The defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots are fracturing at the highest level, according to a report that depicts a growing rift between quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft.
Among other issues, according to ESPN, the 13-3 Patriots have been struggling with the role of Brady’s personal trainer and business partner, Alex Guerrero, who Belichick recently barred from the team’s sideline and plane.
Further complicating matters is the fact that Brady is 40 but has given no indication that he’s ready to retire. As a result, the Patriots were forced to trade soon-to-be free agent backup Jimmy Garoppolo – believed by many to be the heir apparent at quarterback in New England – to the San Francisco 49ers where he won his first five starts to end the season with a team that was 1-10 when he took the helm.
The 40-year-old Tom Brady has given no indication that he’s ready to stop playing football
Patriots coach Bill Belichick (left) and owner Robert Kraft (right) have won five Super Bowls together with quarterback Tom Brady. The team currently holds the AFC’s top playoff seed
Tom Brady celebrates with Alex Guerrero (right) after beating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Guerrero has worked with Brady on the five-time Super Bowl champion’s TB12 brand, which includes a book and phone app, both of which provide health tips. Together they opened the TB12 Therapy Center near the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium in 2013
According to the report, Belichick was frustrated that Brady’s situation effectively forced the Patriots to trade away a promising 26-year-old quarterback.
The Patriots have a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs and will host a divisional-round game on Saturday, January 13.
Brady and Belichick have both publicly declined to comment about Guerrero, who also trains several other Patriots players.
Guerrero has worked with Brady on the five-time Super Bowl champion’s TB12 brand, which includes a book and phone app, both of which provide health tips. Together they opened the TB12 Therapy Center near the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium in 2013.
As reportedly by ESPN and The Boston Globe, Guerrero has treated several of Brady’s teammates, including tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Julian Edelman.
Guerrero first began working with Brady in 2004 after previously training legendary Patriots edge rusher Willie McGinest. It wasn’t until 2014, according to the ESPN report, that tensions began to arise between Guerrero and the Patriots’ training staff.
In 2015, the Globe reported that Patriots medical and training staffs had complained to Belichick about Guerrero’s role, citing concerns over alternative treatments that often conflicted with their own methods. Guerrero’s medical background was also reportedly questioned.
And since Guerrero was equally critical of the Patriots’ staff, young players were put in the position of working with him, and appeasing Brady, or the team’s staff, which was Belichick’s clear preference.
Another issue was the claims Brady and Guerrero were making through their TB12 brand.
‘When athletes get injured, they shouldn’t blame their sport,” Brady wrote in the TB12 Method.
According to ESPN, Guerrero’s techniques helped some players, but others felt like ‘it was a cult,’ which is why some blame Brady for the problems in New England.
‘Tom changed,’ a friend of Brady’s told ESPN. ‘That’s where a lot of these problems started.’
Tom Brady (right) and Jimmy Garoppolo (left) of the New England Patriots run onto the field before a game on October 22. Garoppolo has since been traded to the San Francisco 49ers
Boston Magazine previously referred to Guerrero as a snake oil salesman.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Guerrero falsely claimed to be a doctor and insisted his products could cure cancer and concussions.
According to federal affidavits, Guerrero claimed to have made a nutritional supplement that cured terminally ill patients affected with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
The product, called Supreme Greens, was purported to have cured all but eight of the 200 terminally ill patients that were part of the study.
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‘This is just out and out quackery,’ says Barrie Cassileth, who has a PhD in medical sociology and the founder of the Integrative Medicine Service at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told Boston Magazine.
The report revealed that Supreme Greens were never actually tested and the supposed study never existed, as he later admitted.
According to Boston Magazine, Guerrero was told by the FTC to stop referring to himself as a doctor. The publication also revealed that Guerrero’s degree in Chinese medicine came from a California college that no longer exists.
Brady’s claims in his book, ‘The TB12 Method,’ are also questionable.
The Patriots franchise quarterback insisted that despite being fair skinned, he stopped getting sunburns once he got in the habit of hydrating himself with nearly 300 ounces of water a day.
‘When I was growing up, and playing outside in the sun, I got sunburned a lot,’ Brady wrote in the 300-page book. ‘I was a fair-skinned Irish boy, after all. These days, even if I get an adequate amount of sun, I won’t get a sunburn, which I credit to the amount of water I drink. I always hydrate afterward, too, to keep my skin from peeling.
‘When I once told that to my sister,’ the book continues, ‘she said, “You mean I don’t have to use all those moisturizers and facial products to keep my skin looking good? I should just drink as much water as you do? I think you should market your [stupid water drop things] as a beauty product.” I just laughed.’
Those ‘stupid water drop things’ are Brady’s ‘TB12 electrolyte drops,’ which he encourages readers to use in their water. In fact, much of Brady’s book references his own line of health products.
(Left) The description of Tom Brady’s new book claims, ‘The TB12 Method is the only book an athlete will ever need, a playbook from Brady himself that will change the game.’ (Right), Brady’s TB12 ap offers health tips from himself and his trainer, Alex Guerrero
According to a description of the book on Amazon, Brady ‘explains how he developed his groundbreaking approach to long-term fitness, presenting a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to his personal practice. Brady offers the principles behind pliability, which is at the heart of a new paradigm shift and movement toward a more natural, healthier way of exercising, training, and living—and one that challenges some commonly held assumptions around health and wellness.’
The description continues, ‘The TB12 Method is the only book an athlete will ever need, a playbook from Brady himself that will change the game.
In a September interview with CBS, Brady confessed to some other interesting dietary quarks.
When asked about coffee, Brady said he has ‘[n]ever tried it.’
He’s tried a ‘little bit’ of salt and ‘on occasion’ has some sugar. As for dairy, Brady ‘almost never’ tries it, aside from some intermittent encounters with ice cream.
Allen Campbell, Brady’s personal chef told Boston.com what the University of Michigan product refuses to eat in January of 2016.
‘[Tom] doesn’t eat nightshades, because they’re not anti-inflammatory,’ Campbell said. ‘So no tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, or eggplants. Tomatoes trickle in every now and then, but just maybe once a month. I’m very cautious about tomatoes. They cause inflammation.’
While he remains concerned about dehydration and skincare, concussions are not a major concern, as he told CBS.
‘I don’t worry about them, no,’ Brady said in the interview. ‘I mean, I’m not oblivious to them. I understand the risks that come with the physical nature of our game.’
Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, had said in a May interview that the quarterback has had unreported concussions and she worried about his long-term health. A joint NFL and players’ union investigation found there was no evidence that Brady or the team failed to follow the league’s policies or procedures on concussions.