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Bill Belichick recounts time Tom Brady nearly died playing golf at Pebble Beach

Dallas Cowboys v New England Patriots FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots talks with Tom Brady #12 before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Gillette Stadium on November 24, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images) (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)

FOXBORO, Mass — Tom Brady’s first post-retirement episode of his podcast, “Let’s Go!”, was a love affair. The seven-time Super Bowl champion was joined by his former head coach of 20 years, Bill Belichick, and the pair spent time celebrating each other, giving thanks, and, like most retirement parties, sharing a few laughs.

As the pair wound down their conversation, Brady’s co-host Jim Gray asked Belichick if he had any advice for his former QB as Brady headed into retirement. Belichick elected to recount the time Brady nearly met his demise by tumbling down a cliff on one of Pebble Beach’s most notoriously difficult holes.

“I think if I can sum up Tom Brady in one picture, it would be on the 6th hole where he drove the ball to the right,” said Belichick. “It looked like he was going to be; it looked like he was over the cliff when he teed off. It’s way to the right.”

The sixth hole at Pebble Beach is a par 5 that straddles the rocky California coast. Any shot that hugs too far right typically ends up tumbling 200 feet to the ocean below or becomes trapped in the rocky cliffside, dangerously out of reach.

That is, unless you’re Tom Brady.

When Brady’s shot hooked right, Belichick was forced to watch helplessly as his star QB clambered down the cliffs to retrieve his ball.

“I can only see like from about his shoulders up. Now it’s 200 feet down into the rocks, and there’s no way he survives this fall,” Belichick recounted to a chuckling Brady and Gray. “And I’m looking at the greatest quarterback, our star player, I mean, Tom Brady’s standing there literally on a Goddamn ledge, hitting the ball off the ledge up the hill to the sixth green.”

I was never more worried about Tom physically when I saw him standing on that ledge trying to hit, not trying, hitting the ball up to the sixth green at Pebble,” Belichick said. “With a 25-mile-an-hour wind, too, I mean, just to make it interesting.”

Although Belichick says Brady was able to salvage his shot, the three-time MVP doesn’t look back on the moment as one of his career highlights.

“I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life, that was probably right at the top of ‘em,” laughed Brady.

The Let’s Go! Podcast with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

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