New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: Greg M. Cooper - USA TODAY Sports) We’re one day away from Apple+ releasing the next two episodes of “The Dynasty,” (they’ve been coming out on Thursday nights as of late) and apparently Matthew Slater ends up pretty honest in episode eight when it comes to Bill Belichick’s relationship with Tom Brady.
Zack Cox – formerly of NESN and currently a free-agent reporter – posted on Twitter (X or whatever) yesterday that Slater was apparently not keen with how Belichick treated Brady in 2016.
“During that (2016) season, Tom was unbelievable,” said Slater. “But Coach Belichick, being Coach Belichick, held Tom to even a higher standard than everyone else. Do I think Tom felt disrespected? Yeah, I think so. I don’t think I would want to be treated differently, but I would want a certain level of respect, especially as a grown man. But what that does for Tom Brady, that’s going to add fire to an already burning inferno.”
“It just felt like at times with Belichick, we lost the game even though we won. It was brutal. I mean, not only was he critical of every player in there, but he was extremely critical of Tom. You see a lot of coaches in the league and the love affair they have with their star players, and Bill’s never been that way.”
If what Salter is saying is true, which there’s certainly no reason to think otherwise, it’s hard not to wonder what Belichick’s motive may have been.
Going back to a media session in January of 2015, Belichick made that epic press conference about the psi allegations, with the club taking steps to try and shoot down the accusations. So whether or not Belichick was frustrated over whatever Brady’s part had been in DeflateGate, which saw the quarterback suspended four games to start that year, or whether or not the supposed internal issues about Jimmy Garoppolo were really true, it seems like there would have had to have possibly been a reason – valid or not – for Belichick to be like that.
Either way, it sounds like Brady faced a lot of adversity that year, and some of it appeared to come off the field internally. That obviously kicked off a sequence of events – as this series is apparently going to point out – that likely factored into his departure years later.
The series hinted that some of this was going to be talked about, and it appears this week may mark the start of it.
(Editor’s Note: The above appeared in a recent daily Patriots notebook column.)
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