James White Reflects On ‘Awkward’ Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Feud

Bill Belichick had abundant success over his 24 seasons as the head coach of the New England Patriots. But holding a job for that long also brought its share of turmoil, too.

Of course, there were the cheating scandals that rocked the franchise during Belichick’s tenure and plenty of internal strife between Belichick and his coworkers that has been well-documented in the days since his departure.

Belichick also at times butted heads with legendary quarterback Tom Brady, especially when the coach had a spat with Brady’s trainer, Alex Guerrero, during the 2017 season. Belichick reportedly stripped Guerrero from coming on the team plane and took away his sideline access that year. It was reported that Belichick banned Guerrero from treating other Patriots players besides Brady, too.

The strain that feud put on the Belichick-Brady relationship could certainly be felt in the Patriots locker room, as James White, who played for New England from 2014 to 2021, explained during a recent appearance on the “Off the Pike with Brian Barrett” podcast.

“Alex was always in the building as Tom’s guy. Julian (Edelman) worked with him and a few of the guys worked with him whether it was at the facility or at TB12 or whatnot,” White said. “But it was definitely awkward because everybody kind of knew about what was going on. It wasn’t talked about like between them in front of us, but you could tell there was some sort of tension either between the training staff and Alex or Tom and Alex versus Bill. Alex was still in there working with Tom the entire time because that’s what helped Tom prepare from a day-to-day basis. Definitely some weird, awkward situations going on when it came to that.”

Guerrero’s looming presence put Patriots players in a bind about whether they should side with Brady and the unconventional methods of Guerrero or go to the Patriots training staff when needed like Belichick wanted.

White viewed it as a “conflict of opinion” between Guerrero and the Patriots, but he understood how it put some of his teammates in a difficult position.

“I never saw Alex at all, so I was never in that situation,” White said. “But I’m sure when it came down to it guys were like, ‘Should I listen to Alex? Should I listen to the training staff? You know, Bill wants it a certain way.’ Definitely add some conflict in there. So, I could see where that gray area, what was going on why it ruffled little feathers. I was never put in that situation, but I’m sure when it came to receivers, I’m sure they got put in some of those awkward situations at some point.”

Belichick and Brady still went on to win another Super Bowl — their sixth together — but their relationship couldn’t be repair fully when Brady eventually left the Patriots in free agency and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.