It’s tough to imagine Tom Brady was enjoying himself much over the course of his final season in New England.
Yes, the Patriots got off to an 8-0 start on the campaign, but it was a steady decline from there. Brady and Co. labored through the second half of the season and were bounced out of the playoffs in the Wild Card round.
TB12’s fortunes, at least on paper, changed when he signed a free-agent deal with the Buccaneers, who are loaded with offensive talent. Brady’s arsenal in Tampa Bay became even stronger when Rob Gronkowski ended his retirement to reunite with his longtime quarterback. The addition of Gronk apparently sparked some new life into Brady, as evidenced by a text he sent to his throwing coach, Tom House.
“I think the most fun texts we’ve had is when Gronk signed. He texted me and said, ‘Football is fun again,'” House said in a conversation with GQ. “The cool thing about dealing with these guys — they are just like you and me. They’re big kids. They might be, you know, superstars, GOATs, the best ever, but they’re big 12-year-olds. Gronk is the ultimate 12-year-old, 32-year-old superstar. Gronk is one of those guys in the locker room or on the field that just has a great time playing. It’s what we call, ‘The power of play.’ It’s always more fun to work at something you’re having a good time at than it is to work at work. You don’t tell a kid to go out and work at baseball. You go and tell him to play baseball. So Gronk is the ultimate play guy.”
“Fun” has been a popular buzzword around Foxboro the past few years, so we’ll leave it to you to decide whether Brady’s text was somewhat of a dig at his former team, or more specifically, his former coach. Regardless, the six-time Super Bowl champion seems more than content with his new situation.
