Tom Brady gets 100% real on "tension" with Bill Belichick for breakup with Patriots in 2020

Tom Brady opened up about his decision to terminate his successful partnership with Bill Belichick and the Patriots in free agency in 2020. The two had ruled the NFL for 20 years, and the quarterback acknowledged that they had reached a point, according to him, where there was natural tension. He also considered where New England was moving as a franchise, and that led to him reassessing his priorities. The GOAT quarterback wrote on his website:

"The reality was, after twenty years together, a natural tension had developed between where Coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers, and where the Patriots were moving as a franchise. It was the kind of tension that could only be resolved by some kind of split or one of us reassessing our priorities."

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Tom Brady opens up about leaving Patriots and Belichick to choose Bucs and Arians in 2020

Tom Brady went into detail about how he evaluated his priorities before choosing to relocate to Tampa Bay from New England. He said that he listed down about 20 priorities and having the requisite skill players, like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, was a priority. Having an offensive coach like Bruce Arians also featured prominently. Brady continued:

"What I ended up with was a list of about twenty things that I then ranked and graded on a weighted scale from 1 to 3. The presence of skill players was a 3 in terms of importance, for example, and the Bucs graded out as a 3 because of guys like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin The same was true for the head coach. That was a 3 in importance, and Tampa scored a 3 with Bruce Arians."

Showing Tom Brady's attention to detail, the quarterback also explained that while gameday weather wasn't a top priority, practice weather was. He also said that the financial compensation was a part of the list, but it wasn't among the top 10 priorities he had. Brady said:

"Game day weather was a 2, practice weather was a 3. Financial compensation was on the list, obviously, but it wasn’t first, it probably wasn’t even top 10, and it definitely didn’t rank as a 3 in importance."

Tom Brady's meticulous approach led him to conclude that leaving Belichick for Arians was a better decision at that time. He was vindicated, as he won his seventh Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in his first season with Tampa Bay. The Patriots coach didn't fare as well and lost his job a couple of seasons after the quarterback had departed New England.