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Ted Johnson: Robert Kraft didn’t take Tom Brady’s retirement post well

Tim Crowley February 2nd, 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

  • Tom Brady talks with owner Robert Kraft before a preseason game in August 2019.

    Despite the glaring omission of anyone from New England or the Patriots, Tom Brady’s retirement announcement still got a glowing statement from Robert Kraft. The team posted their own statements and tributes to Brady’s career as part of an outpouring of adulation for the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

    Others who gave their own statements or tributes include Peyton Manning, Alex Guerrero, and others across the NFL.

    Here’s a quick look at the most notable tributes and statements on Brady’s retirement.

    Patriots Twitter

    Duck Boats have become something of a Boston sports icon, mainly due to the success of Brady and the Patriotsover the past two decades. So it makes sense to pay tribute to him through artwork by honoring all the winnin’.

  • NFL commissioner Roger Goodell

    Goodell’s statement likely induced eye-rolls from Patriots fans more than anything. Publicly, anyway, Brady’s relationship with Goodell in the league offices was at times adversarial. The commissioner and his minions were Public Enemy No. 1 during Deflategate, and that may never change in the hearts and minds of New Englanders.

    So, those people are probably hoping that Brady saw this statement and said “Uhhh thanks?”

  • Peyton Manning

    Brady vs. Manning was arguably the greatest competitive rivalry in the history of professional sports. They weren’t “rivals” in the sense that there was any bad blood, but their games were always the must-see game of the year, and they obviously have a rich history of playoff competition.

    There are probably a lot of people out there who consider them to be the two greatest quarterbacks of all time. What other sports rivalry can say that?

  • Alex Guerrero

    It wouldn’t be a Brady celebration without Guerrero, his longtime trainer and business partner with the TB12 brand. It’ll be (mildly) interesting to see what their relationship looks like going forward, now that he won’t need Guerrero’s help getting ready for and recovering from football games.

  • The New York Jets

    It’s funny because he even ripped the Jets’ hearts out earlier this season.

  • Robert Kraft

    Brady caused a massive stir when New England realized that he made no mention of the Patriots, anyone within the organization, or their fans when he announced his retirement. But Kraft took the high road.

    Soon after the above statement, Brady quote-tweeted it, thanking “Patriots Nation.” Wasn’t nearly good enough to undo the damage he’d done with a lot of fans by omitting them from his initial announcement.

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