By the end of the 2019 season, which ended with a playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans, Brady said it was pretty clear he was done in New England and that the tension with Belichick had a lot to do with that.

"The reality was," wrote Brady, "after twenty years together, a natural tension had developed between where Coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers, and where the Patriots were moving as a franchise. It was the kind of tension that could only be resolved by some kind of split or one of us reassessing our priorities."

After twenty years together, a natural tension had developed between where Coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers," Tom Brady wrote in his weekly newsletter.