New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is not afraid to deliver harsh criticism to his players when warranted, even when the player on the receiving end is superstar quarterback Tom Brady.
Former Patriots fullback Heath Evans, who played for Belichick from 2005 through 2008, recently appeared as a guest on the "Your Mom's House" podcast and told a bunch of great stories from his days in New England. A few of them involved Belichick holding everyone accountable and how that process starts at the top with Brady.
“The best thing about Bill is, there’s not a whole lot of people that can ‘mother-(expletive)’ Tom Brady in a team meeting room," Evans said. "When you're in New England, if you’re the superstar, you get coached harder than everyone else. And if you're the 53rd man on the roster or maybe the 35th guy on the roster like I was, then you're going to be on this staggered scale of your level of accountability and how hard you get come down on because he knows, ultimately, me at the 35th man on the roster is going to follow Brady at No. 1 on the roster, so if Brady’s not challenged and he’s not working and he’s not held accountable then you create this level of inconsistency. And so that’s a gift in itself.”
Evans had a specific story from the famous 2007 season about Belichick not being afraid to rip Brady.
"I remember it was '07, we smoked a team by like 50 points and Bill comes in and he's mouthing off at Brady about something," Evans said. "I'm trying to remember how it started, but he was like 'If you weren't so worried about you and Gisele's next GQ Magazine, maybe, just maybe you wouldn't have thrown that interception. What is this Christmas, it's October, Brady. Christmas come early or something? I could go to Foxborough High and get someone to throw that ball better than you.' So he's just going at him, you know?"
Here's the story in video form:
This story from Evans is one of several that have surfaced about Belichick giving Brady a hard time in meetings.
New England Patriots
Former Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett shared one on FOX Sports 1 show "First Things First" a few weeks ago, and he explained how Brady used his coach's criticism to fuel him to improve.
Superstar players are not always welcoming of criticism, but Brady's ability to use critiques as motivation instead of letting them bother him is one of the many attributes of his greatness.
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