Of course he was more important than the other players. QB is probably the most important position in team sports.
However, the reason why the Patriots were so successful is because they had a QB that 100% bought into the team concept and did not see himself as bigger than the rest of the team. That's why all his teammates loved him so much. That's why you NEVER hear any former teammate ***** about him. That's why you have guys in TB saying how much they love him already.
Brady led by example and was accountable for his every mistakes. Having the MAIN GUY accept and thrive under that kind of regime is what makes the regime work. There is no denying that.
Tom got tired of it and thought he had earned some slack... which is true. As sad as I am that he left, I understand why he did and I understand why BB could not or would not change his approach. I would not have worked with all QBs. A diva like Manning would have gotten BB fired within 3 years.
The very qualities of Belichick that alienated the Cleveland and national media, enabled the Patriots' success. Kraft deserves as much credit for hiring BB and keeping him as he deserves to be shat upon for not restoring our real helmets and jerseys when he purchased the team, less than ten months after the abomination was perpetrated, ignoring unanimous fan choice, 32 years of history and minimal aesthetic awareness.
Look at all the pressure Raymond Berry must have felt to keep on starting Eason over vastly better quarterbacks. Yes, it was his choice, but Eason was the first round draft pick being paid the big money. Grogan was the 'creaky, old, fragile, practically washed up hanger on relic' and Flutie was the 'local yokel short kid not NFL level material desperation move'.
For both Berry and Belichick and any head coach, it is often hard to see the forest for the trees. Starting Eason was as totally stupid as benching Butler, for a myriad of reasons directly tied to winning the football game or not.
But for Bill, being stubborn paid off. He didn't have to draft Brady at all, and didn't have to keep him on the roster. A year later, it was blindingly obvious to the football sighted, and invisible to Bledsoe/flying elvis worshippers that Brady had to stay as the starter if the team was going to win.
Contrast the wrong deifying of Bledsoe, whom I would not start over Brady, Grogan, Plunkett, Flutie, Parilli, Kapp or Dowling EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES in any game I was interested in winning; and who continues to be treated like Houston Antwine and Julius Adams deserved to be treated and never were; and who does not belong in Canton especially with a thousand far more deserving players not in; with Tom Brady still being treated as the 6th round nobody who had to be coached up when the big shot snob star got hurt, instead of not only a transcendent, once in a lifetime player, total team guy and winner with top personal values, but also who overcame hardship and tremendous odds to attend a big time college and become a starter, captain and leader only to be treated like a drug-addicted, locker room cancer, criminal malcontent delinquent on draft day.
Tom Brady is human. From the 'system quarterback' crap to actually being suspended by the league for fabricated charges, Tom, like every other Patriot had nothing to do with team denigration flatulated by local and national media since the 1970 merger.
Give Tom a break. And put Julius Adams belatedly into the Pats' erstwhile Hall of Shame, and put Houston Antwine likewise belatedly into the Pro Football Hall of Shame.