Danny Amendola is a Dolphin.

The 32-year-old receiver signed a two year deal worth $12 million this offseason, moving from sunny and bright Foxborough to sunny and bright Miami.

One thing that wasn’t really sunny and bright was playing for Bill Belichick, which Amendola discussed on a recent appearance on Barstool’s Comeback SZN podcast, comparing his former head coach to Miami’s Adam Gase:

“Coach Gase is one of the guys. He’s our leader, he’s our head coach, but he’s also our boy. It’s cool, it’s refreshing to have that kind of relationship with a coach, something I haven’t had in a long time. I Facetimed coach Gase yesterday just to talk with him, just to bullshit with him. I was talking to his kids, I have a relationship with him that’s really unique, something I haven’t had in a while. So it’s cool to be a part of. He’s a coach I want to play hard for.

…back in New England, it’s almost like you had a principal and a principal’s office and shit like that; in a good way and a bad way, too. Much respect to all of the coaches that have given me the opportunity to play for their team and I’m obviously excited for where I’m at in the future…”

Amendola won a pair of Super Bowls under Belichick and did later describe him as “one of the best of all time.”

But it feels like another example of the rigid culture that Lane Johnson spoke of months ago, characterizing the Patriots as a “fear-based” organization and labeling their players as “robots”

Amendola alluded to that a bit when describing his free agency in an April article with ESPN:

“I came in with an open mind. I understand Bill runs a tight ship, and he hasn’t been known to pay his players, really. I understood that I gave money back to him so I could play for him and play for my teammates and fulfill my side of the contract, and at the end of the day, I had faith that he was going to give me an opportunity to stay,” Amendola told ESPN.

“When free agency broke, I came to the realization that he wasn’t going to really come close to any of the other offers I had,” he said. “I had to make a decision for my family and go down to Miami and continue my career there.”

There are worse things in the world than going down to Miami to continue your career.

Time’s yours.