As the Patriots “start over,” not many have faith in the man in charge of pressing the reset button. Former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady nevertheless believes that Patriots coach Bill Belichick will continue to be the same guy he has always been.
“Absolutely,” Brady said on the latest installment of his Let’s Go! podcast on SiriusXM. “I think that he’s got a very consistent approach that he’s always taken and, you know, it’s the right approach. It’s try to prepare the players, give them the best opportunity to succeed. You know, you get out there on the field in the end, the coaches, once the play is called in the players gotta go do it. And it takes a great coaching staff to win. It takes great players to win. It takes great front office support to win. It’s an organizational win. It’s an organizational loss. To ascribe a win or loss to one player — and they did that for me a lot with winning and I always say, ‘It’s not about me, it’s about us.’ And when you lose, as a leader, when you lose you take the blame and you give the credit when you win. But at the end of the day it’s a team sport.”
The reality for the Patriots is that no one has more responsibility over the team than Belichick. He buys the groceries. He cooks the meal. And, currently, fans feel like they have a crater in their colon the size of a cutlet.
Brady also was asked how he thinks Belichick is dealing with the team’s struggles, as punctuated by a 38-3 loss followed by a 34-0 home shutout.
“I think the results are different from what they’ve been, but I know that he’s still got the same work ethic, he’s got the same coaching style,” Brady said. “I think the thing that I think as I watch not only the Patriots, but a lot of other things, football’s a hard sport. You know, it was very different when I was in there because I could control a lot of the outcome. When I’m sitting here watching from afar I realize, God, there’s a lot of variables, there’s a lot of things that need to go right in order to have team success. And I was a part of a lot of those teams and I didn’t take any of those things for granted. I needed a great defense. I needed a great kicker. Obviously I needed a great coach. I needed great receivers and a great O-line. If I was gonna be successful as a player, I needed all those things. And I was fortunate to have a lot of those things over a long period of time. So, the teams that lose, they’re putting a lot into it. The teams that win, they’re putting a lot into it. It’s a relentless sport and nothing is given to you. It’s all hard. Losing is hard, winning is hard. To be in it year in and year out is hard. To lose and have a horrible season is very hard.”
But that hasn’t happened for the Patriots, not since 2000 — Brady’s rookie year. And nothing is currently great about these Patriots. Especially not at the position Brady played.
Again, it all falls on Belichick. Since 2018, it has all fallen apart. It feels inevitable that something significant needs to happen in order to turn this around.
