Next Season Could be Tom Brady’s Last as a Patriot?
According to Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports, there’s a bit of a rift between quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. It’s not really a secret that there have been no substantial contract talks between the two sides, and it appears as though the time is starting to take its toll on Brady.
Brady is entering the final year of a contract he signed back in 2005, so it’s certainly fair to say he’s been getting underpaid for a few seasons now. He is reportedly looking to get a deal done before the 2010 season starts to give him some security, but now some, including Silver, aren’t so sure Brady even wants to stay in Foxboro.
Silver says there’s a “growing feeling of disconnect” between the two sides, and that Brady could potentially jump ship for his boyhood team, the San Francisco 49ers, or, if the NFL gets it done, whatever team pitches their tent in L.A.
Brady now lives out there with his high-profile supermodel wife and their child, so it would make sense that he’d want to play closer to town.
A big deal was also made recently that Brady isn’t spending as much time at the Patriots facility. When asked about his absence, Brady used his family as the reason why time with his teammates has been cut back.
Clearly he’s already starting to see the Patriots as a burden to his family life, so it would make sense he’d want to be closer to home. And given that he’s Tom Brady, it’s likely the possible L.A. team or the 49ers would throw a record-breaking contract at him after this season to lure him away from the place in which he’s had so much success.
Not only that, but the Patriots don’t exactly have a reputation for dishing out record-breaking deals. For anyone, really, so to make an exception for Brady would be a bit out of character. But given the fact that they don’t exactly have a young guy waiting in the wings behind Brady, it’s likely they try to throw the money at him.
It might be a more ideal fit for him to play out west, but something tells me the Patriots will throw a ton of money at him in an extension right before training camp. They might be a bit stingy, but they sure aren’t stupid and aren’t likely to let Brady get away.