Everybody wants to talk about Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots’ struggles these days, so it’s only fitting that the quarterback who teamed with Belichick to lead the franchise to unprecedented heights would be asked about them.
On his “Let’s Go!” podcast this week, Tom Brady was asked by co-host Jim Gray about New England’s 1-4 start and the mounting criticism surrounding his former coach.
I think the results are different from what they’ve been, but I know that he’s still got the same work ethic, he’s got the same coaching style. I think the thing that I think as I watch not only the Patriots, but a lot of other things, football’s a hard sport. You know, it was very different when I was in there because I could control a lot of the outcome. When I’m sitting here watching from afar I realize, God, there’s a lot of variables, there’s a lot of things that need to go right in order to have team success. And I was a part of a lot of those teams and I didn’t take any of those things for granted. I needed a great defense. I needed a great kicker. Obviously I needed a great coach. I needed great receivers and a great O-line. If I was gonna be successful as a player, I needed all those things. And I was fortunate to have a lot of those things over a long period of time. So, the teams that lose, they’re putting a lot into it. The teams that win, they’re putting a lot into it. It’s a relentless sport and nothing is given to you. It’s all hard. Losing is hard, winning is hard. To be in it year in and year out is hard. To lose and have a horrible season is very hard.
Here’s Tom Brady on his podcast on the Patriots’ recent struggles and how Bill Belichick will respond to them: pic.twitter.com/5V2kMgpTf4
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) October 10, 2023
This is Belichick’s worst five-game stretch to begin a season since 2000, his and Brady’s first year in Foxboro.
Despite the poor results, Brady thinks Belichick will remain true to himself.
Absolutely. I think that he’s got a very consistent approach that he’s always taken and, you know, it’s the right approach. It’s try to prepare the players, give them the best opportunity to succeed. You know, you get out there on the field in the end, the coaches, once the play is called in the players gotta go do it. And it takes a great coaching staff to win. It takes great players to win. It takes great front office support to win. It’s an organizational win. It’s an organizational loss. To ascribe a win or loss to one player — and they did that for me a lot with winning and I always say, ‘It’s not about me, it’s about us.’ And when you lose, as a leader, when you lose you take the blame and you give the credit when you win. But at the end of the day it’s a team sport.
New England enters this weekend’s game against the Josh McDaniels-led Las Vegas Raiders with the league’s worst scoring offense.
The Patriots have totaled only 55 points in five games and have been outscored 72-3 in their last two contests.