Asante Samuel Calls Out Tom Brady After Bill Belichick’s Departure

Tom Brady waxed poetic about Bill Belichick’s greatness after the legendary head coach and the Patriots went their separate ways Thursday.

This kept up with a theme for Brady, who has had nothing but positive things to say about Belichick since the two split up in March 2020. And that doesn’t sit well with Asante Samuel.

You’re not going to find many bigger Belichick haters than Samuel, who played the first five seasons of his NFL career in New England. The former cornerback had a front-row seat to the Belichick-Brady dynamic at the height of the Patriots dynasty, and he wants the latter to be more transparent about how things went down in Foxboro, Mass.

“Tom Brady, I’m tired of all this positive (expletive) I keep hearing from you,” Samuel posted to X on Friday. “Be real Hommie. People want to hear the truth about (expletive)… the good and the bad.”

Brady all but surely never will talk badly about Belichick publicly. The seven-time Super Bowl champion doesn’t have anything to gain from it, and he clearly has a great deal of admiration and respect for his former coach.

And Brady seemingly has offered some truth about the bad that Samuel mentioned, just not directly. Members of Brady’s camp were cited several times in a recent ESPN column that highlighted the rocky road the pillars of the Patriots dynasty traveled en route to six Lombardi Trophies.

Tom Brady was drafted by the NFL’s New England Patriots in 2000, and the star quarterback has won three NFL MVP awards, four Super Bowl MVP awards and a record seven Super Bowl championships. In an incident known as “Deflategate,” Brady was suspended after an investigation into the charges that he knew about the illegal deflation of footballs before an important playoff game in 2015. Despite sitting out the first four games of the 2016 season, Brady went on to lead the Patriots to a Super Bowl LI victory over the Atlanta Falcons and added to his collection with a historic win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII. After 20 seasons in New England, Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2020. He is also known for his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen. Brady announced his retirement in early 2022.

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born on August 3, 1977, in San Mateo, California, Brady excelled at both football and baseball at Junipero Serra High School. After graduating in 1995, Brady passed up a chance to play professional baseball to go to the University of Michigan.

Although a member of the school’s football team, Brady did not spend much time on the field in his first two college seasons. In his junior year, however, he served as the starting quarterback. That season, Brady threw 350 passes for 2,636 yards. In his final season, he helped lead his team to an Orange Bowl victory.

NFL Career
Moving on to the NFL, Brady was drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft. Initially, he served as a backup quarterback and played in only one game during his first season.

The 2001 season was a different story: After starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured, Brady took over, proving himself a strong leader with a powerful arm. Anyone who doubted his abilities only had to look at the team’s record, an impressive 11 wins to 3 losses in the 14 games that Brady started. In the postseason, he helped the team secure a win over the St. Louis Rams at Super Bowl XXXVI, and Brady received the game’s MVP award

Two years later, Brady led his team to another win at Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Carolina Panthers, for which he earned a second Super Bowl MVP award. And in the 2004 season, Brady again led the team to Super Bowl success, taking down the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21.

In 2005, Brady signed a new six-year contract with the Patriots, and for the 2006 season, the team had a 12-4 record in the regular season.

Near-Undefeated Season and Injury
With star wide receiver Randy Moss in the fold, the Patriots developed one of the most explosive offenses in NFL history in 2007. Brady passed for a then-record 50 touchdown passes to pick up his first MVP award, and the Patriots ran roughshod over the rest of the league en route to an undefeated regular season, before suffering a gut-wrenching loss to the New York Giants at Super Bowl XLII.

During the first game of the 2008 season, Brady was quickly sidelined with a knee injury. He had several surgeries and extensive rehabilitation to repair the damage, forcing him to sit out the entire season. While some wondered whether the injury would be a career-ender, Brady came back to prove the doubters wrong. He signed a new contract with the team in 2010.