Earlier this month, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield said that former QB Tom Brady had created a “high-strung environment” in Tampa Bay — and Brady did not take the comment lightly.
Mayfield, who signed with Tampa Bay in 2023 after Brady retired, said on the Casa De Klub podcast on Sept. 16 that “everybody was pretty stressed out” when Brady was with the franchise.
On Sunday, the future Hall of Famer pulled no punches, clapping back at Mayfield’s comments while working as a commentator during the Bucs-Philadelphia Eagles game, which Tampa won 33-16.
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings,” Brady said, during the game. “There was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t daycare. If I wanted to have fun, I was going to go to Disneyland with my kids.”
Tom Brady responds to claims from Baker Mayfield that Buccaneers players “weren’t having fun” playing alongside him.
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings. If I wanted to have fun, I was going to go to Disneyland with my kids.”pic.twitter.com/G86fUGYfAE
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 29, 2024
Brady continued, adding that the best way to approach football was to have teammates who “push each other outside of our comfort zone.”
“Great teammates do that,” he said. “There’s high expectations for us, we gotta make sure we go out there and deliver.”
In the podcast, Mayfield said that he and Brady had “very different personalities” and that Brady had left behind a different locker room environment than the Bucs have now.
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there. Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out,” Mayfield said. “They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
Mayfield added that Brady was known for maintaining control over the offense, even if it meant going against the coaching.
“You hear some of the stories about if he didn’t like a certain play-call and he didn’t like it throughout the week and they still call it in the game, there might have been a throwaway on purpose or throwing it at the running back or receiver’s feet,” Mayfield said. “There were a lot of mind games going on.”
Mayfield responded to Brady’s comments following Sunday’s game.
“I think a lot of that got taken out of context,” Mayfield told reporters. “None of it was personal by any means. It’s just what he demanded of the guys. That’s the aura of Tom Brady. And that’s what he did to bring a championship here.
“Nothing personal. But yeah — talking before the game — he’s obviously happy for me, and he knows the guys, so he knows how much I enjoy throwing to Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin] because he got to do the same. It’s fun to be able to talk about the same experience with a guy like that.”
Brady’s highly competitive nature is somewhat notorious, but it paid off well throughout his career, giving him seven Super Bowl rings, including one with Tampa Bay.
Mayfield, meanwhile, led the team to a 9-8 record and a playoff berth in his only season with the Buccaneers, beating the Eagles in the wild-card round before losing to the Detroit Lions in the divisional playoff.
The Bucs improved to 3-1, with Mayfield completing 30 of 47 passes for 347 yards and two touchdowns.
