tweets that were posted by Rich Warren Burger. A former.
Teammate of Tom Brady's in New England plus and I know it or
not supposed to call out sources, but if you're going to
drop something like that into the Punchbowl,
you open yourself up to people trying to connect dots.
This guy is as tight as tight can be with a Q Shipley.
Remember, the coaching staff at a minimum. I think anybody with
any sense of responsibility
and propriety when it comes to putting something like that
out. There is at least he's going to say 2aq Shipley. Let
me know if I'm barking up the wrong tree here. How could you
not take advantage of that resource?
So even if he's not your Source, how can you not take
advantage of a queue Shipley's
knowledge of the team and say tell me if I'm wrong. I say all
that because
what was Bruce, Arians role in the offense, the way that
hornberger painted the picture left which and Brady are
busting their asses all week, Bruce, Arians, Barn, storms, in
starts change and stuff. That would make me mad if I'm there
at any workplace. If You're working all week
and the semi retired CEO shows up at the end of the week and
tries to change everything. I'd be pissed off. It would get old
very quickly and I may love you and want to golf with you, but
I don't want to work with you anymore.
So what was Bruce Arians doing or not doing
with the work that Leftwich and Tom Brady were doing together.
You know, Mike. I mean he has a place she and he wasn't in
those meetings. So he has an opportunity to look at it late
in the week. And there's no question that he could make
changes. I talked to Bruce. I've never seen him more mad
that when I've talked to him, that he was
after. That story came out. He called actually want to know,
you know, he said, I've let some of these go, there seems
to be one every week but this one really, really ticked me
off. And
then he kind of went through the story and said, you know,
well, first of all, he says, I got treatment my achilles in
the morning. I never get treatment in the morning, you
know, that sort of thing. So he was trying to debunk it
line item, but at the end of the day, Bruce told me that he
tends to add some things more than you takes them away,
but it's still his team. Right? And, you know, I think
for the most part, he's going to defer to Tom, but he has
a certain idea of what the way things should go and Byron
works for him and he is the head coach. So
whether that was an annoyance, I would agree with you that
a to Shipley, probably probably should keep his head down
looking for went by when
you know, when coach walks,
but
I don't know that that in a literal sense. What was what
was purported was exactly true, but there have been differences
of opinion. We've seen from week to week a mic. You can see
the evolution of this offense and
all I know is that he won a Super Bowl. I would say one
other thing and that is your partner at NBC. Tony Dungy did
something very similar in terms of walking away. He came back
to defend the Super Bowl.
They didn't win it. Everybody was hyped up about running it
back. And then he left,
you know, Peyton Manning where I don't think there is any
animosity between two,
but he left he left, Peyton to Jim Caldwell and a Super Bowl
ready team that did in fact, win the AFC and went to
the Super Bowl and lost. So
this has happened before. And again, if you look at Bruce's,
make about, I've asked them about the Hall of Fame. I think
if you want to the Super Bowl, you might be a shoo-in string
with no more than I would. But
I think at the end of the day, he looks, as his legacy, is
being bigger than that, the inclusiveness that he's had. On
his staff, you look at the ability to hand something
that's going to be successful
as opposed to a year from now and Kyle Trask
and whoever is battling out for a starting job.
I think he really did want to set Todd Bowles up. I think it
was a factor how much we may never know, but the history of
his, you know, coaching and such. I think reflects that.
Rick, what an offseason you have. When you think back at
the end of the season, Tom Brady retires, then he under
tires, then Bruce Arians steps down and you've gone through
a lot obviously, so I'll see the. I'm curious you and you kind of
alluded to this in
the last answer.
But if we had stayed retired, would Aryan still be the head
coach of this team because he said he wanted to set Todd
Bulls up to succeed. So would have walked away next year and
given time. It was like a really crappy team and stayed
on this year. How would
that have played out if Tom Brady had stayed retired?
Well, it's a great question. I mean, he talked a lot of
the combine about, you know, wanting to do that wanting to
you know,
have that competition. I mean they were you know, they were
after DeShaun Watson, but he told me several times you
didn't think that was going to happen here. I think ownership
was not going to allow that to happen here and I think for all
the world they were looking at, you know, Blaine Gabbert
and Kyle trash battling it out. And in that instance, I don't
think he wanted to hand that top goals,
you know, at that also. They had not resigned those free
agents. Remember Tom coming back is how you Ryan, Jensen is
how you got. So many of these guys to re-up. I think they've
signed 10 or 11 of their own free agents back
and Leonard fournette included. So,
I think that was a big factor, you know, that
he didn't know what kind of time team he was going to have
and you didn't want to turn it over at that time and say I'm
out. I had my super boy had my run.
Now you pick up the pieces and be a head coach that you always
wanted to be and he would fail. So this is the best of all
worlds as far as far as Bruce was concerned.
Last one for you, Rick. The
talk before Tom Brady unretired was that at one point in
the offseason, the Dolphins explored a package deal of
Sean, Payton and Tom Brady. The Dolphins admit
that they contacted the Saints and inquired about
the availability of Sean, Payton. After Payton had resigned,
I mentioned that as the precursor to what's going to
happen, going forward. Tom Brady's contract, has a No Tag
clause in it. So, after this year, he's free and clear. He
can go somewhere.
Else next year. Do you think they give him a contract? Do
you think he wants a contract that will go beyond this year
or do you think this is it?
And next year? They would be in competition with 31 other teams
in theory to try to convince him to play for them if he
plays Beyond this 2022 season.
Yeah, Mike, I could be wrong about this. I don't see
a scenario where Tom Brady would link himself to this team and
other you're contractually, you know, one of the sound bites
that everybody had from the combine was Bruce, Arians
when he was asked, if you consider,
Brady came to me and said, I wanted to be placed somewhere
else. He said no, that's bad business. And he said well,
maybe 45 first round picks. Why would Tom Brady blink himself
to a team like that? He did it for salary cap reasons. A year
ago. He was always
going to play two years here. You want to re-sign the guys
back the Get out, no 22 starters and run it back and
they did that.
But I read your reporting any it's solid. This is the most
prepared athlete we've been around. However, you cannot
convince me as quickly as he retired at the end of
the season that Tom Brady, didn't think he knew
exactly what he was going to do
and something fell through and you reported it. I don't know
exactly. If it was to buy any situation or Ryan Flores with
that was a factor or what, but certainly he was headed
somewhere else to do something. Else, maybe not as a player
maybe as part of that ownership group,
but it didn't happen. And I think that's why he came back
and decided to play the bucks on his rights. He knew he could
get these players back and have a good football team,
especially in the NFC, the NFC South,
you know, except for some bad calls by Todd Bowles of all
people. They might have played the San Francisco and
a championship being in gone to the Super Bowl. So,
you know, as a long way of saying that,
I do believe that Tom Brady will not be linked to
the Buck's Beyond this season,
will they see what they do with the contract, but I don't think
he's going to add another year.