Brady speaks on Belichick: "I'm surprised that the greatest coach ever doesn't have a job"

BOSTON -- Tom Brady's spent a lot of time around the NFL. Not as much time as his former boss Bill Belichick, no. But quite a long time indeed.

And because of that experience, Brady finds it hard to be surprised by anything that happens in the NFL. Yet the fact that Belichick was not hired by any of the at least seven teams that had the opportunity to do so this offseason? That one catches Brady by surprise.

"I'm not one to hire. You know, I don't know the criteria for hiring coaches. I've never been a part of it. I mean, I'm surprised that the greatest coach ever doesn't have a job. Absolutely," Brady said this week on his "Let's Go!" podcast with Jim Gray. "But I'm surprised [by] a lot of things in the NFL. I'm surprised -- when I was a free agent, there was a lot of teams that didn't want me. I'm surprised that Steve Young started in the USFL and went to Tampa. I'm surprised that Tampa traded Steve Young to the 49ers. There's a lot of things that happen that, you know, for one reason or another, don't go exactly the way you think they should go."

(Steve Young was a guest on the podcast, hence the focus on Young in the answer.)

Of course, Belichick's coaching record after moving on from Brady is at least in part to blame for teams being hesitant to hire the 71-year-old to run their football operation, as the Patriots went 29-38 in the four seasons since Brady moved on to Tampa Bay.

Still, Belichick has Brady's -- and countless other players' -- endorsement as the greatest of all time. Yet for now, Belichick is set to spend an autumn without working on an NFL football staff for the first time since 1974.