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Why Bill Belichick spent $5,000 on milk to keep Tom Brady, Antonio Brown happy
"So, now we turn in this expense report — $5,000 worth of milk. Sometimes, you’ve just got to do the right thing."
Bill Belichick went to great lengths in order to keep the Patriots’ locker room placated during his 24-year run as New England’s head coach.
That includes shelling out thousands of dollars on … milk?
During an appearance on “The Pivot” Podcast with Ryan Clark, Belichick shared a story from his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football,” in which he had to drop $5,000 on milk in order to ensure that Tom Brady and new wide receiver Antonio Brown were on good terms.
“One of the funniest stories in the book is the Antonio Brown story. He was only with the Patriots for 11 days,” Belichick said. “And, Tom’s very nutrition-oriented. Antonio wanted to … Tom had Antonio come and stay at his house, wanted to embrace him, bring him onto the team and so forth.
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“Antonio ordered this special milk for Brady, it cost $5,000. To make a long story short, it kinda got mixed up and ended up in the mailroom for too long, and the milk went bad.”
Wanting to make sure that Brown didn’t burn any bridges with his new QB by messing up his milk order, Belichick revealed that both he and the Patriots offered Brown a helping hand with a new order.
“So, now we turn in this expense report — $5,000 worth of milk. Sometimes, you’ve just got to do the right thing, and I didn’t want to ruin the relationship between Brown and Brady on this spoiled milk,” Belichick said. “So we spent $5,000 to replace his milk.”
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Ultimately, that payout from Belichick and the Patriots didn’t reverse the fortunes of Brown or the 2019 Patriots. New England cut Brown after just one game played with New England after the veteran wide receiver reportedly sent intimidating text messages toward a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct.
Brown and Brady ended up reuniting the following season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with the duo winning Super Bowl LV over the Kansas City Chiefs.
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