Sour Vibes For Tom Brady’s Last Season
April 15th, 2025
Very intriguing take here from a long-time Buccaneer who collected a team paycheck last season for his work on the club’s radio network and YouTube presentations.
Joe’s referring to retired tight end Cameron Brate, the Harvard man who spent his nine-year NFL tenure with Tampa Bay (2014-2022), not counting a few weeks with the Saints.
Speaking on Friday’s Green Light podcast with former teammates Rob Gronkowski and Beau Allen, Brate touched on a taboo topic at One Buc Palace, the messy final season of Tom Brady.
Rob Gronkowski: Do you think you should have played that last year in Tampa [in 2022]?
Cameron Brate: I had to.
Gronk: How much fun did you have?
Brate: That was not a very fun year for the Buccaneers. That year, like I think everyone got done with that year and the building was like, ‘Alright, I’m done with football.’
So what was not fun about 2022 for, as Brate alleges, the entire Bucs organization?
Joe would think lots of players would have been energized by getting to be part of the final season for arguably the game’s greatest player. And the Bucs made the playoffs, ousted in the opening round by the Cowboys.
But this is not the first time Joe has heard rumblings of the 2022 Bucs season looked at with disdain by some Tampa Bay players and coaches.
Was it the bizarre late-March retirement of Bucco Bruce Arians? That’s hard to believe given that the Bucs won in Weeks 1 and 2 on the road in Dallas and New Orleans.
Or was it more about Brady’s professional and personal demise, and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich proving inept managing a Bucs offense that averaged just 18.4 points per game?
April 15th, 2025 at 6:05 pm
Anyone who pays attention knows it was a garbage year in year 3. The quarterback didn’t want to get hit , left practice in the middle of camp for two weeks but then fussed at everyone about commitment. All you have to do is watch the replay of the quarterback screaming at the whole bench in San Francisco and nobody was even paying attention to him.
April 15th, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Gisele Bündchen at least 50 pct
April 15th, 2025 at 6:09 pm
Think Brady’s divorce and his time away from the team just ruined everything. He just wasn’t into it mentally. Plus he lost $30M in the FTX collapse and got sued for being a FTX spokesperson. Think his whole world was collapsing.
April 15th, 2025 at 6:14 pm
Sounds like there’s a lot more you could share here Joseph. Where is it!?
April 15th, 2025 at 6:30 pm
I find it kinda interesting that Gronk asked him the question…. I’m sure he knew the answer already 🤔.
April 15th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
I think 18.4 points per game says it all.
April 15th, 2025 at 6:44 pm
Never would have imagined that my actions would eventually impact a pro sports team and still be topic of discussion 3 years later.
April 15th, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Brady wanted to play for the dolphins he was done with Tampa he hated being in Tampa it was over but Flores sued the league prevented Brady from going to Miami Brady fake retired he didn’t want to be in Tampa he didn’t tell Giselle either he was going to the Miami that was another reason over the divorce Bruce bealand Tom Brady kept it all secretand here’s another nugget Brady’s buddy Bruce Beal just bought a piece of the Celtics Bruce bill is the guy that was behind all the tampering bruceville named his kids after Brady and is a billionaire go look up Hudson yards in New York that’s him he owns everything Brady lives for free in New York
April 15th, 2025 at 7:13 pm
The draft is next week, the Brady stuff is history.
April 15th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
Literally nothing went right that season Joe. Bucs were even lucky to finish 8-9 (had to win 2 of our last 3 games to do that, and both wins were 4th qtr comebacks).
Brady’s family situation didn’t help things, but that wasn’t all that went wrong. Gronk retired, Marpet retired, Cappa left, Jensen got injured and was lost for the season, Sun & JPP weren’t re-signed, etc, etc. Too much change for the team to deal with all at once.
What is interesting about that conversation is that Gronk is the one who started it with his ‘Do you think you should have played that last year in Tampa [in 2022]?’ I would’ve bet that he’d want to stay as far away from that conversation as possible.
April 15th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
*not counting a few weeks with the slimy Saints.
fixed it for you.
April 15th, 2025 at 7:25 pm
Let us not forget that the HC change was a total con job by BA based on white guilt.
Kamala (Bowles) was installed and Brady had his only losing season.
The loser HC brought that loser mentality and it affected the whole team.
28-27
April 15th, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Celebrity QB drama, plus inept offensive coordinator can’t be underestimated. Brady’s retirement waffle and divorce vacation in training camp probably left a lot of guys thinking WTF.
April 15th, 2025 at 7:29 pm
“Too much change for the team to deal with all at once”. DR that says alot about the success of any year. Change is constant, and it’s good but not when it’s overwhelming like it looks like it was that year. That’s why we need to keep challenging ourselves to be amongst the best in the league these next several years. Because things change. And we won’t have this group together forever.
April 15th, 2025 at 7:30 pm
It seems that year is but a fog to me. I think that is the key. Brady had no o line and was not going to get hit, so he often released the ball too early. He was average at best and for Brady, his play was simply poor. Leftwich wanted to pass and deep and often ,like Arians, However, Bowles wanted to run more. Again with the poor play of the line, the team could do neither and could not score points. The defense as I remember was better than they were last year, but not good enough to hold up the offense. I think the team won the division by default and were ready to go home before the playoffs and played that way against Dallas. Yes I don’t think many were interested in football that year as a result of the aforementioned.
April 15th, 2025 at 7:31 pm
Yawn
April 15th, 2025 at 8:14 pm
“Gisele Bündchen at least 50 pct”
Ok for those who have heard the explanation apologies, but apparently some are late to the party all though in fairness perhaps they just skip my boring posts.
How Gisele keeps getting the blame for ANY of this just blows my mind. St. Tommy is amazing, super teflon from ANY responsibiity. I get that we all love Tommy Boy for the SB. Two things can be true. Yes the SB was great, his actions after went downhill to the point off…(pick your own insult.)
It’s been widely resported that Tom and Gisele had an agreement when they came to Tampa. IF he won a 7th SB then he’d retire. HE not HER reneged on that agreement!!!
So after he won he pleaded his case to her that he needed to DEFEND that SB title and needed ONE more year. That went poorly. Then Tommy went haywire.
He retired, shopped other teams, finally was forced to honor his contract, skipped a significant portion of training camp to try and cajole Giselle. She had ALREADY gone one year extra on their deal and now he reneged and wanted yet another.
Even Giselle could see that 3rd year with all that D.R. described above, along with her hubby’s head there was NO way to win another SB that season!
Another pass for Tommy Boy. Leftwich takes ALL the blame for the disastrous play calling and game plans. Seriously? The GOAT had NO input in those decisions. Who had more power? Leftwich or Brady? DUH! Why does he get a pass?
Meanwhile if you truly remember that season you should be CELEBRATING now. That’s NOT what’s ahead next year! The team has survived, turned the corner and we can all wish the best to Tommy with gratitude for the SB as well as to Giselle. I genuinely hope they are BOTH happy!
April 15th, 2025 at 8:44 pm
I can’t believe that Joe is still sticking it to Tom Brady. The man has been gone for three years!!!! Why dig up the past? If you went into the heads of Bakers former teammates in Cleveland, LA and Carolina, you would hear some pretty disturbing stuff. Now he has grown up (finally) and is starting to perform up to his potential. When Brady came to our Bucs we were talking Super Bowl right away. When Baker came to the Bucs, we were not talking SB, we were hoping for a .500 season (and still are). Joe, get off the past or get some therapy. Brady is gone, give it up. Keeping it real in Ireland.
April 15th, 2025 at 9:03 pm
I was tired that season and I’m in Charlotte. I can only imagine the people in the building.
April 15th, 2025 at 9:08 pm
Well, that last year for Brady was a huge disappointment for everybody. It seemed like Tom threw every other pass directly into the dirt. The run game absolutely cratered. The clock management and team decision making was tenuous at best. I thought for sure Bowles would be fired. Maybe he should have been. Thankfully, the Glazer’s patience has worked out better than I thought it would. As long as he can revamp that defense we should do pretty well this year.
April 15th, 2025 at 9:17 pm
Makes you wonder how bad things really were with Leftwich.
April 15th, 2025 at 9:33 pm
Ever consider that the divorce was a vehicle to protect assets ?
For the amount of interests the both of them had, that thing was done lightning fast…
April 15th, 2025 at 9:35 pm
Irish laughter, for long, long time Bucs fans we like hearing about our history. A lot of wonder whiskey tango foxtrot happened to us that year. Hopes were stratospheric. Results were disappointing. You don’t have to read it. I skip a few stories myself if they fail to interest me.
April 15th, 2025 at 9:38 pm
spbf-
Pretty naive of you to believe Gisele divorced Tom because he wanted to continue playing football….
Maybe that was part of it – but I’d say the revelation she was playing hide/find the salami with her Jiu Jitsu instructor more than a year prior to the split up was the primary reason…
So on that basis – yea – she does get a good bit of the “blame” for Tom’s head being so messed up that last year in Tampa Bay….
April 15th, 2025 at 10:07 pm
So why didn’t you include what EVERYBODY Already Knows??? TODD BOWLES!
The “Most Obvious” was TODD BOWLES being THE PROLEM from the Beginning to the End of that year and barely scratching through ever since. A BETTER Coach was able to make our offense work perfectly last year and have No Clue as to how it’s going to go with another ROOKIE OC this year!?????!
Bowles is the ONLY coach in history to make sure he served up a LOSING SEASON that Tom Brady had never experienced in His Life! Including marching orders to Leftwich to COMPLETELY BLOW UP the Entire Core Concept of how the Offense was designed and run! A TOTAL FIASCO!
ABSOLUTE LUCK that we won these last few division titles. It ONLY goes to show how BAD the NFC SOUTH Really Is!
And THAT’S THE TRUTH! And it’s why to this day that NOBODY takes us seriously!
April 15th, 2025 at 10:09 pm
BucDawg?
If you read all of the above and can somehow blame Bowles for that, you’re a bigger hater than I thought.
He was pretty much handed a no win (at least not double digits) situation, and offense without a decent interior O line, and quite a few super bowl players gone from both sides. I don’t think anyone could have done better than eight or nine in that situation. And I’m not a Bowles apologist. Some of the stuff he does drives me crazy as well, but I don’t think he’s a terrible coach either.
April 15th, 2025 at 11:07 pm
Do people not realize divorces are generally several months if not years in the making and don’t just happen overnight? By the time media reports a person’s divorce it has already been a long time..chances are the divorce happened and he figured he might as well play at that point.
People are forgetting Brady injured his rotator cuff very early in the year and then for some reason nobody mentioned it again. Those things don’t heal when you are throwing every week. Those are generally a big dsal. Was pretty obvious to me he was injured and a little distracted. You could see frustration from personal life spill over
April 15th, 2025 at 11:39 pm
@Defense Rules nailed it, per usual.
It wasn’t just one thing, it was many:
– BA abrupt retirement / Bowles late start as a HC
– Brady’s personal life
– O-line got absolutely ravaged from Cappa leaving, Marpet retiring and Jensen career ending injury courtesy of Logan Hall.
– Russell Gage injured all season long (again).
– Byron Leftwich was clueless and couldn’t make a single adjustment
April 15th, 2025 at 11:41 pm
maybe gisele threw a voodoo spell on the bucs…
and turned them into the yucs once again
April 16th, 2025 at 4:28 am
Defense Rules – Well said. Fully agree, all of it played a part.
stpetebucsfan – Always enjoy your comments. Have to disagree somewhat. They were married 13 years. There had to be other problems going on before he made the decision to remain playing one more year. There was a lot more going on there and didn’t help his mental ability either. Not blaming anyone. Just think they were already in different mind-sets already and she was ready to move on. Also, guessing AB moving in with them and the Crypto fiasco didn’t help either.
April 16th, 2025 at 4:40 am
I’m grateful for the 3 years with Brady. He changed the franchise brought a superbowl. year two I thought the team was even better and I think they repeat if Godwin doesn’t go down and AB didn’t lose his mind. That was such a strong team but too many changes and key player were lost in year three.
I’m glad Brady played until he knew he was done. Left no doubt he was ready to retire. It also is despite being a brutal year for the offense there were two Brady Magic home comeback wins that are my fondest memories in the stadium with my father and young son.
April 16th, 2025 at 5:01 am
Lost alot of respect for Brate there. Winners buckle up and change the culture. Leaders like Brady straighten out guys like Brate in the locker room right then. Not bitch about it years later. Hate to hear former players who run their mouth out of school.
BTW without Brady pulling some stuff out of his ass with no O line and despite Leftnut and Bowles, that season would have been alot worse. Note the only one left out of that bunch is …
Go Bucs!
April 16th, 2025 at 5:33 am
Right with you, itzok! So happy we had Gronk and Tom.
April 16th, 2025 at 8:22 am
Pickgrin
“hide/find the salami with her Jiu Jitsu instructor”
The reports of the failure to honor “retirement” are widespread and from reputable sources.
The “affair” is gossip rag stuff. I do not deny that it happened I just think it’s irrelevant. For one thing we do not know when or how the “affair” started. If it was after the SB then again it was Tommy who broke the promise.
Bottom line for me: Having gone through a bitter divorce during a time when I was in a VERY public job on TV I get the challenges. But at NO point did anyone ever think to say when I had a bad performance, Oh don’t blame SPBF it’s his ex-wife that caused it!
April 16th, 2025 at 8:28 am
Had it not been for one of ‘the best’ guys on defense getting absolutely burned the year before the Bucs would have had Back to back Lombardi’s and Brady would have walked off into the Nevada Sunset and started working on the ‘Next One’.
You can point the finger at Brady all you want that final season but the Heart on Soul of the Offense went down in training camp, the wind came out of the sail, and the season was pretty much done.
Had the coaching staff played the starters week 17 vs. the Falcons as Brady would have liked perhaps the Cowboy game would have been less embarrassing. Bucs coaching staff has not had that luxury since.
After Brady the Bucs have been skimming by with tons of stats and a team that was only capable of beating a Philly team that had imploded and couldn’t have beaten Ball State.
When able to play free and easy when the game is out of hand there will be many yards and TD’s but when things get tight you can’t go deep into the Playoffs with a Reggie Miller.
April 16th, 2025 at 8:49 am
Obvious One for the win!
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Bowles is a snake oil salesman and nothing more.
Take him out of the NFC South and witness just how soft he really is at HC.
The .250 playoff winning percentage tells you all that you need to know.
28-27
April 16th, 2025 at 9:32 am
It would be interesting to have heard the “off mike “ conversations. We wish that Cam would have elaborated. Otherwise we have polarized speculation from snowflakes and objective critics alike.
April 16th, 2025 at 9:41 am
If it wasn’t for Tom good or bad we would have not won our second super bowl that first year he was here he got the best effort out of his teammates.
April 16th, 2025 at 10:48 am
If your a real and true Bucs fan then be honest our past isn’t rainbows and unicorns. I love this team for the front of the jersey. I’m glad Tom was here he changed our culture brought us our second superbowl. He’s a winner look at us since we’re winners there discomfort with success. I say thank you Tom. Now let’s go get our third with Baker and the boys. Go Bucs!!!
April 16th, 2025 at 10:51 am
And most part of fans, specially Joe, took a shot against Leftwich…
What on earth would that guy do, when you have the best QB in history, who is not focused on his job, for personal reasons….
I am not saying Byron was extraordinaire, because he was not, but he took the whole blame when he was not entirely responsible for what was going on…..
April 16th, 2025 at 11:05 am
Irish Laughter,
Name some disturbing things from Baker’s teammates in CLE, LA or CAR. Other than OBJ’s daddy insisting that Baker wasn’t getting the ball to his son who never learned how to run a pass pattern. OBJ thought you just ran out there and put your arm up expecting the ball. There is nothing “disturbing” about Mayfield’s time in Cleveland or Carolina other than both organizations were run by fools. In LA, the Rams had previously committed large sums to Matthew Stafford so Baker was the odd man out.
April 16th, 2025 at 11:17 am
I don’t understand why everyone keeps speculating. Brady was disengaged that year. It started in training camp, continued with flying off to a wedding, going through a divorce, etc. It was clear as day as it happened. Then the rumors that he wanted to go to Miami
The team Lost interest and went through the motions because their leader abandoned them. Love Brady, love he brought the Super Bowl, but he was not there the last year
April 16th, 2025 at 11:27 am
itzok Says:
April 16th, 2025 at 4:40 am
He didn’t change the franchise. People give him an unreasonable amount of credit. He was one of many influences. I’d add in Evans, Godwin, Lavonte and those guys who led, along with Ryan Jensen. And Jason Licht… And Bruce Arians. All this stuff was in place for Brady to win with. If they didn’t have the pieces in place (thank you Jason Licht), Brady would not have even come here and he would not have won a Superbowl in year 1. Jason Licht changed the franchise.
The Brady worship is a bunch of crap.
April 16th, 2025 at 11:58 am
David
“The team Lost interest and went through the motions because their leader abandoned them. Love Brady, love he brought the Super Bowl, but he was not there the last year”
AMEN!
April 16th, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Jude
Those are all very valid points!
April 16th, 2025 at 2:00 pm
The adage of “better to leave/cut a player a year too soon vs a year too late” probably applied in this case. Of course you give Brady the space he needed…but it was clunky and awkward at times. Bucs are fortunate to have landed a revitalized Mayfield the following season.
April 16th, 2025 at 2:04 pm
Thank you, stpetebucfan!
April 16th, 2025 at 2:06 pm
Let’s be realistic. This franchise was going nowhere with Jameis. Brady brought a championship mentality. LEFTWICH was not ready to be an offensive coordinator and the O-line was horrendous with the retirement of Marpet and Jensen out for the year. Defensive guys were calling out what the plays were that year before the ball was even snapped. Bucs started every drive 3rd and 8 because they couldn’t run the ball. When they tried to pass Brady had someone on him within 2 seconds. No team can win that way. Let’s not forget the Devin White drama as well. Lots of blame to go around.
April 16th, 2025 at 3:48 pm
Leftwich… imagine Byron having a power struggle with a 7 time super bowl champion.
Mind boggling.
April 16th, 2025 at 3:57 pm
nobodys bomb/long ball is as good as Brady, we never had a qb w pinpoint accuracy, insane… he played the last year like a guy going thru a terrible divorce… period
April 16th, 2025 at 6:09 pm
If you don’t think Brady coming here change the franchise, you’re either delusional or only became a Bucs fan in 2020. Simple as that.
“Oh no, a 45 year old QB, who is quite literally the GOAT, finally had one bad year… that guy sucks! Screw him! He did nothing for us!”
-mouth breathing Bucs fans that don’t know a thing about football
April 16th, 2025 at 11:22 pm
It rubs the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again.
April 16th, 2025 at 11:47 pm
1 person and 1 person only is to blame for the malay of that year Tom Brady. It wasn’t Bowles fault or Ariens fault or Leftwichs fault. Tom Brady didn’t want to honor his agreement with TB. Giselle knew about the 3rd year on the contract when he signed it, so it had nothing to do with her. He made up his mind that he wanted out of TB to go to Miami in a deal that could have possibly made him part owner and to try to win another SB with another first year team that would have decided the was it Brady or Belichick question. Tom Brady was pissed that someone would defy the GOAT and make him serve his contract. Giselle and Brady were done before he signed with TB IMO, it was Giselle giving him “one” more chance to choose her and family over football and he failed at that spectacularly
April 17th, 2025 at 1:07 am
Yeah. Brady’s a failure. Pffft.
April 19th, 2025 at 11:31 am
2022 was just an awful year to begin with. Ousted by the rams. Terrorists attacking Ukraine and freedom. Bucs 2022 season.