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When the 2020 NFL season begins, it’ll be an odd sight to see former Michigan and New England Patriots wearing a different uniform in 20 years. And one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history says it’s a big mistake in the making.
For the New England Patriots — not Tom Brady.
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Speaking to USA TODAY Sports, Montana sounded off on the Pats for letting the winningest player in Super Bowl history head to another franchise, noting that the franchise should have never let Brady out of Foxborough.
“I don’t know what’s going on inside there, but somebody made a mistake,” Montana told USA TODAY Sports, pondering Brady’s huge free agent move to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Montana, who similarly shook up the NFL landscape a generation ago when the 49ers traded him to Kansas City in the latter stage of his career, knows the backstory. Brady, 42, obviously wanted out – or at least the option to go – and forced his way onto the market with a clause in his final New England contract that prevented the team from using a franchise tag to keep him.
Yet there’s lingering intrigue as to why the NFL’s most decorated quarterback looked to bolt.
“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, 63, said from his Northern California home during a phone interview. “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.”
Time will tell if that proves true, especially since New England still has head coach Bill Belichick, who won all of those Super Bowls alongside Brady.
But, if there’s one person we’re not counting out, it’s the former Wolverins quarterback.