Last week, the NFL world got very concerned when Tom Brady took what appeared to be an unexpected absence from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as he dealt with “some personal things.”
“Tom has been excused today. He’ll be back sometime around after Tennesse,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said last Thursday according to Greg Auman from The Athletic. “He’s going to deal with some personal things. This is something we talked about before training camp started. We allotted this time because he wanted to get in and get chemistry with the guys and go through two weeks of training camp knowing he wasn’t going to play the first two games. … This is something he can handle. We trust him. We talked about it. It was scheduled way before training camp.”
Since then there’s been a lot of speculation about why the seven-time Super Bowl champion needed to leave preseason camp, with some pointing out that he “looked miserable” in training camp while others started making assumptions about how his family played into it.
Monday, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer provided an update.
“I’d say the Bucs probably should’ve gotten in front of this one a little better than they did—but as far as I can tell, his 10-day absence from camp was indeed preplanned and cleared, and Brady’s family is fine (i.e., it’s not an emergency),” wrote King. “And so when you think about this one, it’s hard not to consider how aggressive teams have gotten about giving veterans days off.”
While it’s possible that there could be more to the story, it does sound like Brady’s absence was scheduled beforehand and could end up paying off for the 45-year-old as he needs to conserve all the energy and health he can in order to keep Tampa competitive this season.
[SI.com]
