Dear Tom Brady, Cry me a river!

by John Kincade

Dear Tom Brady, Cry me a river!

184 days of vacation…consecutively. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t require anything of Tom Brady in the off-season, in fact he had already retired and un-retired. There’s more to the story than that, Brady had tried to force his way out of Tampa twice using subversive behind the scenes tactics. I know, he’s got all the power. He’s the goat. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve heard all the excuses about him earning this right. If you want to accept that as adequate leadership, go ahead. I won’t.

Twice in the past 2 weeks Brady has tried to explain why after 6 months of vacation, he required an 11 day absence from his teammates during their 3+ weeks of training camp. First it was that “I’m 45 years old, I’ve got a lot of SH## going on”. OK, it had me thinking that potentially there was an issue with his health so I wasn’t going to criticize it too much. Now he has changed that to “I’ve got a freshman in high school”.

Dear Tom, your adoring fans and those who just admire your considerable talents shouldn’t be able to relate to any of this messaging. You see, the fans get up to work every day. They also have 9th graders. They also are 45 years old and have a lot of SH## going on. They just don’t have the luxury of millions of dollars in the bank to do what they want. Your attempt to spin sympathy for your perceived plight should be met with rolling eyes. Give it a rest.

There is a difference between having the ability to do what you want to do and actually doing it. Many great athletes have had that clout in the past and decided not to use it. They obviously valued their teammates and responsibility more than more time off. They could have decided to be part time teammates, because they could, but almost all of them passed on that chance.

I’ve heard the excuse that “nobody in the Bucs locker room has a problem with it”. If you actually believe that you’re going to need to drop the Tom Brady Pom-Poms to educate me with what data you have to back that up. Truth is you don’t have any. I covered more than 20 NFL Training Camps and never have I heard a player say how much they loved it. Most saw it as a grind that had to be survived and that it was more for team building than anything else. A player passing on that opportunity isn’t all in.

I know that Brady is the greatest QB of all time. He wanted out of Tampa and failed to execute his palace coup. Now he was faced with returning and obviously didn’t have his heart in it. Could he be covering up something more dire that caused his actions? I certainly hope not. It sounds to me that being 45 his life has finally caught up with him. It’s understandable. That’s why people walk away from the sport earlier. They stay committed, until they aren’t. They remain focused teammates, until they aren’t. Then they go home to their families and lives, like most other 45 year old do.

The moral of the story, cry me a river. In any walk of life it’s great to have clout. It’s the truly great ones that go the extra mile and don’t feel the need to use it.