Price: My 7 takeaways from the ESPN story on Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft

Here are my seven takeaways from the ESPN story:


1. Look, this thing is going to come an end someday. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are going to be somewhere else, sooner rather than later (relatively). But Brady and Belichick will be the starting quarterback and head coach of the 2018 Patriots. There are several other elements in play here — as my buddy Tom E. Curran wrote last week, there is a distinct “end of the party” feel to a lot of what’s going on in Foxborough these days. But in my experience, that’s more about the looming loss of Josh McDaniels and/or Matt Patricia than anything else. It reminds me a lot of the final days of the 2004 season when Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis were about to leave. From a coaching perspective, you get a sense that there’s a reset coming with this team. That could also go for a lot of the personnel; the Patriots have a handful of veterans like Nate Solder, Danny Amendola, Malcolm Butler and Matthew Slater in the last year of their contracts, and some of them will almost certainly not be here next year. The bottom line? Whenever the clock runs out on the 2017 team, the 2018 version is going to look a lot different. But the quarterback and coach will still be together.

2. I’ve written about this a million times before, but it’s worth repeating: just because everyone plays on the same team, it doesn’t mean that everyone on that team are buddies. That includes Brady and Belichick. (What was that the coach said about “singing Kumbaya” a few weeks ago?) You'd like to think that it's been nothing but good times over the last 17 years, but you don’t work that closely with someone for 17 years and not have an occasional beef. And it's a tribute to the both of them that whenever they might have been upset with each other, they've both been clear-eyed and practical enough to find a solution to the thing. My opinion? They'll find a way around this.

3. As for Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, they had a positive working relationship. They weren’t pals. They didn't hang out. Like any starting NFL quarterback, Brady is a territorial sort who is completely aware of the tenuous nature of the position -- remember how he got his job?) But that never got in the way of business. For what it's worth, because (primarily) of his age, it's my understanding that Brady hasn’t really hung out with the team much the last couple of years like he did back when he was in his twenties, and that’s OK. He’s 40 years old — it would be weird for him to be hanging with his teammates like he did in 2000 and 2001 drinking beers and being a general twentysomething goof. (Many of his teammates were in elementary school when he beat the Rams in February 2002.) As for some teammates calling him “sir,” I can say I’ve had multiple players call me “sir” this season. And as for the thing about Brady hugging Kraft, well, almost all the veteran players hug Kraft. Vince Wilfork made a habit out of it. So I don’t know how much weight that part of the story carries.

4. In this context, it’s also important to remember that the Patriots will draft (or sign) a quarterback this offseason. It shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a referendum on Brady’s skill set or what the coach thinks of Brady. It will carry greater weight than usual considering where Brady is at this stage of his career. But let’s not all freak out and act like it’s wildly out off character for the Patriots. Few teams have been as aggressive as New England over the last decade-plus at adding a quarterback. They’re going to do it again. Don’t flip out about it when it happens.

5. How will all this impact the Patriots in the postseason? It’s going to be negligible. Sincerely. For the most part, that “Us Against The World” narrative that people believe exists in the walls inside of Gillette Stadium is overblown. I communicated with two players on Friday morning after the news broke, and both of them sort of rolled their eyes at the story. For the most part, this is a fairly steady team made up of guys who are cognizant of what they need to focus on at this time of the year.

6. I’m not saying it’s true. But for those of you who might not believe Brady would be upset about not winning a weekly honor … I mean, have you been following along the last 17 years? The guy isn’t wired like a normal human being, and I say that with the utmost respect. I mean, it’s what got him to where he is today. Those same raging insecurities about being taken 199th overall have helped fuel him to become the greatest quarterback of all time. (Go back and rewatch the Brady 6, for goodness sakes.) It’s also certainly not above Belichick to think he could get at Brady this way. He’s used that same sorts of honors to motivate guys before — even though he was playing miserably, Belichick frequently encouraged Jermaine Cunningham with a weekly award when he was in Foxborough in hopes of using it as motivation. Not sure if this is still the case, but Belichick used to use the captain positions in a similar way, rewarding and encouraging and pushing players if he thought it would help the team, regardless of how the roster voted. The coach pokes and prods all his players in hopes of trying to get something extra out of everyone on the roster.

7. Brady’s agent Don Yee e-mailed me Friday morning with his reaction to the story: "I don't really know what to say — it's tough to have a response since it didn't appear to me to have one on-the-record quote. All I can suggest is don't believe everything you read." In addition, the Patriots issued a statement from Kraft, Brady and Belichick: “For the past 18 years, the three of us have enjoyed a very good and productive working relationship," the statement reads. "In recent days, there have been multiple media reports that have speculated theories that are unsubstantiated, highly exaggerated, or flat out inaccurate. The three of us share a common goal. We look forward to the enormous challenge of competing in the postseason and the opportunity to work together in the future, just as we have for the past 18 years. It is unfortunate that there is even a need for us to respond to these fallacies. As our actions have shown, we stand united.”