Who is Alex Guerrero? Tom Brady's Controversial 'Body Coach' Part Of Patriots' Drama

The New England Patriots remain the biggest story in the NFL, even during a bye week, amidst a report that the most important figures in the team’s dynasty are no longer on the same page. Head coach Bill Belichick is at odds with owner Bob Kraft, according to ESPN, because he wanted to keep Jimmy Garoppolo to be the heir apparent to quarterback Tom Brady.

Involved in New England’s alleged dysfunction is a name that many football fans have never heard. Alex Guerrero is more than just Brady’s personal trainer. He’s the “body coach” to the greatest quarterback of all time, and his methods have been a source of controversy, despite the success that Brady has achieved.

Guerrero helped Brady develop the TB12 Method, a nutritional and wellness lifestyle that Brady touts in a book he released last year. It’s also implemented at the TB12 Center in Foxborough, Massachusetts, right by Gillette Stadium.

Brady believes the method will help him play at an MVP-level into his 40s, and it’s hard to argue with the results. He’s likely about to be named the 2017 NFL MVP, remaining the league’s top quarterback in his 18th season.

The five-time Super Bowl champion is hoping to do what no signal caller in history has been able to accomplish. It’s because no quarterback has ever maintained a Hall-of-Fame level into his mid-40’s that Belichick was hoping to make the 26-year-old Garoppolo the team’s starter in the near future.

But the Patriots sent Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a second-round draft pick in October, making sure that Brady—and therefore Guerrero—would be an intricate part of the team for years to come.

The ESPN report claimed Brady and Guerrero’s method created an “unspoken pressure” among the team, making players uncertain if they should seek help from team doctors or Guerrero at his TB12 Center when looking to recover from injuries. The Boston Sports Journal cited one incident in which a player was instructed to do squats by the Patriots, but was later told by Guerrero not to do them.

Guerrero has been around the Patriots for years and worked with players besides Brady. He was given full access to the team’s facility in 2013, though Belichick limited that access a year later. Near the end of the 2017 regular season, The Boston Globe reported that Belichick took away even more privileges from Guerrero. The head coach banned Brady’s trainer from team flights and the sidelines during games, as well as prohibiting him from working with players other than Brady at his Gillette Stadium office.

Before Brady ever marketed the TB12 Method, Guerrero dealt with multiple controversies. He had to pay the Federal Trade Commission in 2005 for allegedly claiming the dietary supplement called “Supreme Greens” could help cure cancer. In 2011, he promoted Neurosafe, a water that supposedly helped prevent concussions, only to eventually discontinue the product and give refunds to anyone who bought it.

While some have referred to Guerrero as a “snake-oil salesman,” the trainer thinks people are skeptical of his methods simply because they haven’t tried them.

“I would think it has a lot to do with misconceptions,” Guerrero told USA Today in September when asked why the TB12 Method isn’t mainstream. “People don’t know or haven’t tried it. You don’t get it until you come here. I think some people are quick to judgement and other people are like, ‘I’ll try it.’ We say often times, you can’t unknow what you know, the only way to really know something is to give it a try. We don’t feel like we need to stand on the rooftop and scream it to everybody. We are who we are and our beliefs are what they are. We feel it’ll resonate with people when it’s important for them.”

Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft released a joint statement Friday, refuting the “fallacies” in ESPN’s report, claiming that they “stand united.”