James White details ‘awkward’ rift between Tom Brady, Bill Belichick
"Everybody kind of knew about what was going on."
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls together during their two-decade partnership with the Patriots.
But it was far from a seamless alliance between quarterback and coach — especially during the final years of New England’s dynasty.
ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Wright Thompson penned an extended breakdown of the events that set the stage for the Patriots’ eventual collapse as a perennial power in the NFL.
And while most of Wickersham and Thompson’s story revolves around the eroding relationship between Belichick and both Robert and Jonathan Kraft, there were also plenty of revealing nuggets unearthed about the dynamic between Brady and Belichick during their final years together.
Even before Brady eventually opted to part ways with the Patriots in free agency back in March 2020, the writing was on the wall that the legendary quarterback’s time playing for Belichick was running short.
Brady, having already taken umbrage with Belichick after the Patriots coach/de-facto GM selected Jimmy Garoppolo in the 2014 NFL Draft, began an “obsessive anti-aging regimen” — as Wickersham and Thompson put it — with trainer Alex Guerrero.
Eventually, Guerrero’s involvement with the Patriots prompted Belichick to limit the trainer’s team access — prompting Kraft to serve as the mediator between Brady and Belichick.
“All of those issues — Garoppolo, Brady’s age and contract, Deflategate, Belichick’s mostly miserable program and the TB12 method — came to a head in 2017,” Wickersham and Thompson wrote. “Belichick curtailed Guerrero’s access. At one point, Brady and Guerrero worked out of a maintenance shed at Gillette Stadium that stored John Deere tractors. Belichick spoke to confidants about leaving.
“Brady has said publicly that he didn’t want to return to the Patriots at that time unless something changed. After releasing a statement in January 2018 denying that there was tension between his two most important employees, Kraft wanted fans to know how he solved it, by hearing Brady out, by restoring some of Guerrero’s access. They won another Super Bowl in 2019. Their sixth. And last.”
Former Patriots running back James White acknowledged that there was plenty of tension in New England during those final years of the Brady-Belichick era, especially as it pertained to Guerrero.
“Alex was always in the building as Tom’s guy. Julian (Edelman) worked with him and a few of the guys worked with him whether it was at the facility or at TB12 or whatnot,” White said on the “Off The Pike” Podcast with Brian Barrett. “But it was definitely awkward because everybody kind of knew about what was going on. It wasn’t talked about like between them in front of us, but you could tell there was some sort of tension either between the training staff and Alex or Tom and Alex versus Bill.
“Alex was still in there working with Tom the entire time because that’s what helped Tom prepare from a day-to-day basis. Definitely some weird, awkward situations going on when it came to that.”
Even though White acknowledged that he never received treatment from Guerrero, he noted that the trainer’s growing list of clients beyond Brady soon led to some confusion in the Patriots’ locker room in terms of rehab and other PT resources.
“I never saw Alex at all, so I was never in that situation,” White said. “But I’m sure when it came down to it guys were like, ‘Should I listen to Alex? Should I listen to the training staff? You know, Bill wants it a certain way.’ Definitely add some conflict in there,” White said. “So, I could see where that gray area, what was going on why it ruffled little feathers. I was never put in that situation, but I’m sure when it came to receivers, I’m sure they got put in some of those awkward situations at some point.”
Even though Kraft and the Patriots managed to mend Brady and Belichick’s relationship enough for New England to win another title in February 2019, one has to wonder if that duo could have achieved even more together before Brady left for Tampa Bay just 13 months later.
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