Playing Tom Brady this week has given many members of the Patriots organization a bit of nostalgia as they retell stories of years past. Safeties coach Brian Belichick has a unique one dating back to his younger days
With a career spanning 20 years, Brady has been around to see several members of the Patriots organization grow up. That is certainly the case for the younger Belichick, who told an interesting anecdote to the media earlier this week. If anything, the story itself is a testament to Brady’s longevity, and how far he has progressed since then.
“In 2000, he’s a rookie, fourth string, or whatever it was. Working his way up,” Brian Belichick said. “It was one of the rare times we practiced in the bubble and one of the rare times I came to practice — I was eight years old. He stayed after practice, of course, working on stuff to make himself better, as we have all now come to expect him to always do those things. As a rookie, toward the end of the depth chart, he was always getting better and that’s what led him to be a great player.
He was working on whatever he was working on — his drops, whatever it was — and my dad over the last couple years had taught me the route tree of, you know, the ‘three’ is an out, and the ‘four’ is a curl, and an ‘eight’ is a post, and all that. And, so, he asked Tom to stay after and signal the route tree to me and I could see the signal, know the route and run it. And we did that after practice one day in the bubble, and he laid a couple out for me on a rubber mat that I could dive on and stuff. It was a very special memory for me growing up, and I’ve always appreciated that: him staying after with me doing the route tree. He was a great example to watch growing up, always.”
From learning Brady’s game plans to helping game plan against the quarterback, Brian Belichick’s connection with the quarterback has come full circle.
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