When he was promoting his “Tom vs. Time” documentary, filmmaker Gotham Chopra had plenty to say.
Now that there’s a fresh “report” saying definitively that Tom Brady either is or isn’t playing in 2018, not so much.
Chopra offered up his non-update via Twitter, and frankly that’s probably appropriate for something that may or may not be a story.
For the record: no comment 🤐
— Gotham Chopra (@gothamchopra) April 18, 2018
Chopra has been more effusive in the past.
In a podcast with Peter King of SI.com, he elaborated on the final scene of the documentary, in which Brady spoke about his commitment to another long football season after a difficult Super Bowl loss.
“This idea that he’s going to play for four or five more seasons, . . . I mean, this is just me, the guy who’s been around him for a while now. I just have a hard time envisioning that,” Chopra said. “But we’ll see. I do think that these next few weeks and months are a critical time for him.”
He also hinted at months of reports of friction in the Patriots organization, doing nothing to refute the idea that the tension between Brady and coach Bill Belichick (perhaps stemming from his work with trainer Alex Guerrero) is real.
“I mean, it’s an 18-year marriage, and it’s been an incredibly successful run,” Chopra said. “But there’s a lot of intensity and a lot of pressure, and a lot of big personalities. And Tom is one of them. That hasn’t been easy, and I find it interesting that by the end of the season, that all kind of faded away, because when you get to the end of the season, no matter what is going on, everyone sort of gets on the same page and focuses. . . .
“Again, they had another incredible run. And that’s what [Brady] says at the end is like, this is a very different offseason for him. It’s the fact that he’s got three growing kids, a wife who’s like, ‘You know, I’ve kind of been putting stuff on hold for a while, and I wanna go out and do my thing now too.’ And so Tom’s juggling a lot of things, and I think that’s basically what he says at the end: ‘I gotta recalibrate. I have to find that conviction again’.”
Chopra did say he thought Brady would continue to play, but it’s clear that the combination of age, family pressures, and a long run in a highly stressful environment has led us to the point where nothing is automatic.
So until someone else actually says something, we’ll have to wait for the next version of will-he-or-won’t-he.
