Sunday’s spectacle featuring Tom Brady’s clash with former head coach Bill Belichick isn’t just the greatest heavyweight showdown since Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
No, it’s even bigger.
The tale of the tape for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots’ blockbuster highlights the greatest quarterback of all time squaring up, mano-a-mano, with the greatest coach.
You want a good story? Well, there’s one here with Brady’s return to New England. He was drafted and selected with the 199th pick of 2000 NFL Draft by Belichick and went on to win six Super Bowls in a near 20-year stint with the Patriots.
You want drama? Brady and Belichick’s pristine pairing had fractures underneath the surface that ended in the aging quarterback being allowed to walk right out the door and into the awaiting arms of the Buccaneers. Now, the two are on polar opposite ends of the spectrum as far as culpability is concerned when it comes to the reasoning behind it all ending.
You want legacy? Belichick could wave his iron fist as the chief architect behind the Patriots’ success by coaching his rebuilt team to an upset over his former longtime pupil. Brady, on the other hand, has already won a Super Bowl without the Patriots. So what better way to stick it to his former coach than beating him and making the point that he was every bit as responsible, if not more, for the esteemed dynasty?
And to think, it takes place where it all started, deep within the heart of Foxborough, Massachusetts. Oh boy, if the walls at Gillette Stadium or even the now demolished Foxboro Stadium could talk, what would they say?
Hello from the other side. @TomBrady returns to New England this Sunday night.
🎵: @Adele pic.twitter.com/EmISjoZwrh
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 28, 2021
They’d certainly say more than Belichick and Brady have ahead of the biggest regular season football game in NFL history (yes, I said it).
This week was full of superfluous compliments and exaggerated feelings of affection before the war paint goes on and the two do battle on Sunday night. That isn’t to suggest none of those wholesome feelings exist deep within either man. But you’d also be fooling yourself if you think this is little more than a random inter-conference reunion of old pals.
Brady and Belichick want to beat each other to a pulp in a football game and then subtly pound their chest for the world to see. Imagine one of them standing at the post-game podium and downplaying the outcome with the sort of piercing grin that cuts deep into the loser.
Trash talk works different for the two greatest to ever do it.
No one is losing an ear over this once-in-a-lifetime encounter, but there are understandable and possibly even unresolvable frustrations on both sides. Let’s start with the architect of the greatest dynasty in NFL history.
Imagine being the one that drafted Brady and created the rosters around him to be successful. Belichick was the one that found the diamond in the rough and put him in a position to succeed right out of the gates, which ultimately led to him making the evolution from a good quarterback to the all-time great. And now, his entire legacy is coming into question.
Not only does he have the right to be angry, but considering everything he’s done for the Patriots organization, the man beneath the sleeveless hoodie should be downright furious.
Would Brady have seven Super Bowl rings if he was drafted to the New York Jets or Cleveland Browns instead?
Perhaps he still would have found his way to championship greatness at some point, but it would have taken much longer and with far less frequency as he experienced under the tutelage of Belichick.
What happened to Brady in New England isn’t any different than what happens to nearly every other player Belichick moves on from. Who would have guessed by now that coach/general manager is also a cutthroat businessman? He was trying to beat the clock with his aging quarterback and set his team up for the future.
Do you think the Indianapolis Colts wanted to move on from Peyton Manning?
Granted, the Patriots didn’t have Andrew Luck waiting in the wings, but they did have a viable successor in Jimmy Garoppolo.
And yes, Belichick got it wrong.
The legendary head coach bet against Brady too early and lost. But he’ll never come out and say as much.
Hell would freeze over first.
So Belichick is here to defend a legacy he shouldn’t have to defend. Brady isn’t just getting some of the credit for the Patriots’ success these days. He’s getting all of it now that he’s a reigning Super Bowl champion with the Buccaneers.
But it’s also a complete role reversal from what happened in all of the years that he played for the Patriots. Those were the days when he was perceived as nothing more than a system quarterback that never would have excelled outside of New England.
It was the time when he constantly agreed to pay cuts that rarely resulted in him being surrounded by the sort of elite talent, particularly at the receiver position, other high-end quarterbacks enjoyed. Brady was better than anyone else at doing more with less for nearly two decades with the Patriots, and it was never enough to make him more than another name on a jersey that needed to be moved in Belichick’s eyes.
During a recent appearance on WEEI, via ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Belichick claimed it “wasn’t a question of not wanting Brady,” but rather, Brady “looked at his options and made his decision.” There’s certainly truth to those words, but there’s also truth to the fact that Belichick—more than anyone else—could have made it work if he really wanted it.
A simple arm around the shoulders might have sufficed, along with these words, “Tom, I need you.”
But none of that matters now that the date has been circled on the calendar. October 3 is the night the Patriots’ Minutemen Militia shoot their muskets in celebration of rookie quarterback Mac Jones and the new-look Patriots, while Brady runs up and down the visiting sidelines screaming the same three words that fired up Patriots fans for nearly two decades: “Let’s [expletive] go.”
This is the dream match people have talked about for years. What would happen if Brady went to another team and came back to New England to face Belichick? There’s no more wondering after Sunday.
It’s Brady vs. Belichick for a lifetime of bragging rights—a one-time encounter that just might give every fan and talking head the answer they’ve been waiting for.