It has been a preseason of mystery surrounding Tom Brady, who was absent from Tampa Bay Buccaneers camp for 11 days for “personal reasons” which led to a number of rumors and theories on why he was away.
Well, on Saturday, the 45-year-old quarterback was finally able to address questions on the matter after he played a series in the Bucs final preseason game, but remained vague on the reason behind his absence.
“It’s all personal,” Brady said. “Everyone’s got different situations they’re dealing with. We all have really unique challenges to our life. I’m 45 years old, man. There’s a lot of s—t going on. Just gotta try to figure out life the best you can. It’s a continuous process.”
The Bucs have maintained they were well aware that Brady would miss time in August and neither the team nor the quarterback seems worried about how the time off may impact him on the field.
“I’m ready to go,” Brady said. “I think since I came to his organization, it’s been amazing — it’s just been an amazing experience for me to come tot his place and be as supported as I have for a long period of time. I read all these stories about all these different places I was supposed to go or could have gone. And I was like, ‘I only was gonna go to one place, which was here.’ I think this whole organization knows that.”
The latter part of that statement appears to be a response to several different stories that have emerged in the past months linking Brady to other teams.
Most notably, the Miami Dolphins reportedly were trying to bring in Brady and head coach Sean Payton as a package deal and the team had even contacted the quarterback in December 2021, per an NFL investigation into Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.
Last week, UFC president Dana White also said that he was trying to get Brady to join the Las Vegas Raiders when he originally became a free agent in 2020 until Jon Gruden nixed the deal.
But Brady maintains that the Bucs were always the right fit.
“All the conversations we’ve had over a period of time — I chose the right place for me,” he said. “And I’m very proud of the effort that everyone’s put in to make the relationship work.”
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