Of his 2020 decision, he noted, “In the end, I chose Tampa, almost exactly five years ago now, because, in the aggregate, it graded out higher than New England along those twenty or so dimensions. It’s not much more complicated than that.”

Since Tom’s 2023 retirement from both Tampa Bay and the sport of football, Belichick has also left the NFL. Though the 72-year-old isn’t done with the sport (he now leads the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill football team), Tom took a moment to praise his former coach after leaving the Patriots in January 2024.

“I’m incredibly grateful to have played for the best coach in the history of the NFL,” Tom wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “I could never have been the player I was without you Coach Belichick. I am forever grateful.”

Read on to see how Tom has spent time with his kids since retiring from the NFL.