One month ago, Damon Amendolara predicted that Tom Brady would leave the New England Patriots. On Tuesday, that prediction became a reality, as Brady announced that his “football journey will take place elsewhere.”
Brady, who turns 43 in August, leaves New England with six Super Bowl titles, three NFL MVP awards and 41 playoff starts since 2001. He will test the free-agency waters and don another uniform in 2020.
“It has been obvious all along that Brady was looking forward to this time, and I don’t blame him at all,” Amendolara said on The DA Show. “I never did. He wanted to be loved on. Bill doesn’t love on you. Bill’s cold, he’s calculated, [a] poker player. Tom Brady wanted to be loved on and wanted to be going somewhere where they were excited to have him, give him some cash that maybe he didn’t get when he was underpaid with the Patriots, and he wanted to go somewhere that was new and refreshing and maybe not the cold, callous, win-at-all-costs mentality that Bill Belichick breeds.
“I’m not saying it’s wrong or it’s evil or anything that Belichick breeds that,” Amendolara continued. “Hey, it’s part of the equation in New England. You want to win? Bill’s got the blueprint. The Bill blueprint isn’t always fun. It’s certainly not the way that you always want to end your career if you want one final swan song that feels like [you] can exhale.”
D.A. clearly saw this exit coming. Many people affiliated with the Patriots, however, can’t say the same.
“The stories were all there lined up to Tom leaving the entire time,” Amendolara said, “and there was a contingent of Patriots media and a contingent of former Patriots players and a contingent of people that just simply didn’t look at the logistics and assumed that it meant more for Tom Brady to come back. It never did. It doesn’t make him a bad guy. It doesn’t make him disloyal. He just wanted a freedom – and now he’s suddenly going to get it.”