It’s been two days since the New England Patriots’ season — and potentially Tom Brady’s tenure with the team — ended at the hands of the Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round.
During that span, the three primary pillars of the Patriots organization — Brady, team owner Robert Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick — all have addressed the 42-year-old’s impending free agency in varying levels of detail.
TOM BRADY
Peter King’s “Football Morning in America” column this week included a conversation with Brady, who said he does not know what his future holds.
“I think I’m just … I’ll explore those opportunities whenever they are,” Brady told King after Saturday’s 20-13 loss to the Titans at Gillette Stadium. “If it’s the Patriots, great. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know. I just don’t know. I love playing football. I still want to play football. I think I still can play at a championship level. I’ve just got to go do it. I’m motivated to get back to work and training.”
If Brady and the Patriots do not work out a contract extension before the NFL league year ends March 17, the final two years of the pseudo-extension he signed last summer would void, freeing him to sign with any team for the first time in his pro career. Last year’s extension, which increased Brady’s overall 2019 salary from $15 million to $23 million, also included a clause preventing the Patriots from using the franchise or transition tag on him in 2020.
Brady didn’t offer any hints about his next move during his final postgame news conference, revealing only that retirement is “hopefully unlikely” for him this offseason.
“I don’t know what the future looks like, and I’m not going to predict it,” he said.
ROBERT KRAFT
King’s column, which was published Monday morning, also included quotes from Kraft, who spoke to the longtime NFL reporter in the hours before the Titans game.
Kraft, who’s shared a close relationship with Brady over the last two decades, said his “hope and prayer” is that Brady either remains with the Patriots or retires. He does not want to see the future Hall of Famer change uniforms late in his career, a la Joe Montana (Kansas City Chiefs), Joe Namath (Los Angeles Rams), Johnny Unitas (San Diego Chargers) or Peyton Manning (Denver Broncos).
“Before the season started,” Kraft told King, “it was very important to Tom that he be free to do whatever he wanted at the end of the year. You know what I said to myself? That any person who plays 20 years for this team and helps us get to six Super Bowls, and been really selfless, has earned that right. I love the young man like he’s part of my family. Blood family. Anyone who’s done that has earned the right to control his future after 20 years. And you know, my hope and prayer is number one, he play for the Patriots. Or number two, he retires. He has the freedom to decide what he wants to do and what’s in his own best personal interest.”
He added: “I’m thinking of all … the quarterbacks who went elsewhere, and I just hope and believe that Tom … he is so special that he’s earned the right to do what’s best for him. … But I just hope and pray we fit into his plans. He is unique in the kind of leader he is, his work ethic, his selfless nature, everything. Think about it: He’s been with us 20 percent of the life of the NFL.”
BILL BELICHICK
Belichick wouldn’t discuss plans for the future — his, Brady’s or the Patriots’ — during his morning-after presser on Sunday. Asked if he had a timeline for when he’d like a decision from Brady, the coach simply replied: “No.”
“We’re less than 12 hours from the end of the game,” Belichick said. “I’m sure there are a lot of questions about the future. Nobody’s thought about the future. Everybody’s been focused and working on Miami and then Tennessee. And that’s where all of the focus should have been and where it was. So, whatever’s in the future we’ll deal with at some later point in time. We’re certainly not going to deal with it now.”
Belichick later called Brady “an iconic figure in this organization.”
“Nobody respects Tom more than I do,” he said, before adding: “I respect all of the other players and all of the other coaches in this organization, too.”
“I think that everybody that is part of it is an important part of it, and I want to give attention and communication and detail and thought into my input into those decisions,” Belichick continued. “But any decision that’s made is — it’s not an individual decision. There are other people involved, so there has to be some type of communication and understanding, agreement, whatever you want to call it. That’s not a one-way street. I hope you can understand that. One person can’t decide what everybody else is going to do when players aren’t under contract, and we have a lot of players who aren’t under contract.”
