Heading into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers showdown against the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick made it clear that he wanted Tom Brady back as the team’s quarterback prior to his move south. Belichick admitted New England was not “as good an option as Tampa.”
“Well, I think we’ve been through all the dynamics of that,” Belichick said on WEEI 97.3 FM’s The Greg Hill Show. “There were a lot of things there that, he looked at his options and made his decision. We weren’t as good an option as Tampa, so I mean, you’d have to ask him about all that, but it wasn’t a question of not wanting him, for sure.
Brady on Facing the Patriots: ‘I Want to Win Every Time I Take the Field’
After the Bucs’ ten-point loss to the Rams, Brady was not in a mood for deep reflection on his career in New England. When asked about facing the Patriots, Brady did not get into specifics but admitted he wants to, “win every time I take the field.”
“It’s a tough loss for us, so I’ll just get to the plane and evaluate kind of what we need to do to put ourselves in a better position to win, from a quarterback standpoint,” Brady told reporters. “So, I want to win every time I take the field.”
Heading into Week 3, Brady was a little more open about his career with the Patriots. Brady was peppered with questions about his time in New England after his trainer Alex Guerrero and father Tom Brady Sr. both made critical remarks about how Belichick treated the quarterback.
“I have great respect and admiration for my time there,” Brady explained, per Buccaneers.com. “I had 20 great years there. I’ve kind of spoke that the last 18 months. It was a great time in my life, but I’m really happy to be here and I think we’ve done some great things in a short period of time. I really love the teammates that I have, that I’m playing with here. I love the coaches. The organization has been amazing. Again, it’s just a lot of gratitude for me. Everyone has protective feelings and emotions as friends and family members. That’s just part of being in sports.”
Belichick: ‘Tom and I, I Feel Like Had a Good Relationship’
As expected, Belichick tried to downplay the Patriots squaring off against their former franchise quarterback. Belichick noted that the Patriots face former players each week. The Patriots coach described their time together as a “good relationship and a lot of production.”
“Tom and I, I feel like had a good relationship and a lot of production, obviously, while we were together,” Belichick noted. “I enjoyed coaching Tom, and he was a great player for us. Sunday night, we line up across from Tampa, not just him, but the entire team. They’re obviously a very good team. So, that’s all about our team competing against Tampa’s team, like it is every week.
“There’s guys on New Orleans, you know, Chris Hogan. There’s guys every week that [have] been on our team or guys that are on our team that have been on their team. Certainly, Tom’s a special player. I’m not trying to put him in the same category as a guy who was here for a year or something like that. But at the same time, you compete against the team you’re playing against and that’s what you do.
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