With Patriots quarterback Tom Brady excelling months after turning 40, the naysayers have begun to quietly say that there’s something more than avocado ice cream sustaining his Father Time-defying performance. Those whispers have culminated in a new report explaining that the team is ensuring that player supplements don’t run afoul of the rules.
Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston reports that the Patriots have no concern regarding Brady and recklessly-rumored PED use. Curran also explained that the Patriots recently began testing the supplements their players are taking in order to ensure that the compounds are clean.
Of course, this won’t stop those who insist on thinking that Brady’s ridiculously high level of play at his advanced age may be the product of scientific intervention that crosses the line into cheating. As Curran notes, Dan Le Batard of ESPN has become the most recent media figure to tiptoe with his two lips around the issue of PEDs.
Given the zeal with which the league pursued Brady over the issue of deflated balls, incorrectly attributing evidence of reduced PSI from a playoff game three years ago to foul play when the proof pointed to atmospheric causes, wouldn’t the league be pursuing Brady even more aggressively to prove that he’s using PEDs, if the league suspected that he was? Brady stuck his finger in the eye of the league office, fighting to prove his innocence and triggering an effort by the league to paint him as someone who essentially obstructed NFL justice. If the league had any plausible basis for exploring Brady, either through not-so-random random testing or a double-secret investigation of the TB12 Sports Therapy center, the league surely would proceed, aggressively.
There’s simply no evidence, and it’s irresponsible to suggest that anything other than hard work and a committed lifestyle is responsible for Brady’s longevity, in the absence of evidence. And if there ever is any evidence, the evidence will have circumvented efforts by the Patriots to ensure independently that no players are using supplements that would result in a violation of the strict-liability standard that results in a four-game suspension if/when a urine or blood sample contains evidence of a banned substance.