Tom Brady and Bill Belichick own the most successful partnership in NFL history. Together, they have won 17 AFC East titles, nine AFC titles and six Super Bowls.
It’s been a long, historic run, and the two have a good relationship.
“It’s hugely respectful, and there’s no getting around that,” former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe said on The Zach Gelb. “It’s very well known that it’s not rainbows and unicorns when you play with Belichick. It’s very business-like, but they both have huge respect for each other. They both extremely hard at their craft, so it’s been a great relationship for the two of them.”
But now that relationship could be over. The Patriots fell to the Titans in the AFC Wild Card this past weekend – their earliest playoff exit since 2009. Brady, who turns 43 in August, is set to hit the market as an unrestricted free agent fo the first time in his career.
What happens next is anybody’s guess, but Brady and Belichick might be more open to a parting of ways than you would think.
“I do think there’s some intrigue probably on both sides of that thing to see if they can do it without the other guy – for Tom, to see if he can win without Bill, and for Bill, to see if he can win without Tom,” Bledsoe said. “I think there’s probably some intrigue on both sides of that thing to see where the credit really lies in that situation. I truly have no idea what’s going to happen. It’ll be interesting to watch.”
Still, for many, the idea of Brady in another uniform is somewhere between inconceivable and blasphemous.
“It’d be weird,” Bledsoe said. “I think it would be strange for everybody if that happened. But if he does decide he’s going to go someplace else, it has to be a very specific fit. They’ve got to have most of those pieces in place already. He’s not going to go to a rebuild. There’s only a couple of places I could even fathom him going to.”
Like the Chargers and the Colts. Both teams have talent, but both have question marks at quarterback.
“Outside of those two spots, it’s kind of hard to envision him going someplace else,” Bledsoe said. “It would be pretty strange, but it would also be a pretty interesting story to see what Tommy can do elsewhere, to see what Belichick can do without Tommy pulling the trigger for him. It would be an interesting storyline, but it would be awfully weird.”