Tom Brady’s Dad Is Still Throwing Major Shade at Bill Belichick

Brady Sr. says coach's tenure without his son has "been in the dumper"

Tom Brady Sr. at Super Bowl 51 in Houston.
Tom Brady Sr. has not forgiven his son's former coach.
Elsa/Getty

With his son in the midst of transition from being an NFL player to an NFL announcer in anticipation of being in the booth for Fox for the 2024 season and next year’s Super Bowl, Tom Brady Sr. is still taking shots at the unemployed 71-year-old who used to coach his son.

Speaking to The Boston Globe, Tom Brady’s dad called Bill Belichick “the best coach in football, bar none,” before ripping into the fired New England Patriots coach both subtly and overtly. Lamenting how the “tough” coach’s tenure had “been in the dumper” since his son left New England, Brady Sr. called Belichick’s interpersonal skills “horrible” and theorized it would be difficult for his “military system” to work with the generation of players who are currently suiting up in the NFL.

The system worked with Brady, who won six Super Bowls with the Patriots before winning a seventh with the Bucs, and it’s possible Belichick just took it for granted it would work with other quarterbacks. “Ego sometimes gets in the way of things,” Brady Sr. said. “I think it did with Bill. Now, he’s in a situation where he’s gotten crucified for the last few years by everybody and a lot of luster has come off his rose.”

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With Belichick still looking for a head coaching job and only one vacancy remaining in the NFL (Washington Commanders), Brady Sr. speculated that perhaps franchises are reluctant to give complete control over football operations to an aging coach who might just be looking to win 16 games to break Don Shula’s all-time wins record.

“Bill loves coaching,” Brady Sr. told the Globe. “But again, I don’t know if teams look at Bill — he’s 71 now — I don’t know that they’re going to bend over backward for him, to provide him the full array of control that he wants to have. That’s the bottom line. He could probably turn up somewhere and find 16 games [to win] in two years or three. But if he’s out after that, and the team has reformulated their front office to accommodate his wishes…from their standpoint, I don’t know if the magic is worth the accommodations that they have to make.”

It appears the NFL agrees with Brady Sr. as “the best coach in football” remains without a football team.

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