AUGUST 22: The drama surrounding Brady, on this front at least, appears over. Tampa Bay’s starting quarterback has returned to practice, staying on Bowles’ initial timetable.
AUGUST 21: Brady is expected to be back early this week, with Rapoport tweeting that Monday is his expected day to return to practice. Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson details that Brady was with family during his absence, and that no health concerns are at play.
AUGUST 19: Bowles struck a different tone on Friday when speaking on the subject, saying (via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times) that he knows “exactly when Tom is coming back,” though he again did not name an exact date. He added that the vagueness in his remarks is due to the fact that “something unforeseen” could lead to a delay in Brady’s return, but insisted once more that “I’m not worried, so I don’t know why anyone else would be worried.”
AUGUST 18: When Todd Bowles announced Tom Brady was making an unusual mid-training camp exit, which took place Aug. 11, the new Buccaneers HC said he and the future Hall of Fame quarterback had discussed this matter prior to camp. That said, a Brady return date remains elusive.
Bowles said Thursday he does not know when exactly the recently unretired passer will return to the Bucs, via Greg Auman of The Athletic (on Twitter). The plan remains for Brady to return after the Bucs’ second preseason game — against the Titans on Saturday — though the timetable being foggy represents a new wrinkle here. Tampa Bay wraps its preseason slate Aug. 27.
“We’ll see. We’ll talk about it next week. I’m not concerned about it right now,” Bowles said of Brady’s status. “We’re trying to practice against Tennessee and play a game. I said sometime after Tennessee. There’s no definitive date for me. We’ll keep in touch and find out.”
Brady, 45, is believed to be attending to personal matters, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes (video link). The 23rd-year QB is in his third year in this Tampa Bay offense, which retained its play-caller (OC Byron Leftwich) despite Bruce Arians‘ surprise late-March retirement, and was not ticketed to play in the Bucs’ first two preseason games. The timing of this departure still qualifies this situation as one of the odder camp developments regarding a star player in recent memory. Brady has also not been available for questioning since the Dolphins’ tampering punishment — for speaking to Brady during his time with the Patriots and Bucs — surfaced.
The Bucs’ offseason shifted considerably on two Brady decisions — his February retirement and pre-free agency unretirement — with the team going from potentially retooling to making another run at a Super Bowl. Brady agreed to an offseason restructure as well, helping the Bucs create cap space to add more talent for 2022.
Set to be the oldest starting QB in NFL history, Brady is attached to just a $1.12MM base salary. His two Bucs contracts, however, have fully guaranteed him $75MM. Brady’s void years would begin to hit the Bucs in 2023, which features a $35MM-plus dead-money charge unless the parties agree to another extension before the ’23 league year begins. For now, however, the team remains in a clear contention window — whenever its starting quarterback returns.
Lurch will show when Gisele says he can.
Won’t return until he can pass the PED test.
You read my mind – the dude was planning on retiring and thus he probably didn’t bother getting juiced up for the season.
Is there any way this can be a positive. Hope everything is okay with he and his family.
Maybe the league protecting him. This may be a suspension for his part in the tampering. It takes two. He accepted Ross’s calls
You read my mind. Furthermore, he and Sean Payton retired/quit around the same time. Late Jan/early Feb. Coincidental? Hmm.
IMHO, Brady never wanted to quit. But on the legal advice from probably the league in regards to the Miami situation, both he and Sean got out? Determined to continue to play, maybe he got a 2nd opinion? And that legal entity saw a way for him to keep playing … so he “unretired”?. What’s happening now is all parties involved are huddling to make sure they all have the same story if and when this issue should resurface? Maybe?
Since he unretired after Arians moved upstairs that could have been part of the negotiations for him to return. Not sure why they would suspend him from training camp. I am sure he knows the plays and most WRs.
I think the best one I heard was the Masked Singer. They are just finishing up the recorded shows from what I understand. I don’t watch the show but figure like most have part taped then the viewers get involved it is live. Would have to figure wasn’t good enough to make it that far.
Not sure why people are getting worked up. They say will be back and they are fine they it. Could be lies and he knew they were doing urine tests the next day. He went home then flew to Aruba to flush his system. I don’t believe it but is funny anyway.
Arians moved upstairs after Brady unretired
@compassrose, great stuff. Love, masked singer theory. Hoping it is the case. Wish no I’ll will towards Brady, Miami, Peyton and anyone else caught up in this situation.
That said, in regards to what @no politics said, he is correct. To me, this further questions the depth and width of “the net” cast over the league here.
Brady, Peyton and Arians. All 3 fierce competitors thus winners. All 3 have a desire to stay in the game. I hope Bruce is not caught up in this, but the timing of his move is intriguing. Back in January, Peyton makes his decision how to stay involved in the league. Mid March Brady unretires. Two weeks later Bruce the “risk taker” Arians takes a non employee consulting job to keep relevant.
Someone should write a book about this. I’d buy it. Maybe entitle it “All the QBs Men”. And instead of naming the main informant “Deep Throat”, maybe the author has a connection with a “Deep Route” person.
All said, Tom is terrific in my book. Again, digging the masked singer angle. Cheers!
Tom is terrific? As a football player definitely. As for the other stuff? No. You don’t need a road map to know what happened. He retired. Payton retired. Both wanted to go to Miami. Flores kinda put a stop to this and Arians was on record saying that they weren’t gonna trade Brady’s rights to anyone. Brady had no choice but to play for the Bucs. He met with Glazier the day before he announced he was coming back. A couple of weeks later, Arians moved upstairs.
@No politics,
great intel on the Arians part of this. Thank you.
In regards to Tom being terrific, I hear ya! I’m referring to his between the lines activity. Love his win at all costs mentality and I’m a Ravens fan. Quite naturally I was steamed during “deflate gate”. But not at Tom or even the Patriots. Steamed because they found a way to beat us.
Cynical me, but all teams in all professional sports, including my Ravens and Orioles, are looking for an edge and at risk of getting caught when doing something outside the rulebook. Pretty sure this will always be a part of pro sports.
He came out and said his wife was unhappy with their marriage. Apparently he’s working on that. Not much family time during an NFL season. She probably isn’t happy he decided to unretire.
out getting massages from watson
sources….not much time…lol that’s funny u are home 5 days a week for away games and 7 days a week for home games.
Thanks for the laugh.
Being home and being attentive are not the same thing. Brady probably spends every second d of everyday studying, preparing, training, recovering. Playing at that level isn’t something you just roll out of bed on Sunday and do.
Source is Brady himself. Interview with Howard Stern. Google is an amazing thing and not hard to use bro
I hardly doubt that Brady who never says anything about football is going to be so forthcoming about his marriage to Stern
He actually did say it.
He also said that 90% of what comes out of his mouth is not true, so there’s that.
Please provide the link, unfortunately I am unable to locate the interview. The only Tom Brady interview with Howard Stern that I am able to find is from April 2000, when he was still renting from Derek Jetter in Tampa.
His witchy wife needs to put him under a spell. The guy has a supernatural force guiding him. The GOAT worship in Tampa is near an end
Your team can’t beat him so you attack his family ? Wow what a pile of trash you are
He’s 45 and doesn’t wanna waste time with meaningless preseason games
You know, out of all the speculation-laden replies, this is probably the most accurate reason
Someone commented that he was away on a honeymoon with Gronk. That made me laugh.
I’d be surprised if Brady makes the SB this year.
This mans career is older than me… go away bro!
LMAO
I actually feel sorry that you never got to experience real football. You know when the defense could hit and Barry Sanders made Thanksgiving an actual argument over having the game on. On Sunday players became a walking legend and not because of twitter, they would get whacked so hard the entire country would exhale at the same time “Oh F@(K”.
Aaron Rodgers becomes the MVP for taking some form of acid while Brett Favre was 3X MVP because he would dip the ball in $h!t and shove it in Warren Sapps face.
Rodgers was MVP because he was…well, MVP. Rodgers did play in the tail end of the “real football” era, before the already softened rules passed being about player safety and started being more about straight up offense.
There’s of course no exact date on that, but in my mind that started in the early to mid 2010s or so. A lot of rules were changed which were probably necessary-targeting stuff mostly-but nowadays the objective seems to pretty much just be about scoring at the cost of any ability to play physical football. Just my opinion.
As for Brady, well, he and Rodgers and I suppose Matt Ryan are likely the only players left who were active in that era. Brady did get a lot more benefit from it from most others-the Tuck Rule interpretation being most famous-and playing for a team in New England that knew how to manipulate the rules better than anyone. He played in a harsher era than most of the starters today, but he and his team used those rules to their advantage, so I don’t think that it was as strenuous for them as it was for most others. It was smart to do so, of course.
Yeah, we can all tell.
Whatever is happening I think if you’re a Bucs fan. You better be concerned this is unusual. At 45 especially. Now that the Watson case is settled is there something lingering that the NFL has quietly been investigating. I think he falls in the “do not draft list” at the very least
Lol oh my lord.
His mom has cancer or something I heard. People are going to feel terrible if they find out it’s terminal or something.
Unfortunately I don’t think people would actually feel bad about it anymore.
Bridget Moynahan is still waiting on that as well.
“I’m not worried, so I don’t know why anyone else would be worried.”
Because coaches are rarely transparent, especially in situations like this.
He is in masked singer. Very dumb hypothesis
Brady dancing with the stars?
This is only the second biggest headache for the Glazer family this month. The bigger headache is Manchester United and the way the Glazers have let that famous club rot so much that fans are in open revolt.
He is on the Masked Singer which is being taped as we speak. If he wins his round, he would have to do another taping at the end of the month.
This has everything to do with Tom’s FOX contract that he signed before he got back to the Buccaneers.
There is no drama, illnesses, injuries, or anything that will keep him out of the season opener.
He’s a spoiled prima donna.
Could he be concerned about the bucs o line and possible lack of protection? Lots injuries
“We sitting in here …
I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talking about practice.
I mean, listen, we talking about practice. Not a game.
Not a game.
Not a game.
We talking about practice. Not a game.
Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last.
Not the game.
We talking about practice, man.”
Maybe he’s coming back now he’s done with the Masked Singer
Masked Singer
No one’s fooled. Fox needs to get their moneys worth
What if he’s just sitting in a dark room somewhere with 3 2L of Mountain Dew, 2 large pizzas, a bowl of nachos and a box of Lucky Charms playing the early release of Madden? I mean it is the only way he’s going to win the SB this year…
Still confused why he left for a vacation when he’s had February – June off.