Are there any other
hiatuses that we need to know about? Are you going to take
off a couple of weeks in October
and they're gonna let Kyle Trask or
or
who's the guy? Blaine? Gabbert. Sorry, Blaine. Sorry, I forgot
your name. Blaine Gabbert Kyle Trask. Somebody else play
quarterback, who knows? And obviously, they're not going to
tell us until it happens.
That's, that's one of the problems with not getting it
out in front of something creates a precedent that
they're not going to tell. Us until it happens. So
who knows there is one
small chance and I'm not
putting a whole lot of stock into this other than
the equivocation from Todd Bowles.
I think back to when Lawrence Taylor finally decided that he
was done. Lawrence Taylor shows up for training camp and he's
like man. All these other guys are faster.
All those are the guys are stronger.
These young guys.
Wow, and Bill Parcells told him and I'm paraphrasing and may be
missing some steps, but basically Parcells told him, it
means you're, you know, you're
You getting old,
it's not there any faster than they've ever been, it's your
slower. And I've,
I've been saying for years now,
six years. I think, and one of these days, it's going to come
true, father times going to win. And when Father Time wins,
he's got no timetable for when he's going to win,
there's seven months in a year where there's football activity,
he could win in August,
he could win in September,
he could win in December,
but there's going to be a moment.
Aunt, where
Tom Brady says?
All right, I just can't do this anymore. Now I don't think
that's happened but when when you've got this kind of weird
response from Todd balls instead of how he has, he's
going to be back. That's not a question. He'll be back.
He'll be ready. He's all in
he's as good as ever
when you don't get that kind of response.
It invites at least well I don't know, I don't know.
You know we're in such unprecedented territory with
a player. Like Tom Brady we have no idea what it's going to look
like, what it's going to feel like what it's going to
sound like when he finally lands the plane,
Yeah, and he looks so good in the
joint, practice with the dolphins, by all accounts. Like
he looked like Tom Brady. So, you know, I don't think there's
an injury or anything there. You think back to Andrew Lock
walking away, right? Before the season began and that had to do
with an injury situation. So
I'm with you, I don't see that but at the same time Mike he's
always been about being a leader in other players
following him and
to me, When you step away from the team and I by all accounts,
they don't know the rest of the players don't know what's going
on.
So you know you're telling your other players and he's going to
come back and we know how hard Tom Brady is on the other
players.
Oh, by the way, I've been gone for ten days but don't worry
about that. I'm glad you guys were here working together and
getting ready for the season, so I could step right in and
play. Now, I understand he's played 23 years. He's earned
some of that credibility, he's the Goat. I get all that but
when you're a leader
and you ask guys to do a certain thing,
he's always been the guy who's done even more than the rest of
the team, and this doesn't feel like that to me. So there's
definitely something going on here. That's just extremely
weird.
It's out of anything he's ever done in the past,
he even played Mike. If you go back and look, I went back and
look, he even played in the first preseason game last year.
Now, I didn't play much, I think you played six snaps and
that first preseason The game and then set out the second
preseason game,
but he's always been a guy who's wanted to play, who's
wanted to get those snaps, who's wanted to be there in
practice. He organized the offseason activities even when
they weren't supposed to during covid, like he's always wanted
to work. This is just, it's weird. It's just really, really
weird.
And two years ago, he fought through a torn MCL for
the entire season. So the injury Factor
was very real then and we never heard anything about it. My
Point is if there is something going on, he's not going to
wear it on his sleeve. And from the player's perspective to
the extent that any of them are aware of the media reports. And
the NFL's findings about the tampering and have connected
the
dots and have asked themselves to this guy really want to be
here, it is strange that a week and a half later he's gone
while the rest of them are there.
This is the fundamental human problem. And again maybe Tom
Brady is so good. So accomplished so skilled at
enter Personal relations with teammates that he can get past
this without it being a problem.
But,
There is a level of resentment that Creeps in the rest of them
are there busting their asses either trying to
win jobs or
Advance their position on the depth chart or just get better
at what they do
and Tom Brady's just gone. We're all here at training
camp. We're bonding it's camaraderie. It's a shared
effort. Everyone is pulling an oar
and where's Tom?
90 guys in Camp,
there's going to be some of those guys
that don't react well to this with 90 people.
You can have some in like, it's no problem. Tom, Brady can do
what you want, but you have some, you can be saying what
this is. This is,
this is messed up.
We're here busting, our asses where sweat and we're hot.
We're out here and he just takes off for 10 days and
nobody knows where he's going or what's going on. And you
know my thought is that
if the players had known about this in advance
Maybe they run such a tight ship down there that no one
would have said a word about it. I'd like to think somebody
would have known something about and somebody would have
leaked it inadvertently or deliberately but
it's just a strange situation.
It's unprecedented
because everything about Tom Brady at this point necessarily is
unprecedented But to answer the questions that were posed to me
on social media yesterday, as we were posting stories about
this. We cover the NFL, so we necessarily
care. Does it affect us? You
know, does it land on a radar screen is something out of
the ordinary that requires discussion and an attempt to
understand and explain how? Yes,
because this is never happened, I can't think
Shireen of a single player. And all the years that I've been
covering the NFL and all the years I've been following it,
I can't remember a time where
any player just
just left for a week and a half during training camp with no
clear explanation as to where he was going or why.
That's a great Point, Mike, the only time you see that as for
an injury, if a guy's going to have a second opinion or work
somewhere else. Yeah, it's and that's what makes it even
weirder is because there is no injury associated with this.
He's just left for whatever reason, for personal
reasons, whatever that entails. So
I think Mike if they had handled this better, if they'd
gotten out in front and I'm curious what they told the team
and I would like to know that exactly what players are told
about.
Tom Brady's ABS it's because you can't just ignore it. You
can't just say,
you know, oh look in the locker room. His he's not there, he's
not out at practice and have players wonder where is he? So
I am curious exactly what they told the players and I suspect.
They've told him the same thing that they've told us. It's
personal reasons, he'll be back,
take care of yourself and let's move on. This is like an injury
or anything else. He's just not going to be here for for a few
days. But the fact that it's 10 days to Mike is just if
It had been. All right, he'll be back Monday. Maybe that's
a little less speculation, but the fact that it's 10 days,
that's a long time to be away from a team
and
what's the buzz word? That we hear all the time from coaches,
the thing they hate more than anything else.
Distraction. And this creates a distraction for the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers,
they
if my theory / hypothesis is accurate, that he bargained for
this back in March, they've already signed that check.
Other just honoring it.
But regardless, this is something
that as a team transitions from Bruce, Arians to Todd Bowles
and they're trying to get themselves ready, this is just
something and maybe the reason they didn't say anything about
it. They wanted to minimize the distraction. That's where
the miscalculate
because when you throw on top of it,
a mystery that you created inadvertently, presumably
that enhances the distraction especially if the players
didn't know about it
in advance, just a weird situation. Action
all around. And I think it's going to be
the first of plenty of weird situations. As Tom, Brady,
embarks on,
what could be his last year
in the NFL, definitely his last year with the Buccaneers. I'll
be Beyond stunned if he's back in 2023 and Tampa Bay
but I know some of the reaction I'm getting to what's going on
now. It's just making people think even more strongly,
Shereen that he's going to be
in the fox booth next year.
There won't be.
20:23 with another team in an effort to win a Super Bowl with
a third different franchise that this is going to be it
for, Tom Brady.
It sure feels like that Mike. I mean, you know. And he said
that in his retirement announcement, he talked about
the commitment that you have to have
to football and this just doesn't feel like that
commitment that he talked about and that retirement speech to
competitive commitment is what he called it and this doesn't
feel like that and it does feel like that maybe this is his
last season,
maybe he won't be with the end. I always thought that he would
play another year with somebody else to have another chance to
win.
Super Bowl with a third team but now I'm not so sure about
that. Just just, this does give you pause about what his future
entails but we'll see when if when he comes back and if when
he plays well then
maybe he thinks he has another season in him and maybe he gets
this same agreement from somebody else may, he skips all
a training camp and shows up for the first season first
game. But you think about all the new parts that they have
my, Chris Godwin just came back to practice. But you think
about Kyle
Rudolph and Julio Jones?
Jones and all that. And he's always been this guy who's
wanted to work with her. His receivers has he got enough
time to do that? Will he have enough when he comes back?
Yes, he probably will, because he is the goat, but I just know
how he's operating the past and how much he's liked practice in
to be with those guys and to figure out what they do. Well,
and how far he needs to throw the ball. Those
things just that timing you have with receivers and
this is just 10 days missed with those guys that
Not going to have and not going to be there.
A lot of questions in Florida if only, we had a confidential
informant to help clear them up. I'm still talking about
Tom. Brady, by the way, nothing else that's going on
in Florida. Currently, by the way, the Dolphins do I think is
slammed shut for Brady 423 beyond the tampering ugliness.
Yeah, there's reporting. And I believe the reporting is
accurate that Bruce BL is on the outs with Stephen Ross.
He's not going to be
the next majority owner, the team
and regardless of whether it relates to the tampering in
the tank and your An else. It looks like it's on the path to being
over and done. And Beal was the attraction Beal. And Brady are
buddies.
And if BL is no longer, the next owner of the Dolphins,
I don't think Brady ends up with a piece of the team.
I don't think Brady ends up on the team, unless the attraction
is so overwhelming. After this year, if two ends up failing
the rest of the team is great,
maybe maybe. So, because
at the end of the day, he's only going to play for another.
Team. If he thinks he can go there
and win a Super Bowl. Yes, he's all timidly. All about team,
except when he's taken attend a break, but he's all about Tom
winning the next Super Bowl. That's what he wants to do. And
how for all we know, he's going to win number eight, this year
in Tampa,