No one can deny the immense respect that exists between the New England Patriots' Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, who will always represent the team.
Belichick and the Patriots have agreed to separate ways after a 24-year association that began in 2000 and ended in 2023. During that time, the team won six Super Bowls in nine appearances.
Several players, both present and past, have paid respect to Belichick online. With a photo of himself and Belichick and a message for his former head coach, Brady joined in Thursday afternoon. "I’m incredibly grateful to have played for the best coach in the history of the NFL," he said.
He was an excellent leader who inspired his teammates and the corporation as a whole. We achieved a lot of remarkable things over a long time, and it will be difficult to repeat many of them. He put in countless hours every day to ensure that we won the championship at the pinnacle of team sports.
Even though we prevailed, I believe that the most formative experiences came from the times when we had to overcome insurmountable obstacles. His words served as an inspiration for the entire organization: "Falter not in the face of difficulty;" instead, focus on doing your job.
Without you, Coach Belichick, I would not have been the player that I was. I will be eternally thankful. Whatever you decide to do next, I hope it turns out well for you. Brady and Belichick might be argued as the best player/coach combination in team sports history.
They achieved unparalleled success as a pair. Over the course of their 19 years together, the Patriots made it to the playoffs 17 times (even though Brady only participated in one game that year) thanks in large part to their mutual obsession with winning. The Patriots won three Super Bowls in a five-year stretch in two distinct decades, and they are the most recent club to repeat as winners
In 2020, Brady signed a free agency contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, leaving the Patriots. On Thursday, Belichick departed. With the Patriots' heyday in the NFL officially behind them, it will be difficult for any other team to match their level of success from that period.