Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady made a bit of a stir by missing practice on Friday for personal reasons. The stir can officially end. Brady is back.
Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times has posted video evidence of Brady at practice.
Brady had missed two practices, and he hadn’t been on the field since news emerged of the fact that the Dolphins tampered with him extensively, from 2019 through 2022. Brady has yet to conduct a press conference since the NFL announced its findings, so he hasn’t been asked about the issue.
Wild guess -- the questions he gets from the media covering the Bucs will be far different in tone and content than the questions he’d currently endure from the Boston media.
Although Brady did nothing wrong (per the rules) by being tampered with, the timing and extent of the discussions go far beyond simply taking a phone call and politely declining to pursue the possibility. He and Dolphins vice chair Bruce Beal, a close friend, had numerous communications about the possibility of Brady playing for the Dolphins while Brady was playing for the Patriots and Buccaneers.
Brady has every right to do that. But it’s hard to fully embrace the notion that Tom is all about team when Tom is really all about Tom. He wants to pick his next place to play with the primary goal in mind of whether that organization will help him fulfill his goal of winning not just another Super Bowl but, ideally, all of them.
Once he’s on a team, he’s all about team. Because he needs to be all about team in order to get the thing that Tom is all about.
His favorite Super Bowl ring. Also known as, the next one.