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While there were plenty of rumors about Tom Brady leaving New England after the 2019 season, it was still a major shock to see him actually leave the franchise he spent 17 seasons with and sign with the Buccaneers.
The decision to head to Tampa Bay turned out to be a good one for Brady with the Bucs winning the Super Bowl this year to give Brady his seventh ring, but there’s still that question as to why he ultimately decided to switch things up and sign with a new franchise. After all, the Bucs went just 7-9 the season prior Brady arrived and hadn’t made the playoffs since the 2007 season.
With the offseason officially here and the Super Bowl boat parade behind them, head coach Bruce Arians gave his answer as to why Brady decided to leave New England for Tampa Bay. Arians simply believes that Brady was looking for a different sort of challenge as a competitor.
“I think his competitive spirit is so strong that he wanted to do it,” Arians told Lewis, according to JoeBucsFan.com. “He wanted to show people. I’ve never said anything bad about Bill Belichick; I know everybody tries to say I do. His record speaks for itself. He is probably the greatest one ever. But I think [Brady] wanted to try a different way.”
Brady already had six rings with the Patriots, so trying ‘a different way’ to get No. 7, in sunny Florida, where there’s also no income tax, sounds like a reasonable explanation to me.
Now the attention turns to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy for an eighth time and if all goes to plan, Brady and the Bucs should be one of the last team’s standing yet again in 2021.