Over a year and a half after the supposed “Deflategate” incident occurred, Tom Brady is finally returning to the Patriots after he served his four-game suspension. While everyone presumably wants to know Brady felt about serving his suspension, the world may not find out for a little bit longer.
Every week during the NFL season, the New England Patriots’ quarterback speaks at a Wednesday-morning press conference. The October 5 press conference has been circled on a lot of calendars as Tom Brady’s first of the season. The only issue is, Brady won’t be speaking at said press conference.
According to Yahoo Sports, Tom Brady isn’t back on the roster yet. The league granted an exemption to New England that doesn’t require them to add Brady or Rob Ninkovich, who was also suspended, until Saturday. Because the Patriots are traveling to Cleveland on Saturday, Brady won’t have to speak at all before his first start of the season.
This tiny loophole in the rules is classic Bill Belichick, who once again proves worthy of “Best Coach of All-Time” consideration. Or certainly “Least Media-Friendly Coach of All-Time.” Instead of Brady speaking at the Wednesday press conference, a different high profile Patriot will instead.
Media note: Present plan is for Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski to take the place of the traditional QB news conference on Wednesday (11:45 a.m.)
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 4, 2016
Gronkowski is technically kind of the Patriots’ quarterback for at least one press conference? What will it take for him to play QB in a game?
At the end of the day, it’s not like Brady will be able to avoid the questions he would’ve had to answer Wednesday entirely. It’s pretty safe to assume during the next press conference he does attend, he will be asked about serving his suspension. Regardless, it’s impressive to see Belichick outsmart the NFL right after the ridiculous suspension handed down by them on his quarterback ended.
