On the call of the Week 4 matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles on Fox, Tom Brady made it a point to respond to some criticism thrown his way by current Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield previously compared his current situation with the Buccaneers to when Brady was in town, claiming that he was brought in to “bring the job back to football” in Tampa Bay, joy that he believes some players lost playing alongside Brady.
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there. Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out,” said Mayfield on the Casa De Klub podcast. “They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
Mayfield even added that he has heard stories of Brady even intentionally throwing passes out of bounds and at receivers’ feet at times during his tenure in Tampa Bay when he didn’t get the play call he wanted.
“You hear some of the stories about if he didn’t like a certain play call and he didn’t like it throughout the week and they still call it in the game, there might have been a throwaway on purpose or throwing it at the running back or receiver’s feet,” Mayfield added. “There were a lot of mind games going on.”
Brady got his chance to address these comments on the call of his former team’s game on Sunday. And he certainly made the most of it, saying that his idea of stress is far different than Mayfield’s.
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings,” said Brady. “So, there was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t daycare. If I wanted to have fun, I was going to go to Disneyland with my kids.”
Tom Brady responds to claims from Baker Mayfield that Buccaneers players “weren’t having fun” playing alongside him.
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings. If I wanted to have fun, I was going to go to Disneyland with my kids.”pic.twitter.com/G86fUGYfAE
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 29, 2024
Burkhardt then asked Brady to expand as he thought that he had more to say, which happened to be the case.
“There is a way to approach this game,” Brady added. “And it’s with the right mindset trying to push each other out of our comfort zone. Great teammates do that. You come in, I have someone like (Rob) Gronkowski. I have someone like (Mike) Evans. There’s high expectations for us. We’ve got to go out there and make sure we deliver.”
Mayfield may be telling the truth about how some Buccaneers players felt about Brady.
But Brady’s results as a member of the Buccaneers are hard to argue with, of course leading the organization to a win in Super Bowl LV, the second in franchise history.
This is the first time that Brady’s past as a player has really impacted his behavior in the broadcast booth. But clearly, he wanted to make sure that Mayfield and viewers at home were reminded of what he has done for the organization.
