Books: "Brady vs. Belichick," By Gary Myers

 

BRADY VS. BELICHICK: The Dynasty Debate

By Gary Myers

St. Martin's Press; 320 pages; hardcover, $31.00; EBook, $14.99; available today, Tuesday, September 16th

Gary Myers is well-known here in New York for being the long-time NFL columnist in the Daily News. He is the author of six books, including, most recently, Once A Giant, on the 1986 New York Giants championship team (please click here for our review); the New York Times bestseller Brady V Manning; How 'Bout Them Cowboys (our review); and My First Coach (our review).

This new book, BRADY VS. BELICHICK: The Dynasty Debate, is Myers' attempt to settle the hottest dispute in this era in the NFL.

Who was more responsible for the New England Patriots dynasty, in which they won six Super Bowls: quarterback Tom Brady or Head Coach Bill Belichick?

Myers dives into the numbers and analyzes the physchology and sociology of this partnership using his unique perspective to illuminate the greatest duo that ever graced a professional football field. What was the nature of this relationship between mentor and mentee, superstar and mad scientist? Is it possible they were equals?

In 20 years together, with Owner Robert Kraft at the helm, another big part of the picture, the Patriots won the six Super Bowls, while also reaching nine in all - as they lost two to the Giants and another one to the Philadelphia Eagles - essentially one out of every two played in that period.

It ended in a very sudden way when Brady left the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, and promptly won another Super Bowl in his first year there, followed by a pair of division titles. The Patriots, somewhat predictably, did not make the playoffs without him that year, then won 10 games in 2021, with Mac Jones at quarterback, to get back to the postseason before falling off the page in Belichick's final two years at the helm, to the point they were 4-13 in 2023, his worst record as a head coach.

Myers writes, "Belichick was forthcoming when I interviewed him for this book. He didn't have any regrets about the way things ended with Brady not finishing his career with the Patriots. He said 2020 'was an impossible situation in New England. He absolutely made the right decision. We could not put a good team around him. Financially, after stretching for 10 years, we ran out of cap space and had to rebuild the team - 2019 was our last real opportunity to win; 2020 was a rebuild, and we were back in the playoffs in 2021.'"

In addition to Belichick, Myers also has new interviews with Brady's New England teammates Julian Edelman, Devon McCourty, and Rodney Harrison; Tom Brady Sr., and 49ers legendary quarterback Joe Montana. There is also new material from coaching legends such as Bill Parcells, who had Belichick on his coaching staff with the Giants, Patriots, and Jets; former Patriots assistant coaches Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel; coaches Belichick went up against, including Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Rex Ryan, and Tony Dungy; as well as former executives Ernie Accorsi and Bill Polian.

Most football fans, especially Jets fans, remember what is viewed as the start of the Patriots dynasty. The Jets were at New England on September 23, 2001, in the first game since the 9/11 attacks, and Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe was leveled on a hit by Mo Lewis, which forced the Patriots to turn to Brady. That season ended with their first Super Bowl championship, and many people blame Lewis' hit for his part in sending them on their path, and in one of the book's most revealing chapters, he doesn't hide his bitter feelings about being that tagged with that, and he has become somewhat of a football recluse because of it.

Myers reveals that Belichick asked Patriots inside linebackers coach Pepper Johnson, who played with Lewis and linebacker Marvin Jones with the Jets in 1997 and '99, to speak to the offensive players the Friday before the game. Johnson told them, "Hopefully this doesn't sound bad because the last thing I want to do it pump fear into anybody, but if you are headed into a one-on-one with Marvin Jones or Mo Lewis, go out of bounds, sidestep them, get out of the way. Do not try and bump heads with these guys. They are Scud missiles. Mo is one of the guys you need to avoid.”

While that was the unofficial start of the dynasty, the real start, of course, was when Belichick, who had complete control over the Patriots' operations, drafted Brady with the 199th pick in the sixth round in the 2000 NFL Draft. He was the seventh player Belichick drafted that year, and he was also the seventh quarterback chosen overall. Myers examines what Belichick's future would have been like if Brady didn't come along because, after all, he missed the playoffs in his first season in New England after the infamously resigned as the "HC of the NYJ" one day after Parcells handed off the job to him in a set deal after the 1999 season.

Myers writes of how special this partnership was: What they did in New England as the longest-running player-coach combination in sports history was spectacular and will never be duplicated: a record seventeen AFC East titles, 13 AFC Championship game appearances, eight consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances, and nine Super Bowl appearances, and a record-tying six Super Bowl championships. Belichick's 19 consecutive winning seasons from 2001 to 2019 (18 with Brady, one with Matt Cassel) is one short of Tom Landry's record set in Dallas from 1966 to 1985.

Belichick's accomplishments far exceeded his expectations.

'That was a historical run - we had good teams every year, I did not subscribe to the 'go for broke' mentality,' he said. 'If I knew what we would accomplish in New England when I went there in 2000, then yes, I would have signed up for that!'

While they were busy winning all those Super Bowls and turning the Patriots into the model franchise in all of spots, Kraft's $172 million investment in 1994 was valued by Forbes at $7.4 billion 30 years later. If he cashes in, it will no doubt be a record ROI for a sports franchise.

Was it Brady or Belichick?

"It was a match made from the gods, the football gods," Patriots three-time Super Bowl champion wide receiver Julian Edelman said.

Edelman owes his career to Belichick and Brady: He wasn't invited to the scouting combine in Indianapolis in 2009, but Belichick drafted him in the seventh round as a receiver following his career as a three-year starter at quarterback for Kent State. Brady trusted him after Edelman took over the slot position when Wes Welker signed to play in Denver with Peyton Manning in 2013. Edelman was a spare part in his first four seasons with a total of 69 catches. In the first year without Welker in front of him, Edelman caught 105 passes for 1,056 yards and six touchdowns.

This is a multilayered debate. It's not as simple as saying they needed each other, which they did, or that neither would have come close to accomplishing what they did without the other, which they wouldn't have, or that it was a "No Days Off," or "Do Your Job" team effort, which it surely was. Early on, Belichick was the team builder and the brains behind the success. Brady was derogatorily described as a system quarterback and game manager. The narrative shifts toward Brady with each Super Bowl he won. He wasn't a system quarterback. He wasn't a game manager. He was a superstar.

"Tom was remarkable in that he improved every year," Belichick said. "As long as he kept improving, I never thought about anybody other than Tom playing quarterback. Tom hit an elite level around 2003."

That was Brady's third year as the starter and the season of his second Super Bowl championship. Belichick picked the players. He was smart. He created the culture and set the expectations. Brady made it work whether Belichick gave him David Patten or Randy Moss. As the partnership reached its second decade, their importance to the success of the franchise flip-flopped. If Belichick's coaching carried Brady to his first three Super Bowl titles, then Brady put Belichick on his back and carried him to the second set of three Super Bowls. He covered up for Belichick's many personnel miscues by raising the level of play of everyone around him, the intangible quality that separates the truly elite quarterbacks."