This week will likely be a busy one in the NFL as the Chiefs and Buccaneers start their final preparations for this weekend’s Super Bowl, and Monday featured media availability from a variety of players from each team.
One was obviously former Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, who met with reporters Monday and talked about a variety of topics, most notably including his thoughts on his former head coach, Bill Belichick.
Brady hasn’t spoken much of Belichick this season, but he told reporters on Monday how much his time working with Belichick meant to him, and said it played a key role in who he is today.
“Well, I have a great relationship with him,” said Brady. “Again, I’m just incredibly grateful for what he’s meant in my life as a coach. He was everything you could ask for as a player. I loved my time…I had two incredible decades there. My football journey took me to a different place, and I certainly could never have accomplished the things in my career without his support and his teaching. Incredible coach and mentor for me. I’ve had a lot of those in my career but obviously, he’s at the top of the list.”
With Brady about to play in his 10th Super Bowl at the age of 43 and to be playing at such a high level is pretty remarkable. While the Patriots and Brady parted ways last offseason, it’s still hard not to appreciate the incredible run he was a part of during his two decades with the club and what he’s continued to accomplish this seson.
Over the last few years, Brady had said repeatedly that playing until he’s 45 has been his goal but he took things a step further on Monday when he said he’d be willing to play beyond that if he feels like he can continue to make the physical commitment to do the work and still perform at a high level.
“Yeah, definitely. I would definitely consider that,” said Brady. “Again, it’s a physical sport and just the perspective I have on that is, you never know kind of when that moment is, just because it’s a contact sport and there’s a lot of training that goes into it.”
“Again, there has to be 100% commitment from myself to keep doing it. I’ve been very fortunate over the years. Alex [Guerrero] and I work really hard at making sure physically I can still perform at my best because you take different hits, over the course of the year, deal with different bumps and bruises, different injuries. It’s just going to be me continuing to make that commitment to making it part of my year-round process to play football and continue my career, definitely.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes also spoke to the media Monday and one of the things he mentioned centered on what happened after Brady and the Patriots handed Mahomes and the Chiefs a tough loss in the AFC Championship game back in 2018. According to Mahomes, one of the things that meant a lot to him was the fact Brady quietly sought him out in the locker room after the game and the two had a conversation where Brady gave him words of encouragement, which struck a chord with the young quarterback.
“It was important because it showed I was doing things the right way,” said Mahomes via ESPN.com. “As a young quarterback in this league, you show up early and you try to put in the time and put in the work.
” … Him saying that he respected what I was doing and how I was playing on the field and the type of person I was, it kind of put a stamp on me that I needed to go in and even be better in order to get to the Super Bowl.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES: One interesting note was some news on Monday about former Patriots offensive lineman Adrian Klemm, who was taken during Bill Belichick’s first draft with the team in round two back in 2000. Klemm, who played in New England from 2000-2004, has apparently been working up the coaching ranks since 2008 at the college level and he’s now coaching in the NFL, having been hired as assistant offensive line coach with the Steelers. On Monday, Ian Rapoport reported that Klemm has since been promoted from just an assistant to offensive line coach for Pittsburgh. The Steelers were reportedly considering several experienced candidates but ultimately decided on hiring Klemm…Patriots Devin and Jason McCourty talked about a variety of topics on their latest Double Coverage podcast, one of which had to do with a potential return of quarterback, Cam Newton. Devin said that Newton’s return is something he’d be excited to see. “I wouldn’t mind a lot of these guys quarterbacking my team. I’ll start off by saying I wouldn’t mind seeing my guy Cam Newton come back,” he said via WEEI.com. “I thought he had a tough [situation] coming in — no offseason, no anything. [He] played in a Super Bowl and won a MVP.” As much respect we all have for Devin, one would have to hope the Patriots go down a different road…With the Chiefs looking to win back-to-back Super Bowls, something that hasn’t been done since the 2003, 2004 Patriots, Willie McGinest told NFL.com that getting back and winning it all two-straight years was definitely a challenge. “You have to remember that we didn’t make the playoffs in 2002, the season after we won Super Bowl XXXVI,” McGinest said via NFL.com. “So after the ’03 Super Bowl, we understood how hard it was to get back to it and that nothing we had just accomplished would translate over to the next year.” Hopefully, Brady will take care of business and keep New England’s accomplishment of being the last team to win two-in-a-row intact.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
