Published on : 03/10/2021 – 13:18Modified : 03/10/2021 – 13:16
New York (AFP)
There are endings that take a long time to be told: more than a year after leaving the Patriots where he lived for 20 glorious years, Tom Brady is returning for the first time to New England and finally tongues. to untie.
It is as a hero of the past – marked by six Super Bowls won – that the stainless Brady, 44, will push back the lawn of Gillette Stadium on Sunday. But also as a champion, because in his first season in Tampa Bay, he managed to lead the Buccaneers to the coronation in February, winning in the process his seventh personal ring.
Chance of the calendar therefore marks its return to Massachusetts, where, as the Bee Gees sang, “the lights all went out, the day I left”, “the lights went out, the day I left”, in evoking those who followed the “flower power” movement to San Francisco.
In Foxborough, the light was also extinguished with the departure of Brady, the “Pats” having failed to qualify for the play-offs without him.
The price of some seats peaked at $ 13,000 (11,200 euros) to see the quarterback play again, who put New England on the NFL map and ultimately never got a chance to say goodbye to the NFL. fans. They should therefore give him a warm welcome.
– “Our relationship is good” –
In a forthcoming book, “It’s Better to Be Feared”, written by ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham, it is said that Brady didn’t have more. right to a warm “farewell” from Bill Belichick, his coach and mentor for twenty years.
If he told her over the phone that he was “the best player the league has ever seen,” the fact that this did not happen in person was “indicative” of the level of deterioration of the relationship between the two. men, says the author.
What Belichick laconically refuted: “This is not true, our relationship is good … it has always been good”.
According to Wickersham, citing sources close to the player, the beginnings of the divorce date back to 2017, Brady telling them “no longer want to play for Bill”. This did not prevent them from winning their sixth Super Bowl together in early 2018. The quarterback “was already curious to know if there was another way to win,” says the author.
Did Belichick want to keep Brady after the 2019 season? “He weighed his options and made a decision. We weren’t as good an option as Tampa, you have to ask him. Anyway, it wasn’t about not wanting to keep him. is safe, ”he replied on a local radio station.
– “Want to kick their buttocks”
In doing so, he contradicted Tom Brady Sr, who claimed in a podcast that the 69-year-old manager wanted his son to “go out the door”, and player Alex Guerrero’s personal coach, for whom the breakup was Belichick’s fault. , “still trying to treat him like the 20-year-old kid he recruited.”
“Bill is a great coach, he’s taught me a lot, he’s been a mentor … All of these things are super personal,” said Tom Brady on Wednesday, anxious not to fuel the discussions. “We had a great relationship. In the end, everything was handled the right way, as best we could. I think each of us just understood where we were at.”
If the legendary Michael Jordan admitted that returning to play in Chicago with Washington was very difficult, Brady should not feel such pressure, according to the former glory of the 49ers, Joe Montana. “He probably doesn’t care because he won a Super Bowl without the Patriots. And it’s like playing your best friend, you never want to lose.”
A state of mind translated by the very words of GOAT (Greatest Of All Time): “I still have some really good friends there, but they know I want to kick them. buttocks “.
© 2021 AFP
