Aqib Talib Believes Tom Brady Is Gone: 'Bill [Belichick] Is Gonna Be Bill'
BOSTON (CBS) -- The other day, Tom Brady said that "nobody knows anything" about his impending free agency. That may be true, yet while Aqib Talib may not know the specifics of Brady's situation, the five-time Pro Bowl cornerback is using his own history with Bill Belichick to make an informed opinion about Brady.
And Talib thinks Brady's days in New England are over.
Appearing on NFL Network, Talib was asked about the Brady situation. Talib -- who played with the Patriots in 2012 and 2013 before cashing in with a big-money deal in free agency -- said that Bill Belichick only knows how to do things one way. And that way will likely lead to the end of Brady's career in Foxboro.
"I've been in those meeting rooms, man, with Bill and with Tom. And he treats everybody the same. And so if Tom messed up in practice, he'll point it out, in the middle, in front of everybody. If it was Gronk, if it was myself, everybody. He treated everybody the same," Talib said. "I've been a part of Bill in this situation as well, free-agency time. I got a call from Bill that said, 'You want to make a bunch of money, you're gonna make a bunch of money. You want to play some football and win some games, then we got a spot for you here.' So if he treated everybody the same in the meeting room, he's probably treating everybody the same around free agency time as well."
Asked for more, the always-blunt Talib was rather straightforward.
"I think Tom's gone. I think it's a done deal. Bill is gonna be Bill," Talib stated. "Them calls are gonna be short and to the point. We got a report that said [the first phone call] didn't go well. I can imagine -- I had a call that didn't go well with Bill Belichick. I can imagine what happened on that call."
Having shared a locker room with Brady and having played under Belichick, Talib said he believes both of the all-time legends want to at least try to win a Super Bowl on their own.
"I think that's a hidden agenda as well, man. It's kind of a chip on both of their shoulders, like, I want to see if I can do this thing and see if I can do it without him," Talib said. "It's 50-50 right now -- 50 percent of the people say it's Tom, 50 percent say it's Bill. They want to figure it out."
If things play out the way Talib believes they will, both Brady and Belichick will get their chances.
