Tom Brady is so wired to promote healthy lifestyles and the importance of proper rest that one would assume he'd immediately scoff at what a few Giants players did during their off-day last week.
Odell Beckham Jr. and a handful of his teammates traveled to South Florida to party with Justin Bieber soon after their regular-season-finale win over the Redskins. A picture of the pals in jeans and boots on a yacht emerged on social media to commemorate the trip, providing the New York media all the ammunition they would need if the Giants didn't play well.
The Giants didn't play well, falling to the Packers in Green Bay, 38-13. Now players -- and Beckham in particular, who caught four passes for 28 yards and had multiple drops in the loss -- are catching heat.
When Brady was asked about it during his weekly interview with WEEI's Kirk and Callahan Show on Monday, he didn't do much in the way of finger-wagging. Rather he admitted he had made some poor decisions leading up to games when he was younger.
"It's a tricky situation," Brady said. "Players are off. Everyone decides what they want to do in their off time. When I was young, I did a lot of things when I look back I probably wish I wouldn't have done -- flying across country and things like that. It just wasn't publicized."
Brady added: "I was from California so when I had off time that's where I went. Looking back, there was one time I was actually injured pretty good, and I decided to do it, and I landed, and then I stayed overnight, and then I realized I better fly back. I flew back the next morning because it wasn't a very smart decsion.
"You're younger, you don't have all the experience that you have. I'm at a point where doing this as long as I have, I cherish the opportunity that I have, and I'm putting everything into it. I'll have time at the end of the year to do things I need to do. But right now I have to focus on what my job is, and that's to put everything I can into this week."
New England Patriots
Brady pointed out that there are plenty of teams that have their own way of approaching their work leading up to a playoff game. The Patriots, for instance, practiced twice -- including once in full pads. The Chiefs, on the other hand, got a week off.
"Every team has a different personality," Brady said. "Obviously when you win, it takes care of all those things. It sucks when you lose."
Brady's been there, and he knows what it's like. The only thing that might make it suck even more would be leaving a loss knowing he let his team and his family down because he didn't put everything into his preparation.
"There's a lot of people, like our coaches, our families, that have put off a lot of things for all of us to get to this point," he said. "There's a lot of support that you need to play this many weeks of football. You want to go out and play your best. I think our team is focused on playing its best. We're in there today ready to go, ready to work . . . Hopefully it all pays off."