Belichick Denies That He Didn't Want To Meet Brady In Person After QB Decided To Leave New England
BOSTON (CBS) -- One of the more shocking stories to come out of the excerpts from Seth Wickersham's upcoming book about the New England Patriots was that Bill Belichick didn't even want to talk with Tom Brady in person after the quarterback chose to leave New England. Instead, Brady and Belichick said farewell to each other over the phone.
But during his Wednesday morning press conference ahead of Sunday's game against Brady and the Buccaneers, Belichick said that simply was not true. Belichick added that a lot of the stuff that will come out in Wickersham's book is false.
"That is not true, and I've heard a few things about this book and it sounds like a lot of second, third and fourth hand comments," said Belichick. "I'm not going to comment on that. I'm trying to prepare for Bucs."
The excerpts from "It's Better To Be Feared" that were released Wednesday morning painted a pretty sour relationship between Belichick and Brady at the end of the their run together. In the book, which is due out Oct. 12, Brady told friends that having to say goodbye to Belichick over the phone was telling of how their relationship had deteriorated over the years. It further hammers home why Brady chose to leave the only franchise he had ever played for when he hit free agency in 2019.
Belichick said Wednesday that his relationship with Brady is good, and he believes it has always been good. Pressed on which details are incorrect in Wickersham's book, and why Brady is no longer in New England, Belichick did his best to push focus back to this weekend.
"All of that is in the past," he said. "I'm looking forward to the game."
Belichick had a lot of nice things to say about the quarterback throughout Wednesday's press conference, but wouldn't say if he'll be chatting with Brady ahead of Sunday's showdown at Gillette Stadium.
