Bill Belichick weighs in on Tom Brady’s age and future

Bill Belichick, notorious for being tight-lipped and often secretive, had no qualms discussing his personal opinion on Tom Brady’s future with the Patriots.

It’s not often that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick decides to open up and share his honest feelings – especially not with reporters.

Lucky for us fans, the NFL Network’s Willie McGinest is not just a reporter though… he’s also one of Belichick’s former players (and probably one of his favorites). The two football figures have a history of some fun back-and-forth exchanges during media sessions, largely thanks to a comfort level that must have been established after years of games, practices, film sessions, etc.

So when McGinest asked Belichick point-blank if he, personally, wanted to see Tom Brady accomplish his self-appointed goal of playing into his mid-40s before finally retiring from the NFL, it was sort of surprising, sort of not surprising to hear Belichick give him an honest answer.

“I definitely hope that’s the case,” Belichick told McGinest, via NESN’s Doug Kyed. McGinest wanted to know specifically if Belichick hoped to see Brady still participating in New England’s training camp for another two or three years. Brady will turn 42 this coming Saturday; no NFL quarterback has ever completed a full 16-game regular season before.

Of course, in typical Belichick fashion, he quickly reverted back to what we’ve all grown used to hearing from him over the past two decades: non-answer answers. It’s as if even Belichick himself realized that he may have just inadvertently shared an honest truth with a reporter, so he quickly clammed back up and dished us some more patented New England “coachspeak.”

"“Right now all of us are just focused on this year. We want to have a good season. I know Tom’s worked hard in the offseason, we all have. We’re out here in training camp, trying to get things going.”"

And just like that, Belichick was back to being Belichick again. If only for an instant, though, he may have given all of us a taste of his true-blue feelings deep down for Tom Brady and his future as the quarterback of the New England Patriots.