“There’s no quarterback I’d rather have than Tom Brady. He’s the best.” Bill Belichick once said about his QB, Tom Brady, with whom he won 6 Super Bowl titles in a 20-year New England Patriots dynasty. The Brady and Belichick duo was something the NFL had never seen before and probably never will again. From getting picked 199th overall to going separate ways because of “natural tension,” there were highs and lows to Brady and Belichick’s NFL story. Still, when it came to reminiscing about the impact of Brady on Belichick’s tenure as a head coach,. Arguably, the greatest NFL head coach didn’t forget to give his greatest-ever student his flowers in his new book.

In an almost 10-minute chat with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, now North Carolina head coach Belichick discussed the thoughts behind his book, ‘The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.’ “It was a great opportunity to get some thoughts on paper and put it together. It’s not about how to live your life, it’s kind of how I did my job. If there’s a lesson in it for somebody, great. Hopefully, there’s some entertaining stories,” Belichick said.

Speaking of entertaining stories, in this 280-ish page book, in which Belichick tells dozens of stories, he dedicated Page 199 to Brady. It’s a pretty cool story from Sept. 25, 2001, that Belichick said he had never publicly spoken before. So, Strahan took this opportunity to ensure Belichick shared some of his thoughts behind that 199th page he gave to Brady. When asked, “You share a story about something that you heard him say or he said earlier that you’ve never shared before. What was that?”

Belichick, though, was clever in his answer and didn’t reveal all of it. Instead, he said, “Look, after every game, Tom always was, you know. We left a lot of points on the field; we can be better. We might win by 30 and it’d be like, we could have won by another 20. I missed this pass, we missed that play… he’s always striving for perfection.” So, you get the synopsis of No. 199 in Belichick’s book. It’s all about Brady’s hunger for perfection. While on the topic of Brady, Belichick went on to add other layers to Brady’s game that made him the legend he is today.

“Think about Tom; you think about improvement. Tom Brady was a fourth-string quarterback. I mean, who has a fourth-string quarterback and ended up being the greatest player, you know, of all time? And so that’s a lot of work. That’s a lot of dedication, and that’s a lot of commitment and discipline. He’s really the poster boy for improvement and consistency,” Belichick mused. Given that the theme of his book is about winning. Talking about a winner like Brady, who has won more Super Bowls than any franchise, absolutely stood out. However, Belichick wasn’t the only one who spoke highly about TB12. Even Strahan chimed in with his thoughts about a quarterback he once conquered.

Michael Strahan calls Tom Brady the ‘GOAT’

Brady may have won seven Super Bowl titles in his glittering NFL career. But thanks to Michael Strahan’s Giants, he never had the privilege to go the whole season unbeaten. Strahan and his Giants defense in Super Bowl XLII sacked Brady 5 times and harassed him all night. They restricted Brady’s Patriots to 23 points less than their regular-season average. This culminated in a heartbreaking 17-14 loss for Brady, who dreamt of going 19-0. But once they left Arizona, it was Strahan standing on top of him while his 18-1 record continues to haunt him to this date.

That loss stung him so badly that Brady once told Strahan, “I would give up a few Super Bowls for that one, because that was special. Undefeated season, however many games they would’ve won, it would’ve been unbelievable.”  Obviously, that memory continues to hover over Brady’s huge success. Winning Super Bowls is something, but going a whole NFL season unbeaten would have been an immortal achievement. However, there’s bad blood between Brady and Strahan. When Belichick was talking about Brady’s influence on the game, Strahan jumped in and called him “the GOAT” on GMA.

Seeing how he respects Brady’s contributions to the gridiron shows it’s all about giving credit where it’s due. And Brady obviously deserves all the praise in the world for the things he did during his 23 seasons in the NFL.