Tom Brady has finally shared his feelings publicly on the New England Patriots' decision to draft Jimmy Garoppolo.
During the latest episode of his Man in the Arena docuseries for ESPN+, Brady discussed the Patriots' 2014 championship run, as well as the team investing a second-round pick in his presumed eventual replacement, despite having etched a legacy during his first 14 seasons in New England up to that point.
“I really felt like I was giving my heart to the team, the city. I felt like I was setting down my roots, because I had committed to being in Boston. And then I didn’t necessarily feel like, ‘Oh, well that’s reciprocating,'” Brady said (h/t CBS Boston). “But I recognize I’m no different than those other positions on the team. Like, I still gotta go out there and perform at a high level and earn my job.”
Brady said he embraced Garoppolo as any other new teammate, but couldn't help but feel slighted about the situation, specifically when head coach Bill Belichick acknowledged the then-37-year-old quarterback's age while addressing the situation.
“Now we drafted Jimmy higher. You know, Coach Belichick referenced my age to me, referenced it to the media. And in my mind, I was thinking, ‘What are you … talking about?’ And I think he was just referencing, well, you know, not many quarterbacks have ever played and been successful late in their career. And that’s just a fact,” Brady said. “Of course for me, I was just like, ‘I don’t care about any of those things.'”
Brady admitted he understood why the team would invest in a long-term answer for the quarterback position but said it didn't make the situation any easier for him.
“I never thought about those things, because I didn’t think of myself as aging in a traditional way,” Brady said. “I was really beginning to understand how to take care of myself. I was really beginning to understand the game, how to study, how to be more efficient. I was really beginning to understand how to train, how to communicate more effectively with my teammates. Things were maturing in my life, and my boys were getting a little bit older, where they’re starting out to be a little more self-dependent. My daughter was born December 2012, so she’s getting a little bit older. We built a home and it got finished in 2014. Like this is where we’re gonna be.”
Brady ended up outlasting Garoppolo in New England after the Patriots traded Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, nearly three years before Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2020.
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