Trouble Between Brady and Belichick? Brady Saying 'I Love Him' is All I Need to Hear
Just in case that, unlike me, you don’t plan your weekend around Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday Facebook post, allow me to do you the public service of boiling her interview with Tom Brady down to its bullet points:
–He’s not comfortable with talk that he’s the GOAT.
–He only compares himself to himself.
–The TB12 Method works for him. (As the name would suggest.)
–He sees himself closer to the end of his career than the beginning. (I refuse to acknowledge this.)
–Deflategate taught him who he could count on when the going gets tough. (Without specifically mentioning me by name, but it was implied.)
–The month he was suspended was the best time off he’s ever had.
–It took him a month to get back to normal after losing The Super Bowl That Shall Not Be Named I. (Since I’m currently at 137 months and counting and still no progress, I’m making a note to ask him how he managed it.)
–If you didn’t like him kissing his son on the mouth, you can go fuck a rat trap. (I’m paraphrasing.)
But the big Final Jeopardy answer any Pats fan really cares about came somewhere in the middle:
Oprah: “Is there something going on with you and Belichick?”
GOAT: “[Awkward pause] Um … [Even awkwarder pause that seemed to drag on longer than Wagners’ Ring Cycle] no. I mean, I love him. I love that he’s an incredible coach, mentor for me, and he’s pushed me in a lot of ways. And, like everything, we don’t agree on absolutely everything. That’s relationships.”
Well, OK then. That solves that. Nothing to worry about here. Six months of weirdness. Anonymous sources coming out every two days to say Brady and Belichick are practicing the Amish tradition of Shunning. Rumors about Brady violating the sacred Chain of Command, going over the boss’s head to the owner to get him to force or veto trades as it pleases him. Belichick looking miserable. More miserable than usual. The man who started out Tom vs. Time by saying “In order to beat me you better be willing to give up your life because I’m giving up mine,” skipping OTAs for the first time ever. Bill “No! Days! Off!” Belichick canceling OTAs (Two! Days! Off!) to give his team a football history lesson. And a raging national debate on whether the team that’s been to three of the last four Super Bowls and won two of them is having any “fun.” All taken care of in 35 words.
Is there something going on? Nope. We know that now thanks to this vague, unspecific and semi-convincing answer. Rarely have the words “I mean, I love him” been said with such … hesitance. With all the conviction of when someone at your company that you think is kind of a dink dies and you feel obligated to say something nice so you say “We didn’t agree on everything, but he whatareyagonna do? He was an OK guy. I guess.”
But in this case? I’ll take it. I don’t need to be convinced. As I’ve said before, whenever I’m not sure what the truth is, I always choose to believe the thing I want to be true. And that is, that Brady loves Belichick and they are getting along as super swell as ever and there is no reason to be alarmed. Thanks, Oprah, for being the hard hitting interviewer to dig deep inside TB12’s psyche to get to the bottom of this. I’m glad the air has finally been cleared.
