It was the Patriot Way, until it wasn't - ESPN

ON FEB. 7, 2021, Tom Brady stood with his children beneath a shower of victory confetti. He had just won his seventh Super Bowl. Three more than Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, one more than his former New England Patriots bosses Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. In NFL lore, he now stood alone. Up in a private suite, his family looked down with many emotions. Nobody who'd ever played the game had won more, been more of a winner, and it felt to him and the people who loved him that he hadn't merely beaten the Kansas City Chiefs but also had beaten his old team, after it had doubted him and opened the door for him to leave. Brady held his kids close. Watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' celebration unfold below, his parents opened a bottle of champagne. Nobody said a word about New England. It was simply understood. His mom and his dad and his sisters raised a glass, and if you listened carefully in that moment, the delicate sound of stemware was a bell tolling for the Patriots dynasty.

This story was written and reported by ESPN Senior Writers Seth Wickersham and Wright Thompson, with additional reporting by Senior Writer Don Van Natta Jr. This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen team and league executives, owners, confidants, coaches, and others with first-hand knowledge of conversations.

Brady and Belichick and Kraft were no longer fighting for credit. Brady had claimed that credit undeniably on the most public stage in sports. His seventh title meant Bill and Bob were now fighting not to be blamed. Both men sent Brady congratulatory texts, but they had lost control of the narrative of their own careers — and they both knew that the team celebrating a seventh title should have been their team, and that