Tom Brady was drafted by the New England Patriots in 2000 and played 20 seasons for them. For someone who is 43, that is nearly half of his entire life, and almost his entire adult life. The Patriots also do things in a very specific way, which explains why moving to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was so difficult.
For Brady, going to play for the Bucs presented a culture shock. He talked about the difference in an interview on “Good Morning America.”
“When you’re in one place for 20 years, you think that’s the only way, and I think when you go to a different place you realize, ‘Wow, there’s another way that people do things.’”
Some of those differences were apparent in the way Bruce Arians did things compared to Bill Belichick.
“He’s a great motivator — he’s got a great feel for the team — a great pulse for what’s going on in a locker room, great intuition, great evaluation of talent,” Brady said of Arians.
Brady also says the transition from being the cornerstone to being the new guy was a change.
“You know when you’re at the Patriots, everyone would always come to me and introduce themselves to me because I was kind of the mainstay,” Brady said. “But I was the new guy for the first time, you know, and that was a really different experience.”
The feelings about how different things were between the teams were evident during the season. Arians was suggesting that the Patriots didn’t use Brady properly. Brady also embraced no longer being beholden to the Patriot Way and opened up in media interviews.
And guess what? Brady proved he can win doing it either way, as he also claimed a Super Bowl with the Bucs.
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