One former NFL quarterback is definitely not a fan of Tom Brady: 'He just pisses me off'

It seems that not everyone is a fan of Tom Brady

Ryan Fitzpatrick played in the NFL for 17 seasons but, apparently, that wasn't long enough to earn the respect of Tom Brady. 

During a recent interview on "Pardon My Take," Fitzpatrick made it pretty clear that he's not a huge fan of the Buccaneers quarterback. The subject of Brady came up after one of the hosts brought up the seven-time Super Bowl winner's candid comments from June 2021 when Brady referred to an unnamed quarterback as a "mother [expletive]."

At the time, Brady was talking about his free agency tour and the fact that one team passed him because they were sticking with their current guy. 

"One of the teams, they weren't interested at the very end," Brady said. "I was thinking, you're sticking with that mother [expletive]. Are you serious?'"

Although most people believe Brady was referring to Derek Carr or even Jimmy Garoppolo, Fitzpatrick is convinced that Brady was referring to him. 

"It had to be me," Fitzpatrick said. 

It's definitely possible that Brady was referring to Fitzpatrick. We know Brady was contacted by the Dolphins multiple times in the lead up to his free agency in March 2020 and we also know that Brian Flores, who was Miami's coach at the time, wanted nothing to do with Brady. In the end, the Dolphins passed on Brady so they could stick with the combination of Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa, who was drafted one month after Brady signed with the Buccaneers. 

During the podcast interview, Fitzpatrick was told that Brady definitely respects him, and the former Dolphins QB did NOT agree with that take. 

"No. Zero respect," Fitzpatrick said. "He'd never shake my hand."

From there, Fitzpatrick explained why he's not a huge fan of Brady. 

"Man, I've told this story before, but he just pisses me off," Fitzpatrick said of the 45-year-old. "[I'm] in Buffalo ... playing New England, they're kicking our ass every single year, they're beating us. We finally, in 2011,  knocked them off. It was right at the beginning of the season. We had this great start and he threw five interceptions in the game, which was just wonderful to see every single one of them. Just wonderful to see."

What wasn't so wonderful for Fitzpatrick following Buffalo's 34-31 win was that Brady ran "straight off" the field without taking part in a postgame handshake. After finally getting the best of Brady, Fitzpatrick was looking forward to the moment they were going to have at midfield, but it never came. 

"Like, no handshake, no quarterback middle of the field, 'Where are the cameras? OK, hey, stay healthy buddy.' Pat me on the head and let me go. Just ran straight off," Fitzpatrick said. "It just bothered me so much because there was no respect there. Every time I played him after that, I was like 'All right, let's make this dude respect me.'"

The upside in all of this for Fitzpatrick is that he ended up getting the last laugh. Fitzpatrick's final game ever against Brady came in the 2019 regular-season finale. In the game, the Patriots needed a win to clinch a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, but that didn't happen. Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins ended up shocking the Patriots 27-24. 

"The last one was especially sweet because it was the 'Tank For Tua' year," Fitzpatrick said. "It was start out 0-7, 'Is this the worst football team of all time?' They beat us [43-0] at the beginning of the season. They needed to beat us to get home-field advantage and it was his last regular-season game as a Patriot, and we go and we score at the end of the game and beat them."

After that game, Fitzpatrick thinks he might have finally gotten that postgame handshake he was looking for. 

"I probably initiated it," Fitzpatrick said. 

The now retired quarterback has been making the media rounds this week to promote the fact that Amazon is taking over "Thursday Night Football." Fitzpatrick is an analyst for "NFL on Prime" who will be working on the pregame, halftime and postgame shows. If Amazon really wants to spice things up, the company will make sure the Fitzpatrick interviews Brady at some point in the lead up to Tampa Bay's Thursday night game in Week 8.