According to @Teddyjradio Robert Kraft had a "temper tantrum" after Tom Brady left the Patriots out of his retirement announcement đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/JTI6TICAyX
— NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSBoston) February 2, 2022
Tom Brady’s farewell message came with a glaring omission: a thank you to anyone from the Patriots or New England.
Brady took time to thank his family and many members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization for their support. Through the eight slides of text, the future Hall of Famer did not mention the Patriots, their fans, Bill Belichick, or Robert Kraft, despite his 20 seasons and six Super Bowl titles with the team.
According to former Patriots linebacker and frequent 98.5 The Sports Hub host Ted Johnson, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was extremely upset after discovering that Brady’s retirement post excluded him.
“I was told earlier tonight that it was an unpleasant day at the executive offices in Foxboro,” Johnson said Monday on “Boston Sports Tonight.” “Robert Kraft, when he initially heard the news, was very upset. He was screaming. He was yelling. There was a significant temper tantrum that he threw after reading this IG post.”
Given the history between Brady and the team, Kraft’s disappointment is understandable. At the same time, Brady did have rather gracious words for Kraft, Belichick, and New England when he initially made the decision to leave the Patriots and pursue free agency in March 2020.
Those words stand with the same impact now as they did just under two years ago. That was Brady’s thank you to New England. His post yesterday may very well be the same version of a thank you to Tampa Bay for his two seasons there.
From the posts in March 2020, to his comments following his return to Foxboro in week four of this past season, to reposting Kraft’s statement regarding his retirement, the notion that Brady will not thank New England is not a fair assessment.
There will be plenty of gratitude and appreciation for New England when he is almost certainly inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2027. For now, Brady will move on to his next chapter and make his decision as to when he will return home for a visit to Foxboro.
Prominent sports figures pay tribute to Tom Brady after retirement announcement
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