As Bill Belichick loses one familiar face in Foxborough, Mass., another will soon be making his grand return.
The Super Bowl-winning Patriots coach, 71, and his longtime girlfriend, Linda Holliday, have called it quits, Page Six reported Wednesday, alleging the two have “been involved in a drawn-out, back-and-forth breakup for nearly a year.”
Reps for Belichick and the Patriots did not return to Page Six’s request for comment, and Holliday did not get back to the outlet.
The revelation comes days before the Patriots kick off the 2023 NFL season against the Eagles at Gillette Stadium, where New England is set to honor its favorite son, retired quarterback Tom Brady, who spent the first 20 seasons of his career with the team.
Brady, who won six Super Bowl titles with Belichick, left the Patriots after the 2019 season and played the final three years of his career in Tampa Bay, winning one Super Bowl in 2021 as a member of the Buccaneers.
In the weeks leading up to Brady’s seventh and final Super Bowl victory, however, Holliday — who has been linked to Belichick since 2007 — hit back at a troll who posted, “Too bad Bill let Tom go.”
“I’m happy for Tom’s career! Why can’t you be?” she commented in January 2021.
Despite allegations of discord between Brady and Belichick towards the end of the quarterback’s tenure in New England, the legendary coach has pled nothing but admiration for the future Hall of Famer.
“Tremendous appreciation for everything he did for me, did for our team, everything he gave us,” Belichick said last month on “The Greg Hill Show,” adding he “look[s] forward to seeing” Brady at the season opener.
“He’s done an awful lot for this organization, this franchise, this city, the National Football League, one night’s probably really not enough, anywhere close to being enough for the appreciation for what Tom deserves.”
Jim Nolan, the COO of Kraft Sports & Entertainment, recently teased what Patriots fans can expect on Sunday.
“What I can say is it’s going to be a halftime ceremony, just so fans know,” Nolan said Wednesday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak & Bertrand,” according to NBC Sports Boston.
“We would anticipate the fans seeing him somewhere on the field pregame. That’s about all I have for you guys today.”
Brady expressed Monday how he has “a lot of gratitude” toward the organization.
“I have so many memories from my time there and memories with people there, and I’m creating a new memory with the people there,” Brady said on the “Let’s Go” podcast on SiriusXM.
“And to go back to that stadium and bring my kids and my family in a different way, you know, I’ve not been to that stadium in this way ever. I went there as a player, I went there once as a competitor and now I’m gonna go there as really a fan.”
A father of three, Brady shares his eldest son, 16-year-old Jack, with ex Bridget Moynahan.
He co-parents son Benjamin, 13, and daughter Vivian, 10, with Gisele Bündchen following their divorce in October 2022 after 13 years of marriage.
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