Tom Brady is one of the faces of the NFL and among the most accommodating players in the league when it comes to media requests, but that may be changing.
Brady put together a brilliant performance in the Patriots’ 28-21 season-opening victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. He went 25/32 for 288 yards and four touchdowns. Between that performance and his presence as a central storyline for the game because of the suspension/Deflategate matter, NBC of course wanted to interview him after the contest.
However, NBC’s Bob Costas informed viewers that Brady had declined an interview request. Instead, fans were treated to an interview with Rob Gronkowski, who caught three of Brady’s touchdown passes.
With this move, Brady is already making good on what he intimated in an interview this week with WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan.
“I think that’s a pretty natural feeling to have,” Brady said of wanting to do less media work. “I don’t know exactly how I’ll approach those things each week. A lot of it for me especially this offseason is to try and conserve my energy as best that I possibly can because you deal with things that are pretty mentally tiring. …
“It’s a long season anyway, but the more things that I do — non-Patriot related really to help other people out — you’re right, those things take away from the energy that I may have to do other things. I’ve always tried to fulfill different obligations for people and different times it’s hard to fulfill all of them. I get a lot of requests. Things that may be public or private and then I just try and make those decisions based on how the week is, but it’s hard to fulfill them all. We’ll see how that goes this year.”
Brady used to have a pristine image, but the Deflategate scandal certainly tarnished that. Turning down interviews probably won’t help change perception that he is a league outsider. Or maybe he’s just mad at the NFL over this.
