Volin: The Patriots "Pushed Brady Out The Door"

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On Tuesday, Tom Brady held his first news conference as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was, of course, asked about his exit from the New England Patriots, and his response to this topic was much different than Robert Kraft’s.

“Robert Kraft has really gone out of his way to try to shape the narrative in the last week,” Boston Globe NFL writer Ben Volin said on The DA Show. “He’s made all the media rounds with local and national media, and he said the same thing in January with Peter King: This is what Tom Brady wanted. This is his decision. He’s the one that wanted to be a free agent. He’s the one that wanted to leave New England.”

Volin asked Brady if that was accurate. Brady, to Volin’s surprise, actually answered. Sort of.

“Tom Brady is very political,” Volin said. “That’s one thing we’ve learned over the years. He’s very good about taking the high road, and he doesn’t say a whole lot. But I thought his first sentence was very telling: ‘Well, I can’t control what other people say.’”

Brady’s quote, if you’re curious, was, “I’m not responsible for how other people will say certain things.”

Either way, the point remains.

“That was one of the few moments of Tom Brady’s real emotions coming to the forefront where he’s clearly saying, ‘No, I don’t agree with what Robert Kraft is saying,’” Volin said. “What I think is pretty clear through all this is, yes, leaving has become Tom Brady’s decision, and he wanted to leave New England. But the Patriots definitely pushed him out the door, and this is something that’s been building for the last few years.”

Don’t think so? Just look at the facts.

“They’ve refused to tack on years to his contract,” Volin said. “They’ve made him basically do a dance for small pay raises in his contract, including making him earn it through incentives, which seems like such a slap in the face for a guy who’s done so much for the franchise. They’ve squabbled over Alex Guerrero. There’s a lot of resentment on both sides about what happened with Jimmy Garoppolo. Brady was upset they didn’t get him better receivers. They were upset he didn’t show up for OTAs the last two years. So this is something that’s been building. 

“I give Tom Brady a lot of credit,” Volin continued. “He could be doing a media tour like what Robert Kraft is doing and try to shape the narrative his own way, but he’s basically letting it go and saying, ‘You know what? I’ll just let my play on the field do all the talking.’ So I think Brady is doing a good job of taking the high road, which isn’t the easiest thing right now because one side of this is doing a lot to shape the narrative and Tom Brady is deciding he’s not going to fight back.”