For years, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s New England Patriots dominated the National Football League almost at will.
The Patriots reached the Super Bowl nine times in Brady’s epic tenure in Foxboro, with Belichick orchestrating some of the most prominent defenses this game had ever seen.
Unsurprisingly, people started debating whether Brady made Belichick great or vice versa once the quarterback left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, especially amid all the reports of a potential feud between the two.
So, now that Brady has finally decided to retire — and it seems like he means it this time — both parties were finally able to have a sit down and a heartfelt talk about their time together.
Belichick joined Brady and Jim Gray on the Let’s Go! Podcast, showering his lifelong QB with praise but also talking about the hard times.
According to NFL analyst Colin Cowherd, those hard conversations are a key element to football that’s been lost with the younger generations, as they’re just not willing to deal with criticism or not getting their way:
"It was a key element of greatness in football. Are we losing a bit of that element?"
— @ColinCowherd on Tom Brady – Bill Belichick conversation… pic.twitter.com/Yjb6i3W5jl
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) February 7, 2023
“It was a key element to greatness in football. Are we losing a little bit of this element?” Cowherd asked. “We had hard conversations. Is this generation of football players willing to have those, or are you gonna scrub your social media account ’cause ‘they want to franchise-tag me?” he asked in a mocking voice.
Truth be told, Cowherd has quite the point right there.
The players have become somewhat spoiled and often refuse to be held accountable or not get whatever they want — even though they actually agreed to that ‘franchise tag’ model.
Of course, one could also argue that the NFL and the teams have profited from the players’ bodies for way too long, so it’s only natural that takes start handling their business the same way, and it would also be fair.
But what happened to the days of reaching some middle ground? Is that gone forever?
NEXT: Robert Kraft Reveals His Future Plans To Celebrate Tom Brady
