Belichick, Brady Relationship 'Not Great'; Kraft Makes Call To Keep Brady, According To Golf Reporter
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Sometimes for a really big sports story to break, it requires an outsider who's not too close to the source to break the news.
Enter Ryan Burr of The Golf Channel.
Burr made some waves on Tuesday afternoon when a "MAJOR source" gave him some information about what led to the Patriots trading Jimmy Garoppolo on Monday night.
According to Burr, Tom Brady believed there was a chance that Bill Belichick would trade him after the 2017 season and keep Garoppolo. However, Patriots owner Robert Kraft made sure that Brady would be finishing his career as a member of the Patriots.
"Told [Brady's] relationship with [Belichick is] not great and all his loyalty is too [sic] Mr. Kraft," Burr tweeted. "Brady camp continued Bill is 100 percent business and if he thinks he would be more likely to win with Jim G. than TB than [sic] Tom would be out. Period."
Talk about poor timing to make a to/too and a than/then mistake.
MORE: A Photographic Investigation Into The Brady-Belichick-Kraft Relationship
Anyway, the story's got some legs, but NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport has dumped some cold water on it.
Appearing on the podcast "Pardon My Take," Rapoport was asked if there's any truth to the report from Burr.
"No," Rapoport said.
Rapoport then went into detail.
"What I was told is that this was definitely Belichick running the show here. I mean, he's got a lot of people helping him, but one of the things about being the man there is during draft day he can say, 'There's a player scouts don't like' -- Jamie Collins, for instance, was Bill Belichick's pick and turned out to be, for the first three years at least, a really really good one. That was just, he just decided, 'That's who I want to take.' He loved him, he saw something and made sure they picked him.
"[The Garoppolo trade] was a trade that Belichick took on himself," Rapoport continued. "With the really important ones, with the things involving the quarterbacks with Brady, it is really Belichick kind of spearheading it. And the thing is, when a team makes a trade, everyone's usually happy, right? Same thing with a contract extension. It's like celebration time. I don't get that sense at all from New England. It was a complicated, difficult, hard thing, and I don't think Belichick is excited about it. I think it's just, it's almost like he forced himself to do what's best for the team, like he has everyone else do, but I think he's kind of stung by this. I think it hurt him to do this trade because he likes Jimmy G. so much."
Rapoport said despite what GMs around the league might believe the trade means, it's likely just a show of support to Brady.
"When I talked to other GMs, what they say is, there's no way Belichick would have traded him if they think he's going to be a franchise guy," Rapoport said. "I think it's more like, we have to do this now because we're not going to franchise him. We have to. And Brady hasn't shown any signs of breaking down, so we are going to trust that Brady is going to play until 44 or 45, and we're just going to move forward because this is the only time we could ever make this move."
So, you've got some dueling opinions on the matter -- one from an television golf anchor, one from arguably the most connected reporter in the NFL. Who's right? You can decide for yourself, but we may not know for sure until Belichick writes his memoirs after he retires from football in 2037.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
