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Over the past few years especially, Tom Brady has become more open about his life outside of football. By that I mean that he’s talked more about his crazy diet, his focus on “pliability,” how he thinks pliability can prevent concussions, and how drinking water can prevent sunburns. Yeah. No one ever said he was smart – they only said he was good at football. But that’s just the thing: Tom Brady’s lack of critical thinking left him open to a snake-oil salesman, and now his relationship with that snake-oil salesman is likely destroying the New England Patriots from within. The snake-oil salesman is Alex Guerrero, a fitness trainer, “body coach” and now Brady’s business partner. Guerrero created the alleged TB12 Method with Tom, and now they’re selling books and food and a whole idiotic “program” for living.

Guerrero didn’t just work with Brady one-on-one. Guerrero was employed by the Patriots’ staff, and many other players worked with him too. Note the past tense – in December, Patriots coach Bill Belichick apparently had Guerrero’s staff privileges revoked, and will no longer allow him to work with any players… besides Tom, I guess. ESPN did a long-read story about what’s going on behind-the-scenes, and how this might be the last year that Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Belichick and Tom Brady work together, because the Patriots Org has been torn apart by Guerrero. You can read the full ESPN piece here. Some highlights:

The Patriots are in trouble: According to interviews with more than a dozen New England staffers, executives, players and league sources with knowledge of the team’s inner workings, the three most powerful people in the franchise — Belichick, Brady and owner Robert Kraft — have had serious disagreements. They differ on Brady’s trainer, body coach and business partner Alex Guerrero; over the team’s long-term plans at quarterback; over Belichick’s bracing coaching style; and most of all, over who will be the last man standing. Those interviewed describe a palpable sense in the building that this might be the last year together for this group.

The problems began in early September. The season had just started, and Guerrero was once again becoming an issue in the Patriots’ building, just weeks before the release of Brady’s first real book, “The TB12 Method.” It was more than a fitness and diet guide. For Brady, a self-described “loner” who always seemed most comfortable surrounded by family or on a football field, the book represented a move to extend his brand beyond the game — and beyond the Patriots. Until a few years ago, he seemed uninterested in ever doing so, content to be a father and husband and son and brother and transcendent quarterback, knowing there wasn’t time for much else.

No on can believe how dumb Brady is: Few in the building had a problem with Brady’s method — mostly based on stretching with bands, eating lots of vegetables, drinking lots of water, getting lots of sleep and, most of all, achieving peak “pliability.” They did have a problem with what Brady and Guerrero promised the TB12 Method could do. They claimed it could absolve football of responsibility for injury: “When athletes get injured, they shouldn’t blame their sport,” Brady wrote. The method also was so consuming and unwavering in its rules and convictions that, while it helped some players, it felt “like a cult” to others, one Patriots staffer says. The way TB12 began to creep into Brady’s life worried people close to the QB, many of whom were suspicious of Guerrero. “Tom changed,” says a friend of Brady’s. “That’s where a lot of these problems started.”

Player drama: Brady and Guerrero’s training beliefs introduced an unspoken pressure in the building, with players wondering where they should work out… New players felt the surest way to earn Brady’s trust was to join Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola and others by seeking advice from Guerrero at his TB12 clinic — and not team doctors, which Belichick preferred. Guerrero says he wasn’t pressuring players to adopt his approach. “Players have always decided to come or not come on their own,” he says now. But according to multiple sources, players openly discussed with Patriots coaches, staff and trusted advisers whether to follow Brady or the team, leaving them trapped: Do we risk alienating the NFL’s most powerful coach or risk alienating the NFL’s most powerful quarterback?

[From ESPN]

ESPN goes on to describe how Belichick has long been wary of Guerrero, and how this “TB12 Method” is utter bullsh-t, etc. Brady and Belichick have been sniping at each other – directly and indirectly – for the better part of a year. Brady wants a guarantee that he will be able to play for the Patriots into his 40s. Belichick thinks it’s a pipe dream, and wants to begin grooming a younger quarterback. Basically, Brady is on an ego trip and he’s pretty dumb (not to mention petty) and Belichick isn’t going to put up with it for much longer. It’s all pretty interesting.

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