Until Tom Brady either shows up to a team-organized workout or publicly commits to playing in 2018, speculation will continue swirling that he is contemplating his football future. The latest report won’t help.
Albert Breer of The MMQB was told that the uncertainty surrounding Brady is more than a “non-issue” for the team, but no one expects the 40-year-old quarterback to make a formal announcement if he’s going to keep playing. If Patriots fans want to be worried about something, it should be that Brady is reportedly focusing less on football this offseason than he has in recent years.
Second, from what I’ve heard, Brady has made an effort to unplug this offseason. That doesn’t mean he’s straying from his diet or his training, but the focus has been less on football than in the past. A smoking gun? The trip he made to Qatar, which was to benefit his charity, was planned well in advance, and the return flight was scheduled for, and went out Monday night. That was the first day of the team’s offseason program, and it’s fair to say that he probably wouldn’t have set his plans that way in the recent past (at least since he moved his home base from Los Angeles to suburban Boston), particularly considering the optics coming out of the tumultuous season the Patriots did. Also, he brought filmmaker Gotham Chopra, but not trainer Alex Guerrero on the trip, and focused his time there on his family.
It should be noted that a separate report on Wednesday claimed Brady has continued with his normal workout routine and never given teammates the impression that he won’t be back.
Even if Brady isn’t contemplating retirement this offseason, you can understand why the talk makes fans uneasy. After all, this is a guy who once spoke about how he wants to play into his mid-40s, and the Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo based on that. If nothing else, it sounds like things are already unfolding a little differently for Brady this offseason.
