Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will regret ending Patriots dynasty early

Tom Brady wants this chance to show the world that he can win a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick, more than Belichick wanted him to stay and win their seventh Super Bowl championship together. It is stunning that Brady — 43 next summer — reached the conclusion that he believes he has a better chance …

Tom Brady wants this chance to show the world that he can win a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick, more than Belichick wanted him to stay and win their seventh Super Bowl championship together.

It is stunning that Brady — 43 next summer — reached the conclusion that he believes he has a better chance to win that seventh Super Bowl championship with a head coach not named Belichick. Bruce Arians and the Buccaneers, perhaps? Anthony Lynn and the Chargers, perhaps? We will soon find out.

He will be throwing to better receivers, no doubt. Maybe handing off and checking down to a better running back. Maybe inheriting a better defense. Playing in a warmer climate.

For a kinder, gentler coach.

It all looks good on paper.

Be careful what you wish for, Tom.

Of course there is cheering today — as much cheering as you can do in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic — in Florham Park, Buffalo and in Miami.

The Greatest Dynasty in NFL History — the Evil Empire — as we have known it for two decades is dead.

Or as dead as you dare to pronounce it knowing that there is one GOAT still standing, still wearing that hoodie, still scheming, still looking for every possible edge, come hell or Spygate.

The court of public opinion will now be able to debate who was more responsible for those six championships:

Tom Brady or Bill Belichick?

Neither, of course, would have six rings without the other.

But remember this: There is no crying in football, no room for sentimentality in Bill Belichick’s world. Call it pragmatism, or call it arrogance, but Belichick grew to believe that there could be Life After Tom Brady. And will be.

Brady will now attempt to prove that it was foolishness.

Belichick to Brady: Goodbye and good luck, Tom.

“He didn’t just perform,” Belichick said in a statement. “He didn’t just win. He won championships over and over again.”

His tribute ended with: “He is a special person and the greatest quarterback of all-time.”

For so long, year after year after year, Belichick would tell everyone that there was no other quarterback he would rather have than Brady.

Brady was an extension of Belichick on the field, in the locker room and the meeting rooms. Brady was much more than just another pretty face. He had an unmatched competitive fire that raged inside and it was relentless. Only Belichick could match his commitment to excellence.

“With his relentless competitiveness and longevity, he earned everyone’s admiration and will be celebrated forever,” Belichick said.

And Brady himself tweeted: “FOREVER A PATRIOT.”

On a day when we were reminded that nothing is forever.

Forever will now have to wait until his mad dash against Belichick to 7th Heaven ends, likely at age 45.

“I had hoped this day would never come,” team owner Robert Kraft told ESPN.

The handwriting, however, was on the wall for all to read. There was no long-term extension available for Brady in training camp, only an $8 million raise to $23 million in 2019 on a two-year deal that he agreed would void at the end of the season. There was that friction with Belichick over Brady’s promotion of personal trainer Alex Guerrero. There was no Rob Gronkowski and no replacement for him. Belichick tried to get Brady Fhelp with a troubled Antonio Brown, but that lasted one game. Who was left for Brady to trust aside from Julian Edelman and James White out of the backfield?

So sure, the new grass looks green to Brady.

It was greener for Peyton Manning in Denver, yes. It was greener for LeBron in Miami, yes.

But the grass isn’t always greener.

Brady can ask his idol, Joe Montana, who left his heart in San Francisco to finish his Hall of Fame career in Kansas City, about that.

“I love him like a son,” Kraft said.

Loved him so much that there was no room at the Foxborough Inn for Jimmy Garoppolo to stay to succeed Brady.

As well he should have … this skinny sixth-round draft choice out of Michigan who stepped in for Drew Bledsoe and engineered that shocking upset of the Rams, The Greatest Team on Turf, in Super Bowl XXXVI, the beginning of a two-decade reign of terror.

This is more deflating for Patriots Nation than Deflategate was in the days and weeks and months following the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Colts. Brady helped Belichick lift the franchise the way that Bill Russell helped Red Auerbach life the Celtics. He was their football Ted Williams, with six more championships than the Splendid Splinter. He was their Larry Bird, with three more championships than Larry Legend. Their Tom Terrific.

Alas, Belichick has long prepared for the day when Tom Versus Time was headed for a death struggle. It is why, as much as Kraft implored him to retire a Patriot or simply retire, there was no negotiation. Kraft would not stand in Belichick’s way.

I had to see Brady leaving to believe it. Now I believe it. Belichick will chase that seventh Super Bowl championship with someone not branded TB12. Jarrett Stidham? Andy Dalton? Who knows?

Tom Brady deserves to ride off into the sunset the way Manning and John Elway did.

He could have stayed. He should have stayed. He and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels were two minds in one body. Belichick will be highly motivated — no more than usual, of course — to find replacements all over the roster and continue to field a contender.

Tom Brady would have had a better chance with Belichick, as QB of the NEP.

But Tom Brady is no longer QB of the NEP.

Brady earned this right to be a free agent for the first time in his life.

“My football journey will take place elsewhere.”

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