The story surrounding the New England Patriots this week is more about who isn’t at organized team activities than who is taking part in the voluntary workouts, but Bill Belichick is not going to entertain questions about those who are absent.
Even if two of the missing players are his biggest stars.
During his press conference on Tuesday morning, Belichick was asked about Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski not attending OTAs. His response was extremely predictable.
Has Bill Belichick spoken to Tom Brady?
“Yeah, we’re not going to talk about the guys who aren’t here.” pic.twitter.com/LmaJWPfx1s
— Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis) May 22, 2018
Asked about his meeting with Rob Gronkowski, Belichick reiterated he was “focused” on the players that are here
— Karen Guregian (@kguregian) May 22, 2018
Belichick has never shown a willingness to speak about players who are injured or miss practices for other reasons, and you knew he wasn’t going to change his approach just because so much has been written about Brady and Gronkowski.
For what it’s worth, Brady and Gronk could have similar reasons for staying away from the team at the moment. Gronkowski reportedly wants more money, and the same could be said for Brady. There has also been talk about both players butting heads with Belichick over training and conditioning, so they could be sending a message. Either way, it would be much more concerning if either or both did not show up to mandatory minicamp next month.
