Who's paying ~25M/season for a second-string QB?
Bill Belichick made one final offer to Tom Brady last summer. The overall numbers in the offer from the Patriots head coach may surprise you.
985thesportshub.com
(This is from fairly random googling. Show me the number you're thinking of, if you're actually thinking of one.)
I don't mind that Brady left. As far as I can tell, it was a combination: He could get money himself (b/c you know how it is, you don't want to be down to your last 100million one day and have to borrow from the real breadwinner in the fam, but I digress
)... but more to the point, he could have a stable of offensive weapons, including the newly unretired Gronk, and play somewhere where any little media blip isn't considered losing the key to the Enigma code.
Look, the deal is, you don't begrudge the guy his path. Feh, who cares, you could sort of see it coming. That's where I agree with you... but I think the fine print is more like "Do I really want to play here for basically a hometown discount so they can afford meh weapons, or go somewhere, get paid, be worshipped, and have a ton of weapons on a non-cap-exhausted team?"
And bonus, answer the question "can I win without Belichick?"
Not to mention, go somewhere where they're happy to have you until you make
your succession plan. 1 SB was their wildest dream in Tampa, although I am sure they'll take whatever TB can get them... they'll keep him around until he agrees he sucks.
In NE they looked at him with that famous dispassionate eye, and I can't blame either side for where they came down. If we really have our next franchise guy in Jones, as much as it hurts to say... it could actually be for the best for both parties. I mean, I can't fault a team for saying "Well, you will be 43... maybe a teensy bit less is in order?" And I can't fault a guy for saying "What, are you pissed I only win every
other Super Bowl?"
Weirdest problem I've every seen a team have, extremes everywhere you look