It only took three words to turn Bill Belichick’s resume from ordinary to stellar—Six. Super. Bowls. Sadly, though, for Belichick, his resume has hardly contributed to his career graph. As the veteran—and, must we say, iconic—coach’s career hit the twilight years of his New England Patriots days, respect was largely not the sentiment. Instead, the building reeked of what many would later describe as an “all-encompassing, dictatorial style” of coaching.

Belichick has never been known to be cool as a cucumber. In fact, his mood, as we’ve come to know, was directly proportional to the amount of pressure his team would be subjected to. But, that also meant one thing. A miserable roster doing everything they could to satisfy their coach. Rob Gronkowski once described not wanting to get out of his car to report for work. Former Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker once described the team’s former quarterback Tom Brady as “an abused dog for continually going back to work for Belichick”.

Another former wide receiver, Brandon Bolden, also described just how brutal the coach was, particularly on one occasion after the team failed to execute on the field. The day was September 29, 2014. The Patriots (on a 5-1 record until then, and a recent 16-9 win vs the Las Vegas Raiders) had lined up at the Arrowhead Stadium, hoping to move one step closer to their fourth Super Bowl. However, what instead happened was nothing short of public embarrassment, which later turned into a locker room humiliation session.

With a 41-14 loss, Brady was at the center of attention. A player who’d already had three Lombardi Trophies under his name, played the worst football of his life, including a brutal pick-six—that garnered him the first performance-related benching of career—and just 60.9 of his 23 passes completed for a meager 159 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and a lost fumble. The offense was no better, either. Gronkowski’s speed was nowhere to be found, Belichick benched his players left, right, and center, including rookie center Bryan Stork, and rookie starting guard, Cameron Fleming, and the team clearly looked like a shadow of its former self. As per ESPN, the 27-point loss was heartbreakingly the second-largest for the Patriots under Belichick. And for Brady, the pressure got too much.

On February 25, Bolden appeared on the Raw Room and talked about how Belichick called out Brady in the film room afterwards. “That year, we went to play in Seattle, we played the Chiefs,” he started. “The Chiefs put a 40-piece on us. Tom ain’t have a good game, none of us did, but we got in there, lights went off. Bill went in, started the film, stopped the film, talked sh-t. Started the film, stopped the film, talked more sh-t. Started the film, Tom threw a pick, stopped it, and (said) ‘We supposed to have the best f—— QB in the league and he plays like this’.” But Brady was not one to take the public insults…

As per Bolden, the QB scanned the room, “[reached] down…grabbed his sh-t, got the f—k out of there…that boy went straight to his locker, grabbed his phone.” And the aftermath? “We didn’t have a dropped pass in practice for like a month and a half…We went to the Super Bowl that year. It got hectic, boy! It got hectic!” the former running back stated. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated event, as the Brady-Belichick relationship, while mostly bound by respect, was also as “brutal” as it could get.

As per the Patriots CEO, Robert Kraft, “Tom and I had a number of discussions about how Bill treated him. Tommy is very sensitive. He was always looking for Bill’s approval, almost in a father-son kind of way. And that’s not Bill’s style ever to give that.” What’s more? The coach was reportedly the reason the Brady left the team for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. According to the QB himself, “Me and coach Belichick, we did what we loved and competed for 20 years together. But I wasn’t going to sign another contract (in New England) even if I wanted to play until (I was) 50. Based on how things had gone, I wasn’t going to sign up for more of it.”

However, we just can’t forget that week 4 game between the New England team and the Kansas City team.

The loss that led Tom Brady to win the Super Bowl

Patriots’ Week 4 showdown in 2014—what went down? Simple: KC ran all over them, and for a hot minute, people actually thought the dynasty was dead. The Chiefs dominated them throughout the game. In the first half, KC established control early as RB Jamaal Charles racked up two solid touchdowns. Then came the second half when QB Alex Smith connected with Travis Kelce for another touchdown.

And how can we forget Brady’s gameplay? That was one of those nights where nothing clicked for Brady. Besides, the Chiefs’ defense had him running for his life, sacking him three times and even forcing a fumble.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Bill Belichick decided he’d seen enough and benched him for rookie Jimmy Garoppolo. Now, imagine being in the film room later—YIKES! Because, let’s be real—that was not just any loss. That defeat led to widespread media scrutiny.

But at the end of the day, Belichick and Brady used that setback as a motivation, and eventually won the Super Bowl. Talk about an endgame level comeback.