Was there more to Tom Brady not helping develop younger players in New England?

Tom Brady was known in New England for being the greatest quarterback of all time. However, he was also known for not wanting to work with younger players. This was the one knock on his legacy, well besides the NFL beating him and overturning his appeal for deflategate.

During a press conference in 2019, while a member of the Patriots, Tom Brady had chose his words carefully when asked about helping his younger teammates.

Tom said, “I’ve always said that the best teammates are the ones I have to think about least, because I don’t want to expend my mental energy on things that aren’t really my job.

I think what we talk about doing here is just doing our job. I can do what I can do. Those guys are young. Those guys are trying. I was young — I was trying too. I just didn’t have to play my first year.”

A lot was made from that, mainly that Tom Brady didn't want to work with younger players. Especially when according to Seth Wickersham of ESPN back in 2016 said, Tom was "famously unhelpful to his backups."

Flash forward to the 2020 season and Tom is now a Tampa Bay Buccaneer heading into the NFC championship game.

Bruce Arians came out and put down the Patriots organization, while praising his quarterback saying, “[Brady’s] got the air of confidence that permeates through our team every day. I allow him to be himself. Like, New England didn’t allow him to coach. I allow him to coach. I just sit back sometimes and watch.”

Tampa Bay linebacker Devin White recently said about Brady, "“Thing I love about Tom is he’s always teaching. Teaching me how to be a great leader. Every single day, every single practice, he puts the team before himself..."

Recently head coach Arians also said the following on the Dan Patrick show:

“The way he handles younger players. He’s another coach. He really is. I mean, the athletic stuff is shocking for a guy 43, but the way he handles young guys and old guys, he’s coaching non-stop.

It always pisses me off. I’ll say something to a player, and they’ll look at me, and he says it, and they go, ‘Okay Tom, I’ll do it.' "

Arians went into how he has to put extra work for Brady because of how he'll stretch a 20 minute team meeting. Saying, “I used to call Peyton a piranha because if I had a 20-minute meeting, I’d have to have an hour and a half worth of [expletive] just to keep him occupied, and the poor other quarterbacks, they couldn’t take notes fast enough. But Tom’s the exact same way. Their attention to detail is unbelievable.”

Now some of the stuff about Brady's work ethic was no secret but him acting like a coach? That's not the Patriots Tom Brady. Brady was once quoted as saying he didnt have the patience to coach but that was back when he was in the Patriots system, following the Patriots way. Could that quote of been a Patriots issued response?

Is it possible that the Patriots pulled the reigns in on how Brady could work with his younger teammates. Making it not worth Brady's while to even bother trying. Brady found a way to stay in shape and stay healthy, and the team was furious. There's a whole story around Brady's personal trainer and the team was upset that his fellow teammates would go to the TB12 center. 

So what if they were just as anal about his coaching techniques, and made it crystal clear what he could and could not teach them? It's something that has to fall in the realm of possibility. 

Tom Brady to my knowledge hasn't said anything, and neither has anyone in the Patriots organization. So this maybe just another of a long list of unanswered questions surrounding the greatest football team in the history of professional sports.