Tom Brady has had a chip on his shoulder since entering the NFL as a sixth-round draft pick in 2000.
That chip has taken on new shapes at various points throughout his career, but the quarterback always seems to be driven by something specific. Proving someone wrong, for instance.
So, what exactly motivated Brady this season, his first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after 20 years with the New England Patriots?
Nick Wright argued Tuesday on FS1’s “The Herd With Colin Cowherd” that it likely stemmed from Patriots head coach Bill Belichick more or less questioning how much Brady had left in the tank by not signing the veteran QB to a contract extension.
“Bill Belichick said, ‘I see the numbers going down. I see the trajectory of every quarterback ever once they get to a certain age. I cannot invest in you into your mid 40s. It’s an insane proposition.’ And so guess what? That then became Brady’s newest chip,” Wright said.
And just like he always does, Brady won the battle, guiding the Bucs to a Super Bowl title — the seventh of his career — at age 43, while the Patriots stumbled to their first losing season since 2000, the year before No. 12 took over as New England’s starting quarterback.
” ‘199th pick? Beat ya. Peyton Manning? Long gone. Time? Well, I won league MVP at 40 and I won my sixth Super Bowl at 41,’ ” Wright said Tuesday, putting himself in Brady’s shoes. ” ‘But now my coach (Belichick) — the man who’s been on this journey the entire time with me, the man who should know to doubt me the least, the man who our success is inextricably tied together — he is telling me, as much as he very well may love me, ‘I don’t believe in you. I think you believe in yourself more than is realistic. I think you believe you can do something, and for the first time, I don’t believe you can.’ “
Bucs head coach Bruce Arians wondered after Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl LV victory over the Kansas City Chiefs whether Brady has been out to prove his success in New England wasn’t just a product of playing for Belichick, arguably the best coach in NFL history.
But perhaps it’s less about the bigger picture — where Brady and Belichick stand in Patriots history — and more about one person wanting to continue the relationship while the other didn’t.
“Of course Tom Brady’s motivation is not about proving that he was more important than Bill for those first six Super Bowls,” Wright said. “That’s what people are missing. It’s not about retroactive credit about the ’04 Super Bowl over the Eagles. It’s about right now, present day.
“That’s the motivation. It’s not about who gets credit for what happened in New England. It’s about that Tom Brady was forced — he feels, I’m sure — to not continue in New England, because the guy who should have believed in him more than anybody believed in him as much as Nick Wright did.”
We could talk all day about possible grudges, and whether Brady and/or Belichick wanted to pursue success on their own after two decades together.
The reality is the Patriots were comfortable moving on from the greatest quarterback in NFL history. And Brady, probably drawing motivation from that decision, rose to the occasion (again) with his new team.
