Tom Brady makes curious attempt to shoot down ESPN story: 'Everyone has different truths'

Tom Brady says this wasn’t his reaction to the news of the Jimmy Garoppolo trade. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Seth Wickersham’s Patriots story last week, which detailed alleged fissures in the foundation of the longtime NFL dynasty, centered in part on New England’s trade of backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. The deal, which sent Garoppolo to the 49ers in exchange for a mere second-round draft pick, left Coach Bill Belichick “furious and demoralized” and some team staffers “stunned and confused,” Wickersham writes.

Tom Brady, meanwhile, was ebullient in Wickersham’s telling. The guy who possibly could take his job at some point in the near future had been traded away.

“Brady, though, seemed liberated,” he wrote. “[Owner Robert] Kraft hugged Brady when he saw him that week, in full view of teammates. A few days later during practice, some players and staffers noticed that Brady seemed especially excited, hollering and cajoling. Brady was once again the team’s present and future. His new backup, Brian Hoyer, was a longtime friend and not a threat. The owner was in Brady’s corner. ‘He won,’ a Patriots staffer says.”

But Brady disputed Wickersham’s account during his weekly chat Tuesday on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan” show.

“I think that’s just such a poor characterization of anything. In 18 years, I’ve never celebrated when someone has been traded, been cut,” Brady said, per ESPN’s transcription. “I would say that’s disappointing to hear that someone would express that, or a writer would express that, because it’s so far from what my beliefs are about my teammates.

“I think I’m very empathetic toward other people’s experiences. I know those situations aren’t easy. I’ve never been traded or released, but I can imagine how that might feel. I would never, ever feel that way about when Jimmy got traded, when Jacoby [Brissett] got traded. I’ve kept in touch with all those guys. When Matt Cassel was gone. All these guys I’ve worked with, I felt like I had such a great relationship with all the quarterbacks I’ve worked with. I kept in touch with basically everybody. So to characterize that as a certain way is just completely, completely wrong.”

Brady also commented on the “Rashomon”-like existence of NFL players, coaches and journalists.

“Everyone has different truths,” he said. “When you talk about the way I see things, the way you guys see things, the way the writer may see things, the way Coach Belichick may see things, everyone has different truths based on their perspectives. I feel like I go about my business like I have every year, and again, I like to speak for myself, because that’s how — I don’t want to speak on someone else’s behalf or what their experiences are. I try to do the best I can do, like I’ve always done.”

Not to read too much between the lines into the “different truths” comment here, but Brady seems to be admitting here that he and Belichick might not see eye to eye on everything, which is fine. People disagree. But that essentially was the gist of Wickersham’s story, too, and now Brady seems to be lending credence to the idea of disharmony in the Patriots locker room, just seconds after he called Wickersham’s story a “poor characterization.”

So which one is it?

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