The end of the New England Patriots' dynasty crumbled swiftly at the turn of the decade.
Tom Brady exited in 2020 after 11 consecutive AFC East titles and three Super Bowls in six campaigns. By the end, it was obvious a restart was in order, with the Pats swiftly bowing out in the 2019 Wild Card Round.
Brady's decision to play elsewhere for three seasons caused a stir in New England, but speaking on Fox News' "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" on Tuesday, Bill Belichick said the decision to leave for another team was the right call for the quarterback.
"Tom leaving was absolutely the right thing for him to do," Belichick said, via Boston.com. "We didn't have a good team in 2020. We just didn't have a good football team. We had all those guys that left -- (Rob) Gronkowski and (Julian) Edelman. Most of our team was gone. (Devin) McCourty and a few others were still there, but they were about to go, too. We were just at the end.
"And honestly, I was happy for him that things worked out well for him in Tampa, because he was with a team ... and then he went on and won. That made me happy for him, because Tom -- it wouldn't have gone well in 2020 in New England. On this, I can guarantee that."
Belichick said the club put "everything we had" into the 2019 campaign, and after the wild-card exit, it was clear Brady would move on. TB12 spent three seasons in Tampa, winning a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2020, leading the NFL in yards and touchdowns in 2021 and finishing his career out in 2022.
Part of the Patriots' downfall came from a slew of missed Belichick draft picks and other personnel decisions near the end of Brady's run.
"I wish we could have done more, but we went as far as we could," Belichick said. "And look, he proved it -- he played longer than anybody, played at a higher level than anybody. And again, tremendous credit to him. Nobody else did that -- that was him."
Years after their departure, Brady admitted the coach-QB relationship had grown into a "natural tension" that led to the breakup after two decades. But in recent years, each has offered admiration for the other's accomplishments, noting they couldn't have accomplished such feats without one another.
"I learned so much from Tom. I never played quarterback," Belichick said. "Tom saw the game through a quarterback's eyes. I saw the games through a coach's eyes. Together, I think we both learned a lot from each other. Tom, how defensive coaches looked at him or looked at offense. Me, on what a quarterback can do and what he can't do, what's hard, what's easy, what I can see, what I can't see, and how you see the game.
"Tom wasn't a dominant personality. He was just a great leader. He would do whatever you asked him to do. Honestly, if you told him to go out there and run a reverse and block the defensive end, he'd go block the defensive end. He'd do whatever the team needed him to do, and he was very competitive."
