Short answer:
Yes. Not only for the Patriots, but he will finish his career with them, whether that be on a high note or a low note.
Long answer:
The fact that there is even a question to whether or not Brady is going to play this coming season is wild enough as is. Where there’s smoke, there’s most certainly fire. I believed Brady when he said he’s going to play until his mid-40s and I still believe him to this day and will until then. With that being said, since he made that comment, shit has hit the fan in Foxboro. That’s something fans and Patriots players and personnel have all had the pleasure of experiencing.
It only took eighteen years for legitimate issues to arise among this Patriots dynasty consisting of Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. Yeah, I’m sure there’s disagreements regularly among them, but nothing like what’s happening right now. What stinks is that we’re not exactly sure what’s going on over there. This isn’t something we’ve seen before because of how functional and reasonable the Patriots have done business since the turn of the century. Us questioning what’s going on behind closed doors is enough to create confusion and worry.
As far as I’m concerned, though, things will get worked out at 1 Patriot Place by the start of the season. Josh McDaniels leaving the Indianapolis Colts at the altar showed the first sign of that way back when. We still don’t know exactly what was said to bring him back home, but if I had to guess, it’s what Brady wanted, which also happens to be the right decision for the long-term future of this team long after the Brady-Belichick era. I also strongly believe that Belichick wants to set this organization up for future success after he is finished here; he doesn’t want to end up like Bill Parcells, which he witnessed said dumpster fires occur first-hand.
Back to the real question – what is up with this Brady speculation shit? If I had to guess, it involves Belichick some way, somehow. There’s A LOT of things that go on behind the scenes with this team that I couldn’t even be able to begin to fathom. My first guess would have to be that it heavily involves the Alex Guerrero situation. Brady’s beloved trainer had been around and with the team everywhere working with not only Brady, but seemingly half the team at times, for years. It seemed as if Belichick had accepted him into the routine and allowed his players to work out with him along with everyone else, so obviously, players started vigorously working with him and bringing him closer into their lives.
Then, one day, Belichick kicks him out of Gillette and won’t let him travel with the team. Now, I’m no professional athlete, but if I had basically been told that I can train with someone and have been for years and he became a part of my daily routine and one day he got kicked out and my routine was completely ruined? I’d be pissed.
Brady has the right to be the most fed up with Belichick for that reason, among others. Guerrero became Brady’s bestie and obviously, the trainer’s work did wonders for the 40-year-old quarterback who has done everything from reverse aging to setting multiple records week in and week out. He also has the right because he has put up with Belichick’s attitude and demeanor and general way of going about things for eighteen years now. That is a long ass time; 6,570-plus days, to be exact. How anyone can functionally operate at the level Brady has for that long of a period of consecutive time is beyond me. Brady has put up with Belichick for longer than I’ve been alive.
Belichick, as we’ve learned, likes to put poor performances from players in the spotlight as a rude example to the rest of the team, and most recently putting veterans like Brady and Gronkowski out there and embarrassed in front of their teammates. This has to be Belichick’s way of showing everyone else that nobody is safe around these parts, which is pretty harsh, but it’s just how he does things. Now, I’m a sensitive person, sure, but as a human being, that would get on my nerves after a while, too. It obviously pays off for everyone involved at the end of the day, but still. In the moment, that would irk the hell out of me as a professional.
Belichick is absolutely being much more of an asshole lately, which has its pros and cons. Pros include continuing to win and get the best out of your players in all aspects of the game. The guys who can handle it stick around and play an important role to their team. Cons include veterans finally getting fed up with the excessive shit that they are only just now being forced to and not having it, which is understandable. After everything that guys like Brady and Gronk have done for the Patriots, a little bit of respect out of the coach, even if he is Bill Belichick, would go a long way.
Another reason for Brady “acting” the way he is is because of Malcolm Butler’s Super Bowl benching. I’m still not over this as a fan and I’m positive all of the 52 guys on that football team aren’t, either. What Belichick pulled that night was low. He threw the rest of the team under the bus that night after a long and hard-fought season to get where they were. All aspects of that football team were depleted from injuries and the coordinators weren’t having a great time. That plus ESPN doing ESPN things once the playoffs rolled around and the inner turmoil among the Patriots’ Big Three, the fact that the team got to the Super Bowl was an accomplishment.
If Butler played, they would have won the game. Everyone and their mother knows that fact of life by now. Belichick was being petty for reasons still unknown and it brought the other guys down with them, which is unacceptable, again, considering every little thing that team went through to get to that point in February. If I was a part of that team and a teammate like Butler got unreasonably and suddenly benched and embarrassed on live television in the biggest sporting event of the year and eventually losing the game because he wasn’t on the field; yeah, I’d be livid.
The veterans, again, guys like Brady and Gronk, are understandably the two-most affected and hurt by what Belichick did that night. For everything they’ve done over the years, with a chance to further cement their legacies in so many ways as individuals and as a team, they deserved better. It’s no wonder Brady and Gronkowski are the two players who are the most prominent in the mystery of this unusual Patriots offseason, The two players who deserve the best are receiving the worst.
One random related side note, Brady isn’t at the start of voluntary workouts this week, which is extremely unlike him. Just another reason to be confused by this entire situation and to be fascinated by it all like I am.
The moral of the story is, Bill Belichick is only making things worse when it comes to player-coach relations. Luckily, he’s smart enough to not let it affect the rest of his job, but still, he isn’t making his life any easier by treating his best players and most humble players with such disrespect. Things are happening down in Foxboro and it’s kind of creeping me out.
Nonetheless, I reiterate: Tom Brady will play for the New England football Patriots this 2018-19 season and it will be glorious.
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