New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft became emotional during a recent interview while discussing Tom Brady's exit in 2020.
For 20 years, the Patriots dominated the NFL with coach Bill Belichick, Brady as the quarterback, and Robert Kraft owning the team. They went to the Super Bowl nine times and won six of them, and they also won the AFC East Division 16 times.
But after Brady moved to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, things didn't go so well for the Patriots. Tom Brady, now 46, even won another Super Bowl with his new team before he stopped playing in February 2023.
Without him, the Patriots had a tough time. Belichick's team didn't do great, missing out on the playoffs three times in four years. The last season was particuarly bad, as they only won four games out of 17. This led to Jerod Mayo replacing Belichick as head coach.
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In a show called 'The Dynasty: New England Patriots' on Apple TV+, Kraft talked about how he felt when Brady moved to Florida. He knew it would change everything for the team and even the whole league.
Kraft said: "For a young man who’d been with us for 20 years, I still remember him coming down the steps with a pizza on his arm, skinny bean pole, tell me that he is the best decision the organization has ever made in drafting him 199 in the sixth round.
"And then watching him evolve and develop, I thought, 'Wow, the greatest cycle in the history of the NFL is ending'."
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Brady, Kraft and Bill Belichick were the spine of the Patriots dynasty that yielded six Super Bowl rings (Getty Images)Famously, no NFL coach demands more of his players than defensive mastermind Belichick and his no-nonsense, business-like method meshed effectively with Brady's unrelenting dedication to his craft. The duo forged the most successful quarterback-head coach tandem in NFL history, but Belichick's concerns over Brady's age ultimately drove them apart.
Kraft sided with his coach over the quarterback, only to regret seeing Brady win a seventh ring with the Bucs. When Brady returned to Foxborough to be honoured in retirement back in September, Kraft admitted he made the wrong decision.
"He just said, 'I made a mistake'," Tom Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr, said. "He told us that back in September. We don’t all make the right decisions, but he’s made a hell of a lot of good ones over the years. But I know that it galls him that Tommy went elsewhere and won. Not that he won, but that he won after Bill said he was done."
Brady is the only player to win more than five Super Bowls in his career (seven), and he has been named Super Bowl MVP on five occasions times. He retired as the league's all-time leader in passing yards (89,214), touchdown passes (649), regular season wins (251), and a number of other records to be considered by many as the greatest quarterback in history.
Meanwhile, across his 24 years as Patriots head coach, Belichick - a three-time AP Coach of the Year - won 266 regular season games. Including his five seasons in charge of the Cleveland Browns, Belichick is just 26 wins away from Don Shula's all-time mark of 328 but he is set to be without an NFL coaching role for the first time since 1975.
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* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story.
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