The quarterback attended the wedding of the owner of his former team. The coach of the team was a no-show.
One team won on Sunday in Cleveland, and the other team lost on Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick, appearing on WEEI radio, explained on Monday morning that he talked to team owner Robert Kraft about attending Kraft’s surprise wedding on Friday night, but that Belichick decided he had too much going on.
“Sorry I missed it,” Kraft said, via Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald. “I’m very happy for him.”
Kraft is surely happy Bill opted not to attend, if it meant ensuring that the Patriots would beat the Browns. On the flip side, the Buccaneers lost as 9.5-point favorites over the Steelers after quarterback Tom Brady left the team to attend the Friday night event. He then skipped a Saturday morning walk-through and meetings, before rejoining the team on Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles insisted that the absence of his all-in-except-when-he-isn’t quarterback didn’t contribute to the outcome. What else was Bowles going to say?
The bottom line is that, even though Bowles said Brady didn’t miss anything, Brady missed a Saturday morning walk-through and he missed Saturday morning meetings. Presumably, Bowles scheduled those activities because he believed they would help the team be best prepared to win. And Brady wasn’t there for them.
It’s not complicated. Brady said when he retired that he no longer could make the full commitment to football. Even though he later returned, he’s clearly not making the full commitment to football. He’s trying to find a both-ways sweet spot that isn’t working as well as it needs to work.
And while neither Bowles nor Brady’s teammates will ever say anything about it, consider the sights and sounds of Brady chewing out his offensive linemen during Sunday’s game. While the other players were sitting there and taking it, what were they thinking?
Here’s what I was thinking they may be thinking: It takes some nerve for a guy who checked out for part of the preparation for the game to be complaining about how the guys who didn’t check out are performing during the game.
Is it fair to think that? Yes. Because pro football isn’t a part-time endeavor. Brady has said before that, in order to beat him, you have to surrender your life to the sport. As we’re finding out, it’s a lot easier to beat him if/when he no longer is.