JUST IN: Robert Kraft confirms Bill Belichick retirement for Tom Brady departure

Apple TV’s documentary “The Dynasty,” released earlier this year, highlighted that Tom Brady decided to leave the New England Patriots in March 2020 because he “wasn’t going to sign up for more of” playing under head coach Bill Belichick.

In a recent interview on “The Breakfast Club,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft discussed the complicated relationship between Brady and Belichick, which had soured by the end of the 2019 season.

Kraft recounted a meeting with Brady regarding the quarterback’s impending free agency, saying, “He cried that whole time when he had to leave us. I understood it. He lived under an arrangement that was very difficult for him the last decade,” according to Kameron Duncan of The Spun.

Brady and Belichick led the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories from 2000 through Super Bowl LIII in February 2019. While Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported in August 2019 that Brady’s contract had a clause preventing the Patriots from retaining his rights for 2020 through the franchise or transition tag, Belichick supposedly “never truly believed Brady would leave” the team.

Ultimately, Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won the Super Bowl in his first season with them.

“We normally would’ve franchised someone like that… but I kept my word to him,” Kraft said about Brady’s departure from the Patriots. “And it was one of the worst days — it’s like losing a child.”

Brady’s triumph in Tampa Bay and Belichick’s struggle to find a long-term replacement for him led to Belichick’s exit from New England. Kraft parted ways with Belichick this past January after the Patriots missed the playoffs three times in four years.

Brady and Belichick are now on speaking terms, and Kraft mentioned in March that he looked “forward to the privilege of putting Bill into the Patriots Hall of Fame one day in the future.”

However, one has to wonder if Belichick regrets how he managed his relationship with Brady, especially considering how their partnership with the Patriots ended before the legendary quarterback was ready to retire.