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The sudden news that Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady will be gone for at least 10 days was apparently nothing new to the Buccaneers. The fact that the team kept it a secret until Brady had to leave camp for a week and a half has raised questions about whether the team should have handled it differently.
Many fans who do what fans do insist it’s not a problem. If the team doesn’t care, why should we or anyone else? Countering the tendency to say there is nothing to see here are the people whose job it is to see and write about everything.
Joey Knight, covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times, posed the question on Twitter: “If it’s been planned for a while, why didn’t they tell us that on day 1 of camp? (“Hey guys, just a heads up that Tom will miss some time during camp…”). That could so easily have dispelled the (legitimate) speculation that is now emerging.”
That’s the problem. The way in which it was dealt with arouses curiosity. Which leads to speculation. As the team explained, it could be anything from a planned family surgery to a vacation in the middle of camp.
Regardless, it’s unprecedented. (On the other hand, everything is unprecedented for 45-year-old Brady at this point.)
It also begs the question of whether his teammates knew he was leaving camp. Even if Brady is Brady, people will be people — and those who have to do the real work will feel a certain resentment toward anyone who doesn’t pull a rudder alongside everyone else.
It’s just weird. It is strange. When has this ever happened? And how can anyone say Brady is in with the Bucs when his absence is due to anything other than an absolutely unavoidable personal situation?
We don’t know what it is because nobody goes into detail about it. And that’s fair. It is Brady’s right to keep his personal affairs private. But it’s up to us, who follow the comings and goings of NFL players, to wonder if that’s affecting his professional status.