Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders
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(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
We have all heard stories, at this point, about the legendary competitive streak that possesses 7-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and Las Vegas Raiders co-owner Tom Brady.
Exactly how that competitive streak has translated into his post-football career has been on front-and-center display the last few months, 1st with Brady refusing to openly support the Patriots before a Super Bowl LX loss to the Seattle Seahawks on February 9.
Now, more evidence bygones might not be bygones with Brady and the Patriots, where he played for 20 seasons and won 6 of those Super Bowls.
According to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, it was Brady who stepped in and blocked a potential trade of Raiders All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby to the Patriots — a move that led to Crosby landing with the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for a pair of 1st round draft picks.
The Patriots’ head coach is former NFL linebacker Mike Vrabel, who was Brady’s teammate from 2001 to 2008, when the 2 won 3 Super Bowls together.
“One person involved in the trade made an interesting point about the Patriots’ chances at Crosby: ‘No way Tom (Brady) was sending Maxx to (Mike) Vrabel,’ ” Fowler wrote on Sunday.
Tom Brady’s Clumsy Exit From Patriots in 2019
The Patriots essentially forced Brady out following the 2019 season in what was reported as a “Him or Me” scenario with former head coach Bill Belichick.
It was a move that would ultimately lead to Belichick’s firing following the 2023 season after Brady signed a 2-year, $50 million free agent contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and led the franchise to a Super Bowl win in his 1st season.
While the Patriots seem to have mended fences with Brady — they put a statue of him up outside of Gillette Stadium — the bad feelings came back to the surface before this year’s Super Bowl when he was asked who he wanted to win the game.
“I don’t have a dog in the fight in this one,” Brady said on the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray. “May the best team win.”
That didn’t sit well with some of his former New England teammates.
“That’s bullcrap, Tom,” former Patriots defensive lineman and 2-time Super Bowl champion Vince Wilfork said during an interview on Boston sports radio. “All that political — this ain’t political. It ain’t political, what it is. Raiders ain’t in it. Say what it is, what you see. At the end of the day, if you’re a Patriot for life, you know what it is. Don’t give me that political bullcrap. That just what it is. If you don’t think we’re gonna win, just pick Seattle then. Don’t straddle the fence.”