Going against every bone in his body, New England head coach Bill Belichick has decided not to play Tom Brady during the Patriots bye week this coming weekend. It was not known if the sitting was due to Tom’s sore right shoulder – his throwing shoulder – or not, but that is the general consensus around the Boston area by many who have seen Brady out in recent days.
“He usually hefts his pints with that there right arm right there,” said one patron at a bar Brady is known to visit on occasion, pointing to his own right arm with his left hand, “but these past few days here he was liftin’ ‘em with that other arm he has, for sure. Wasn’t he?” The other patrons nodded, and that was enough for this reporter.
“One more thing, there,” the patron grabbed my arm.
“Yes?”
“He was only wearing two of his three Super Bowl rings, too.”
“Oh? Is that unusual,” I asked.
“For sure, in fact I told him about this cop friend of mine who runs a site where you report thievery and they will get your stolen goods back, but he said Gisele had the other one. I don’t believe him, though. I think if it ain’t stolen, it is because his arm is too sore for all three of the things. He’s just too weak for all that blingie-bling. Too sore.”
“Makes sense to me,” I said, knowing my hands and arms would be too sore to do much if I had that broad around, too. I wandered back out onto the streets, hoping to get to Belichick’s press conference in time to hear how in God’s name he could go on without making Brady play a game this week.
It had to be the shoulder. 70 weeks on the injury report? How could it not be, and what a man for dealing with that kind of pain for almost a year and a half without even missing one start.
Hours later, after the conference – where Bill told the world that yes, indeed, Tom was out this bye week with a shoulder injury – I had a few minutes alone with the distraught head coach and was able to get a bit more out of him than he usually says to the press. I had to feel for the guy, though, and I can’t say everything he said here because it just wouldn’t be right…and I don’t want to upset the master.
What I can tell you is that he is bound and determined to find a way around this whole ‘bye week’ thing next year, so there will be no excuses. And he can’t understand how the NFL, “those football experts,” he nearly spat the words, could force a whole team to take any time off to rest. It just goes against his nature, like I said before.
I was not sure how to offer him solace at first, and even at second and third. So, I let this man dwell on his thoughts alone. The last words I heard from him as I walked down the hallway to leave were, “Next year, you mark my words, I will have Brady playing all 17 weeks of the season.”
I believe him, too.
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