Tom Brady Hits Back At Current Bucs QB Who Said Retired Great Stressed Out The Team

Ex-Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady responded to a claim by current QB Baker Mayfield that the retired great created a “high-strung” atmosphere and left players “stressed out,” and that Mayfield had the job of bringing “the joy” back.

Brady, who guided the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl victory in 2021 after winning six with New England, covered the Buccaneers’ game at home against Philadelphia as a Fox analyst on Sunday. The subject came up in the booth.

“I thought ‘stressful’ was not having Super Bowl rings,” Brady retorted. “So, there was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t day care. If I wanted to have fun, I was gonna go to Disneyland with my kids.”

Urged on by play-by-play partner Kevin Burkhardt, Brady added: “There’s a way to approach this game, and it’s that, with the right mindset and try to push each other outside of our comfort zone, and great teammates do that.”

“The competitive juices, still flowing,” Burkhardt commented.

“Still in there,” Brady replied. “No apologies.”

Mayfield, who appeared to have had a cordial meetup with Brady before the game, defended his remarks afterward.

“I think a lot of that got taken out of context, and none of it was personal by any means,” said Mayfield, who guided the Bucs to a 33-16 victory and 3-1 record amid a career renaissance. “It’s just what he demanded of the guys, and that’s the aura of Tom Brady. And that’s what he did to bring a championship here.”

We might argue with the context part ― Mayfield appeared to mean what he said at the time. Take a listen at the 3:35 mark here.

“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there,” Mayfield said on the “Casa de Klub” podcast earlier this month. “Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out … They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football a little bit, for guys that weren’t having as much fun.”