"I couldn’t do it anymore" - Tom Brady makes harsh admission on Patriots career following Super Bowl LII defeat

Tom Brady's new docuseries "Man in the Arena" has dialed up the pace of juicy information about the future Hall of Famer's exit from New England.

Speaking about 2017 and the Super Bowl LII defeat against the Philadelphia Eagles, Brady revealed when he started to think about leaving New England.

Why did Tom Brady begin thinking about leaving the Patriots?

Miami Dolphins v Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Speaking on his ongoing docuseries cataloging his career in the NFL, Brady says it started to feel different in New England in 2017. According to Barstool Sports, Brady's tight end, Rob Gronkowski, said he was simply going through the motions.

Brady felt that he and his team were doing the same under Bill Belichick.

“Any time you’re in a 20 years relationship with different people, one year, one experience doesn’t shape my relationship. And then some relationships got strained. That’s just, that’s what they were. … I did know that if things were going to continue the way they were heading, that I couldn’t do it anymore.”

Brady's admission that his relationship with the Patriots was strained over time and not due to any single event flies in the face of what many in the media say caused the split. One can surmise that Brady was alluding to the Jimmy Garoppolo saga of drama.

He was also likely alluding to Bill Belichick's classically stoic and unbending nature.

To paraphrase Brady, sometimes relationships simply run their course. It wasn't an explosive climax that ended his time with Belichick in New England.

Rather, there was a level of apathy about being with the team for so many years and the ongoing difficulties perhaps brought on by management. Brady knew the end was coming long before it happened.

His decision to leave the Patriots was not a decision made overnight, but rather one slowly made over the years.

Brady left the Patriots at the end of the 2019 season and landed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in time for the 2020 season.

In his first year with the new franchise, he brought the team to a Wild Card playoff berth with an 11-5 record before tearing through the playoffs en route to a Super Bowl victory.

They faced the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV and won the game 31-9. Now in his second season with the Buccaneers, the quarterback's team has a 12-4 record with a game left to play.

They've locked up the division and are essentially waiting for their first playoff game of the year as Brady looks to become the first quarterback to win back-to-back Super Bowls with a second franchise for the first time in NFL history.