When someone fully and completely embraces a public life, there really are no personal issues. That dynamic is becoming abundantly clear with Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
Brady, who has cultivated a platform that has resulted in the aggressive pursuit of multiple business interests, has had his football career plunge into mystery with an unprecedented training-camp hiatus. Brady has been absent for a full week, for personal reasons. There’s apparently no end in sight. Beyond a report from Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that the situation has nothing to do with the health of Brady or his family, there has been no announcement or reporting on why he’s away.
The absence of information invites plenty of speculation. That’s part of the price of not just stumbling into fame but basking in it, profiting from it. When an athlete, performer, or other celebrity demands the public’s attention, it’s unreasonable to expect everyone to look away when something unusual happens.
As to Brady, there’s natural curiosity as to why he’s gone, how long he’ll be gone, and whether he’s ever coming back. The team’s mishandling of the situation hasn’t made it any better. Last week, they insisted the entire thing was planned. Thursday’s comments from coach Todd Bowles, who said there’s no specific date for Brady’s return, undermine the notion that it was carefully orchestrated.
“So, I’ll need some time off during training camp. Starting August 11.”
“When will you be back?”
“Whenever.”
No, it feels like this wasn’t planned. Also, the absences didn’t begin on August 11. He missed his birthday (August 3) in a supposedly planned day off. He missed Thursday, August 4, and Friday, August 5, for personal reasons. Then he practiced four more times before embarking on his mid-camp break.
Is he having second thoughts about playing in 2022? Has Father Time finally caught up with him?
We know that he tried to retire from the Buccaneers, not from the NFL. We know that he wanted to play for the Dolphins, with Sean Payton serving as the head coach. We know that he unretired when he did because the Bucs were on the brink of losing players like center Ryan Jensen to free agency, and on the verge of making other plans at quarterback. We assumed a coaching change was enough to placate Brady. (Regardless, we know he wasn’t troubled by Bruce Arians walking away 17 days after Brady returned.)
But what if returning to the team he thought he was leaving behind simply isn’t working? What if his heart’s truly not in it? With the ability to make $37.5 million this year from Fox in lieu of making much less to play football, wouldn’t it be tempting to just call it a day as a player and to raise the curtain as an announcer?
Yes, plenty of people are counting on him to choose to keep playing. But if he can’t be fully and completely committed, it helps no one for him to force it.
Then there’s the fact that all of this happened after the league announced on August 2 that the Dolphins had extensively tampered with Brady in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, in an effort to get him to Miami. While it’s unclear how or why that disclosure could spark a personal issue requiring a three-day break followed several days later by a much longer one, the timeline is undeniable.
Before the Dolphins tampering came to light, Brady’s status wasn’t in question. Since then, he has missed plenty of time.
It’s possible that there’s a perfectly good explanation for it, unrelated to the prospect of Brady deciding to move on. Regardless, the circumstances create a vacuum of information that necessarily must be filled by something. Absent proof, the only other thing becomes speculation. And the situation is simply inviting more, not less, of it as time goes by.
He’s going to be the Patriots play-caller.
You won’t let me “retire” and go to the Dolphins? Okay, I’ll show you = personal reasons. Brady does what Brady wants, and you can’t stop him, so just pretend that it was all planned.
The Bucs are insane to put up with this drama, enough of this prima donna already!
This proves BB was right!
I’m going to guess the “Brady way” that was always misconstrued as the Patriot way might lend the benefit of the doubt…
Just retire and get it over with. Go away.
I remember when Michael Jordan abruptly retired when he was allegedly about to be fined and suspended by the league. Hmmm
This is a man realizing that his offensive line is in shambles and he really doesn’t want to run around on 45 year old legs.
Again, why BB walked. I can only imagine how long Belichick was trying to keep the lid on the primadonna bubble and it bursting.
An incredible job. Someday, all of the real stories will be written.
But, I applaud BB for cutting the cord and realizing it would be a disaater just being left in the wind when Mr. Giselle finally decided to pull that rug out.
The Spaulding Smails of the NFL is destroying his legacy.
Thanks to BB. For everything.
He’s finalizing the paperwork for his purchase of the NFL.
He’s directing and acting in 80 for Brady! There was likely filming locations and dates set before he decided to come back, and sometimes filming takes longer than expected . So my best guess is that he is using this time off to do that, and maybe have a short family vacation, but they just didn’t want the optics of “Brady is missing camp to film a movie.”
The so-called GOAT took his birthday off? So lame. I that he was 45 not 14. I wonder how he would have reacted if one of his offensive line pulled that stunt.
He’s at home, seeing all of these injuries to the offensive line, and thinking… “nope”
He been placed on double secret probation
Just a thought–is Brady angry that the team won’t try to bring back Antonio Brown? Or he blamed Arians for Brown having his breakdown and leaving the team–hence pushing Arians to retire–and perhaps team still won’t consider bringing back Brown?
Jimmy G to Tampa next ?
Bowles thought he finally had a great quarterback to work with.
Beware of Belichick’s castoffs
Father Time always wins.
Again, why BB walked.
—
Except BB didn’t walk it was the other way around
Brady and Bill cornerstone a dynasty together and yet in the end their massive ego’s are their downfall. Tell me Tom Brady didn’t want to go to Miami just to ‘stick it to BB’… He doesn’t care about his NE legacy anymore… Fins fans hate TOM BRADY. Go away man. I’m glad none of this worked out.
GO DOLPHINS.
Sounds like he regrets coming back out of retirement.
Might not be a life problem, could be a wife problem
YES! LEAVE! FOREVER! NOW! YESTERDAY! GOOD RIDDANCE!
If you understand that Tom’s objective is always to stay in the limelight, any publicity is good publicity and drama is king (or queen), then what he’s doing makes perfect sense. He’ll be behind center on September 11th at Dallas.
maybe, just maybe, with the clout he has, he just said I will attend as much or as little of TC as I want….agree to that and I will come back. Occum’s Razor folks. So many want to see a conspiracy theory or some dark reason…..the likely reason is that he is 45 and doesn’t want to get hurt and see no reason to get in more practice at 45.
I’m not buying that this isn’t about his parents health. I don’t care what’s been said. It’s nobody’s business if it is. Tom might even say that he is retiring because his heart isn’t in it anymore to maintain privacy on their condition. He only owes the truth to his teammates and his head coach and they will only say what Tom wants them to say. My guess is he takes the year off to be with his family and starts with Fox next season. Will find out soon enough one way or the other if he returns to training camp or retires.
If the price to pay for having the GOAT and the best shot at a Super Bowl is to allow him an unexcused absence from an arguably useless training camp and preseason, then I’d GLADLY pay that price. As long as he actually shows up, this isn’t a big deal.
uberman says:
August 18, 2022 at 3:51 pm
Might not be a life problem, could be a wife problem
*************************************
NEWSFLASH: a wife problem (very soon) becomes a life problem.
touchback6 says:
August 18, 2022 at 3:24 pm
Again, why BB walked.
______________________
Why do you always say this? You do realize that Brady won a Super Bowl in his very first season away from the Patriots, right? Belichick has had egg on his face ever since.
Said it before, I’ll say it again, I’ll bet dollars to donuts he’s in the beginning stages of divorce proceedings.
The more I see and read about this situation, the more I think it has everything to do with 1) Gisele, 2) the “tampering issue”, or 3) Brady isn’t sold on TB this season. I also call BS on the “it was planned” statement. In any case it paints Tom Brady in a bad light. He is starting to act like Aaron Rodgers!
Definitely odd. Not sure why this isn’t a bigger story. Rogers and Lamar skipped voluntary OTAs and everybody lost their minds.
His wife was against him returning, so no matter what is said publicly unless he wants a miserable home life he’s probably going to retire once again. You heard it here first
I wonder if he is trying to complete the move to Miami that got halted by the flores lawsuit. Maybe he’s on board with McDaniel.
Tb12 taking a Allen iverson 3 approach to practice
uberman says:
August 18, 2022 at 3:51 pm
Might not be a life problem, could be a wife problem
_________________________
This would be my guess. She’s been wanting him to retire for years. He finally does, and it lasts 40 days. He said that he would play until 45. Well, he’s 45 and still a member of the Bucs. She can’t be happy about it. Just my theory…
Thanks to BB. For everything.
—-
I’d say BB looks pretty bad right now. Can’t win without Brady. Can’t find an OC. The book on Brady carrying Bill to title after title will be a more interesting read.
My guess it’s some movie re-takes…. Plot change so some scenes need to be redone…..just part of the process…. He already knows everything about Tampa & they all know his abilities & focus so nobody is really worried here…. He’s not playing in the pre season anyways & 1 week of camp prior to the start of the season will be plenty for him & his receivers…. No big deal at all
He would not do anything if it did not help him make more money so rest assured it will be a business venture.
Bucs on the phone with SF about a trade for Jimmy Garoppolo in 3, 2, 1…
That’s probably exactly how the conversation went. He can pretty much do what he wants.
Yes…BB again gets credit…
Despite the fact that he is a sub .500 coach without Brady
TB12 has steered the focus away from any talk about the allegations of tampering to nonsensical speculation. That’s the Patriots way in action.
I can’t help but shake the feeling that he re-retires last minute, leaving the Bucs in limbo for 2022.
The ‘It’s why Belichick walked’ crowd is funny.
No coach is walking away from an elite qb cause of drama. The reason Belichick walked is because he thought he was the alpha of the two and Brady was finished. Brady has proven him wrong on both points.
Whether Brady retires or returns to start the season won’t impact Belichick missing the playoffs and his delusional fan base boasting ‘this is the reason belichick walked’ rather than focus on his mediocre coaching record without Brady.
It’s the offensive line ,plain and simple . He knows he gonna get creamed constantly with no protection and his performance will suffer big time. NOT to mention a possibility of a real injury. My money is somehow he retires again in the next 2weeks and takes a safe broadcasting gig two weeks later.
I said in other thread that most football fans are not even aware that it takes less time to run 5 yards than to run 15 yards.
SMH.
I’d wager this has everything to do with the Dolphins tampering issue and Brady is laying low to avoid the media. The second part will be next week when he announces his retirement (again) by playing the “my heart just wasn’t in it” card as the cover for not returning.
What if he’s taking training camp off to spend time with his family, and equally as important, to avoid any and all obligations to speak to reporters regarding the Miami tampering? Brady was unlikely to play much if at all in the preseason, maybe he’s going radio silent for the time with plans to return after the preseason. It’s a very strange situation, indeed.
jonathankrobinson424 says:
August 18, 2022 at 4:15 pm
It’s the offensive line ,plain and simple . He knows he gonna get creamed constantly with no protection and his performance will suffer big time. NOT to mention a possibility of a real injury. My money is somehow he retires again in the next 2weeks and takes a safe broadcasting gig two weeks later.
—-
Great. My mute button is ready
tb12gronk87 says:
August 18, 2022 at 4:15 pm
The ‘It’s why Belichick walked’ crowd is funny.
No coach is walking away from an elite qb cause of drama. The reason Belichick walked is because he thought he was the alpha of the two and Brady was finished. Brady has proven him wrong on both points.
Whether Brady retires or returns to start the season won’t impact Belichick missing the playoffs and his delusional fan base boasting ‘this is the reason belichick walked’ rather than focus on his mediocre coaching record without Brady.
78Rate This
—————-
11-5 with Cassel.
10-7 with rookie Mac Jones
21-12 is good. Nothing “mediocre” about it.
touchback6 says:
August 18, 2022 at 3:24 pm
Again, why BB walked. I can only imagine how long Belichick was trying to keep the lid on the primadonna bubble and it bursting.
An incredible job. Someday, all of the real stories will be written.
But, I applaud BB for cutting the cord and realizing it would be a disaater just being left in the wind when Mr. Giselle finally decided to pull that rug out.
The Spaulding Smails of the NFL is destroying his legacy.
Thanks to BB. For everything.
————————————————————
In the two seasons since Brady has left, how many playoff games has Bill won? A:0
In 2008, Jets, Dolphins and Bills won 19 out of 30 games against non-divisional teams.
Belichick was a master against lousy offenses, that is what 2021 season showed.
bradygirl12 says:
August 18, 2022 at 3:58 pm
touchback6 says:
August 18, 2022 at 3:24 pm
Again, why BB walked.
______________________
Why do you always say this? You do realize that Brady won a Super Bowl in his very first season away from the Patriots, right? Belichick has had egg on his face ever since.
——————————————
Belichick’s job in rebuilding the Pats into a winner is much more difficulr than what Brady did. Brady went to a team with a lot of talent and brought along Gronk,, Brown, and Fournette. The equivalent would be Belichick quitting the Pats and going to the Chiefs and bringing along Josh McDaniels as OC and Dennis Allen as DC…
Maybe Brady is jealous of the deal that Russell Wilson got. In Denver whatever Russ wants, Russ gets.
Yeah, ok, mid season no one will bother to remember this whole ordeal.
Well now we know where Jimmy G. will end up.
Brady should have never un-retired. It’s just not
the same anymore.
I think the Dolphins franchise should be disbanded. No team should be allowed to remain part of the fraternity if it undermines the other partners like they did. It’s unprecedented. Loss of a 1st and 3rd round pick is simply not enough for what they have done. Between Brady and the Dolphins, the NFL is going to turn into the NBA, where all the good free agents go to one or two teams, and the whole thing is basically a rigged game. It could ruin the league. Dissolve the Dolphins and send a message to the other teams to honor the system, before you don’t have a functioning system.
Have you seen the Bucs O line? Well Brady has, and I’m sure he wants no part of it!
maybe he’s following Gronk from party to party trying to convince him to unretire again.
The dolphins got busted for tampering with him, they are doing joint practices followed by a game with the dolphins at hard rock stadium, why would Brady or the Bucs want to deal with the drama of him being there?? Easiest “time away” excuse ever
Despite being a great QB . He is never the greatest , as others have done much better , without arguably the greatest coach to back him , and a consistently great supporting cast .
He is becoming an increasingly demanding drama queen. He is Brett Favre , mk 2.
Just like Brett , go away , and stop trying to gain attention.
Folks, if Brady retires, the Bucs will roll with Gabbert and Trask. The Bucs will NOT trade for Jimmy G.
He got the “ Jordan “ suspension.
It’s been reported that it is due to the need for family time.
Fact is Brady has won 0 titles where he was the reason they won. Put any other decent QB in his place on his teams and they would have still won those rings.
Goat? Nah.
There is no debate, Brady ditched the patriots and immediately won the Super Bowl, meanwhile they’re a disgraced cheating franchise with no QB, no talent, and the worst defense in history.
This is pretty natural in other professional leagues with a player of his caliber and age. It’s being dissected because he retired at the beginning of the off season. Days off, even weeks off for NBA players is common place to protect them at an advanced age. This is all uncommon territory for a starting top notch QB though. I think we all have to roll with the punches at this point. This is uncharted territory. We’ve never seen a player of this caliber perform so long. Let’s just see what what happens and then go from there.
Some things I feel need to be answered on this Tom Brady speculation. First, you have to wonder about the Sean Payton side of things with Payton wanting to team up with Brady and coach the Dolphins. Second, If I am Drew Brees, I would be rather upset about all this. A sense of perceived loyalty and trust would be breached, and I have to wonder if Mr. Brees were still doing NBC Sports appearances if he were to say something. I think we all know the answer to this.
Now, onto the speculation about Tom Brady doing the 80 for Brady movie. I have not heard anything about the planned movie since it was announced. If anything, since the setting is during the years, he was with the New England Patriots; this might be a bone of contention on the part of the Kraft family. It is possible, given the inevitable Hall of Fame induction for Robert Kraft next week, that the Kraft’s could effectively block production. I mentioned in an earlier post that Robert and Jonathan Kraft feel rather personally upset at how relations with the Brady family have deteriorated. Also, I was overhearing that Fox Sports feel more at ease with having Greg Olsen do color commentary and appearances than they do with Tom Brady. So, I do not think the Fox contract is set in stone.
You know, it is a bit funny. When Tom Brady came into the game in 2000, he along with Robet Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli and Frank “Bucko” Kilroy had to deal with Drew Bledsoe in his “I am the team” phase. It resulted in a 5-11 season. Once Brady became the starter and Bledsoe was given the exit to another team, the Pats went on to win the Super Bowl. And never looked back. Now it seems that Mr. Brady during his Tampa Bay tenure has become the sort of “I am the team” ego that Drew Bledsoe was. Where I the Glazers, Jason Licht, Todd Bowles, Bruce Arians and Mike Evans; I would decide to start either Blaine Gabbert or Kyle Trask for the entirety of the season and release Tom Brady from his contract. That is what happened in 2001 in the Brady from Bledsoe transition. Inevitably either Trask or Gabbert will be starters. Now may very well be the time. Let me know what you think good or bad.
Lax39
With his mother’s well known health battles with cancer, could it be something related to that? Having lost a mother to cancer, these things can change rapidly.
Everyone who has seen the Patriots play last two seasons have seen that their win total has been HUGELY padded against the absolute bottom of the NFL…
Their ten wins in 2021were against teams with a combined .394 winning percentage..
And that’s including the ridiculous wind game vs the Bills and playing the Titans without Derrick Henry and A.J Borown..
It was about as soft a schedule as you could possibly have.
This is laughable.
This is a man realizing that his offensive line is in shambles and he really doesn’t want to run around on 45 year old legs.
——————————————————————————–
Let’s not pretend he can run.
It’s pretty clear he knows the Bucs are not a good team anymore and that’s why he wanted out in the first place. He came back thinking if they could keep most of their guys, maybe they could try one more time. Nope. Top it off with jensons injury, losing BOTH guards, and Gronk, Brady knows he’s going to get destroyed. Godwin won’t be nearly what he was for months, Julio is probably on the cusp of retirement, and Mike evans peaked already. Rudolph probably has little left. Defense is just kind of blah.
He is going to re-retire for this season, then explore options for next year to see if any team is built to win now. Watch for the Vikings, saints, dolphins.
Oh and by the way, Gronk probably “retired” because Brady told him to…for now
The answer is obvious. In a Fox cross promotion, he is The Masked Singer.
OL injuries
We’re reading too much into this. Say what you will about Brady, but it is obvious that as he has gotten older family has become his priority (good for him!). In all likelihood he’s just taking time off to spend with his family and kids before they head back to school. Time is our most valuable asset, and unlike most of us he can’t take a few days off at Thanksgiving or Christmas to spend with the kids and family. Does anyone truthfully believe taking a couple weeks off means he won’t be prepared for the season? Granted, 99.9% of players couldn’t get away with this, but he’s the most accomplished NFL player of all time playing with the house’s money at this point, and setting his own rules. There are plenty of reasons the Bucs won’t win the SB this year… but Brady taking a couple of weeks in the preseason to spend with his family won’t be one of them.
“We sitting in here–I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we talking about practice. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. We talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game. We talking about practice, man.”
Very good points.
11-5 with Cassel.
10-7 with rookie Mac Jones 21-12 is good. Nothing “mediocre” about it.
——————————
Way to pick and choose what’s convenient. A 63% winning percentage is mediocre compared to a 77% winning percentage with Brady.
And to clarify Cassel went 10-5
Despite being a great QB . He is never the greatest
+++++++++++++++++++++++
You can deny he is the greatest because he made Belichick, a garbage on offense and a below average coach, look like a genius.
Despite being a great QB .
—
Is he though? Seems to me more often than not he’s just a product of the team around him and can’t elevate a team to greatness. Even last season once the injuries hit it was all downhill from there. Needed a great defense in 2020 to win it all. Ditto in 2018.
Just like Alex Smith. Smith is great too when you put a great team around him. Look what he did to NE twice when he had Hill Hunt Kelce and J Charles
With Brady, Pats would still be a serious SB contender and Belichick the garbage would have had more money available to spend on defense.
Without Brady, there are already talks about job security of Belichick the garbage.
Funny, Belichick believers still talk about Belichick’s “greatness” and how he made Brady.
tb12gronk87 says:
August 19, 2022 at 9:45 am
11-5 with Cassel.
10-7 with rookie Mac Jones 21-12 is good. Nothing “mediocre” about it.
——————————
Way to pick and choose what’s convenient. A 63% winning percentage is mediocre compared to a 77% winning percentage with Brady.
And to clarify Cassel went 10-5
—–
No 11-5 is correct.
GoodellMustGo says:
August 19, 2022 at 1:52 pm
tb12gronk87 says:
August 19, 2022 at 9:45 am
11-5 with Cassel.
10-7 with rookie Mac Jones 21-12 is good. Nothing “mediocre” about it.
——————————
Way to pick and choose what’s convenient. A 63% winning percentage is mediocre compared to a 77% winning percentage with Brady.
And to clarify Cassel went 10-5
—–
No 11-5 is correct.
——
Did a little research and I stand corrected. Brady didn’t play even half the first quarter and I was sure you need to play a minimum number of snaps to win kind of like baseball..but it seems QB’s get a “win” in the league if you start and play even just one snap and your team wins, which they did.
Which is one of many reasons why QB wins and losses are as pointless a stat as there is in sports. Wins and losses are a team stat.
Rex Ryan took Jets to AFCCG, twice, with Rookie Mark Sanchez.
Rex Ryan >>>> Belichick.
Belicheck is a disgraced cheater coach who is nothing without Brady and an absolutely terrible GM. His hand picked roster is a joke with no blue chip players or even difference makers, and he’ll never coach a relevant team again since all he ever did was ride Brady’s back and cheat. Not to mention the owner is a deranged predator far worse than Watson. Brady was obviously right to dump this joke of a franchise.
Brady doubters always make me laugh. Yes, he’ll retire soon, but the odds are better for another deep playoff run. BTW, Belicheck’s NFL record over 7 or 8:seasons as a HC without Brady is under .500. Chew on that.
Great
Brady is a drama king. Always looking for media attention. Who really cares what he does.
He’s gonna divorce Gisele, get a bunch of money in the settlement and buy a share of the dolphins.
I have no sources and made this up on the fly.
ohh really
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
