Ex-Patriots Coach Describes Extremely Heated Argument With Tom Brady
Bill O’Brien spent six seasons on the sidelines for the New England Patriots, working alongside Bill Belichick across two separate stints and walking away (perhaps) best known for a heated back-and-forth with legendary quarterback Tom Brady.
New England’s 34-27 win over the Washington now-Commanders in 2011 fired up both O’Brien and Brady in the fourth quarter. As Washington fought back against a seven-point Patriots lead with roughly six minutes left in regulation, O’Brien approached Brady on the bench, lighting up a fuse that ignited an iconic sideline shouting match. Now over a decade later, O’Brien revisited the disagreement referenced as arguably the most heated Brady ever was during his 23-year playing career.
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“Deion (Branch) had gotten hurt leading up to that game, late in the week,” O’Brien told Julian Edelman on the “Games With Names” podcast. “And we signed Tiquan Underwood, who now works with the receivers. We signed him late in the week, and we were driving the ball and somebody else got hurt. So, Tiquan had to go in. And we ran branch, and he had the in-cut — he was the X — and he didn’t run a great in-cut. He kinda faded, and Josh (Norman) undercut it. Tom kinda looped it in there. So, we come over to the sideline and Tom’s ripping Tiquan. And I can remember Wes (Welker) like, ‘Alright, man, let’s move on.’ … So, then it just became — I don’t want to get into all that was said, but basically like, ‘Hey, Tom, you need to shut the F up. We’ve got to move on now because (Rex) Grossman’s driving the ball and we’re going to possibly go to overtime.’ And you remember who intercepted the pass to end the game, was Jerod Mayo.
” … Anyway, so he said, ‘You want me to shut (the F up)? You shut (the F up).’ And then it was just like two 15-year-olds just yelling ‘Shut the F up’, back and forth to each other.”
Although O’Brien and Brady needed to be separated by then-backup quarterback Brian Hoyer, receivers coach Chad O’Shea and Belichick, no bad blood exists between the two. The competitive intensity that collided to create an all-time viral moment in Patriots history isn’t one that means much to either side today. Brady, in hindsight, has owned his wrongdoing in a situation the seven-time Super Bowl champion doesn’t feel was handled the best of ways in real-time.
“He kind of let me have it. I deserved it,” Brady told WEEI in 2017, per NBC Sports Boston. “It was kind of a dumb throw. I deserved it. I kind of chirped back, and he didn’t like it. I was kind of fiery at the time, too.”
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