Bill Belichick responds to Tom Brady 'cranky' comment, addresses perceived feud

Retired quarterback and current Las Vegas Raiders minority owner Tom Brady took a not-so-subtle shot at legendary head coach Bill Belichick.

Brady said during his commencement speech at Georgetown University over the weekend that he wanted the graduates to challenge themselves with "people who push you to be your very best, even if one of those people is a cranky old coach who cuts the sleeves off his sweatshirt and screams at you all day, 'Do your job.'" 

During the latest edition of the "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" program that dropped on Tuesday, Belichick was asked about Brady's comment. 

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick can now laugh at certain moments from their time together

"It is funny," Belichick told Hannity, per Lauren Campbell of MassLive. "We look back at those moments and laugh. But honestly, he was a great guy to coach, a great teammate. As I said, I learned so much from him." 

While Brady and Belichick led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles from 2000 through the 2019 season, Brady has since admitted he left the Patriots in March 2020 because he "wasn't going to sign up for more of" playing for Belichick. Patriots owner Robert Kraft later said that Brady "lived under an arrangement that was very difficult for him the last decade" of the signal-caller's New England tenure. 

Brady and Belichick have since put any negativity related to their relationship behind them, and the two routinely speak highly of each other during interviews and public appearances. While chatting with Hannity, Belichick suggested that he became a better coach due to working with Brady throughout the first two decades of the 2000s. 

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady learned plenty from each other

"I learned so much from Tom," Belichick said, per Scott Thompson of Fox News Digital. "I never played quarterback. Tom saw the game through a quarterback's eyes. I saw the games through a coach's eyes. Together, I think we both learned a lot from each other. On Tom, how defensive coaches looked at him or looked at offense. Me, on what a quarterback can do and what he can't do, what's hard, what's easy, what I can see, what I can't see, and how you see the game." 

It was said back in January 2024 that Belichick allegedly "never truly believed Brady would leave" the Patriots after the 2019 season. One scene from "The Dynasty" Apple TV documentary compared Brady "to an abused dog for continually going back to work for Belichick." However, Belichick insisted while speaking with Hannity that the seven-time Super Bowl champion was often "great" about having his in-game mistakes spotlighted during team meetings. 

"A lot of times he would say -- I might say to him, 'Tom, look, it might be a little rough in there today in this meeting because of what happened in the game or yesterday or whatever.' He’d say, 'You know, I understand. We probably need it. Make sure you include me because then I’m one of the guys. If you leave me out of it, then it’s like Tom’s great and everyone else is the problem,'" Belichick explained. "He kinda said, ‘Don’t forget to include me.' He would walk out of there and say, 'This is all of us. We gotta do better. Here’s what we gotta do.' He was great at that."