Tom Brady is currently on leave from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for what the team has called “personal reasons.” Reports suggest the 45-year-old Brady is looking to find a work/life balance.
“It was planned. No one is worried. He’s fine. It’s not, to my knowledge, a medical emergency for him or anyone close to him. I was told everything is OK,” NFL Rapoport said on the Pat McAfee Show. “The best description I got for this is that it is important to find a work/life balance. Brady has been doing this for 23 years. He knows the scheme as well as anyone. He wasn’t gonna play in those two (preseason) games anyway, so he steps aside to do some actual personal things, family things.”
Brady is a noted family man but his absence comes at an interesting time. Not only is he a sidebar to the Miami Dolphins’ tampering scandal, but Boston Globe reporter Ben Volin suggests Brady has looked “miserable” at Bucs camp this summer.
“I do wonder where his head is at right now,” Volin said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “He was so good at 44, there is no doubt in our minds that if Brady is fully committed he can have a terrific season at 45, but there are definitely signs that his head is not fully into it. I try not to be the body language police, but I was at Bucs practice yesterday and he looked miserable.
“I don’t think he loves the humidity in Tampa; it is very swampy out here every morning. His buddy Gronk has retired, that’s his running mate, that’s his guy, and now he looks all over the field and he’s throwing to Kyle Rudolph, Chris Godwin is banged up and we’re not sure when he’s going to be himself again. Brady’s center [Ryan Jensen] goes down. There are just a lot of things going on with the team, and we also know playing with the Bucs was not his number one wish this year.”
Volin notes, as we all now know, that if Brady had gotten his way, he’d currently be a member of the Dolphins.
“If he got his way he would be running the Dolphins, and the only reason he went back the Bucs was because he really had no other options,” Volin added. “He had an excused absence last week around his birthday and the local reporters down here were holding their breath, they thought this was it and that Tom Brady had had a change of heart, and that he was going to retire.
“Now Todd Bowles announces that Tom Brady was not at practice, and he’s gone through next week, through the second preseason game, and gone another 10 days, so I definitely question where his head is at. It might be related to a health thing, whether it’s related to his parents or a family member — if that’s the case then certainly it’s going to be a distraction also, so it does seem like Brady is not 100% focused on football.”
The interpretation of Brady’s body language aside, it’s clear to even an outside observer that the seven-time Super Bowl champions has some reservations about playing this season. He announced his retirement in February only to walk that back a few months later. Now he’s suddenly taking a random personal leave in the middle of training camp.
The Bucs have to be concerned that Brady may ultimately decide not to return.
