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Julian Edelman on why he didn’t leave the Patriots to join Tom Brady in Tampa: ‘I had to go down with the ship’

Julian Edelman on why he didn’t leave the Patriots to join Tom Brady in Tampa: ‘I had to go down with the ship’

Julian Edelman had reasons not to join Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Unlike Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman ended his NFL career after playing for only one NFL team: the New England Patriots. This came up in the first episode of Edelman and Gronkowski’s “Dudes on Dudes” podcast.

The tight end caused quite a stir at Edelman in their debut when he brought up the fact that Edelman didn’t follow Brady and Gronkowski to Tampa after winning three Super Bowls together. Edelman had a pretty understandable answer: He had a contract, a two-year, $18 million deal that ran through 2021.

Gronkowski still insisted that Edelman could have enjoyed a longer career if he had gone to Tampa and played with Brady and then Baker Mayfield, but Edelman said firmly that he had to go down with SS Bill Belichick.

The full exchange:

Gronkowski: “I know Tom called you and said, ‘Hey Jules, do you want to come to the Buccaneers?’ And you said, “No, I’m a patriot for life.” You were too cool for us, but Baker, no, he’s a guy in his own right. He said, “I’m not too cool for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -“

Edelman: “I was under contract, Rob.”

Gronkowski: “This is a revival of my career, and it would have been a revival of your career too, Jules. If you had come down, you would probably still be playing with that guy if you had gone to the Bucs.”

Edelman: “I had to go down with the ship, buddy. I had to go down with the damn ship. Have you seen ‘Titanic’, do you know the old captain? You know the violin guy?”

All in all, it’s as serious an exchange as you’d expect from a Rob Gronkowski podcast. Not only does Gronkowski ignore that Edelman is legally obligated to play for the Patriots (though he might have been able to hold out for a trade), he also leaves out the fact that Edelman, now 38, retired because of chronic knee problems. Mayfield probably wouldn’t have fixed that.

Edelman also commented on his commitment to the Patriots at the time, saying he was a “one-team guy” when the rumors started circulating again. That didn’t stop Brady from joking that Edelman only stayed because he was afraid of Belichick.