Tom Brady has publicly fired back at his Tampa Bay Buccaneers successor after Baker Mayfield made a series of accusations against the retired quarterback.
Brady found himself in the line of fire last week after Mayfield, who replaces the NFL legend in Tampa Bay, took aim at his presence in the locker room.
The Buccaneers quarterback accused the serial Super Bowl winner last week of creating a “tense environment” within the team he inherited in Florida, and Brady didn’t take too kindly to Mayfield’s comments.
Using his new $375 million Fox platform, the former quarterback turned broadcaster took a savage swipe at Mayfield, who signed with Tampa Bay in 2023 after Brady retired.
“I thought it was stressful not having Super Bowl rings,” Brady said while calling the Bucs’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday.
Tom Brady (L) publicly fired back at Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (R).
“There was a champion mentality that I brought to work every day. This wasn’t childcare. If I wanted to have fun, I would go to Disneyland with my kids.”
Brady added that he believed the best way to approach the game was to have teammates who “push each other outside of our comfort zone.”
“Great teammates do that,” he said. “There are high expectations on us, we have to make sure we go out and deliver.”
Mayfield had claimed that he and Brady had “very different personalities,” with the Tampa Bay locker room now contrasting with the one Brady left behind.
“The building was a little different with Tom in it. It is clear that Tom is different in terms of playing. He had everyone dialed in, a tense environment, so I think everyone was pretty stressed,” Mayfield said on the Casa De Klub podcast.
“They wanted me to come in, be myself and bring the joy back into football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
“You hear some stories about if he didn’t like a certain play call and he didn’t like it all week and they still call it in the game, there may have been a throw-out on purpose or it’s to the player thrown running back or the receiver’s feet,” Mayfield added.
Brady played three seasons for the Buccaneers before retiring for good in early 2023
The quarterback led the Bucs to Super Bowl victory during his first season with the team
‘A lot of mind games are being played.’
Mayfield also mentioned that people in the Buccaneers headquarters are less “stressed” than when Brady was in the building.
Brady’s highly competitive nature led the Bucs to a Super Bowl victory in his first season in Tampa Bay after signing with the franchise in free agency in 2020.
Meanwhile, Mayfield led the team to a 9–8 record and a playoff berth in his lone season with the Buccaneers, defeating the Eagles in the wild-card round before losing to the Detroit Lions in the divisional playoff.