.
“Don’t [leave] if you don’t have to,” Montana told NFL.com columnist Michael Silver two months ago. “It’s a process to go through, and it takes time to get used to the team.”
Obviously, the newest member of the Buccanneers didn’t heed his idol’s advice.
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