Going into Thursday, Tom Brady had already missed two practices over the past week for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and now he’s going to be adding one more to that total.
The 45-year-old won’t be practicing with the Buccaneers on Thursday, and according NFL Network, he’s expected to miss a “few days” on top of that. The Buccaneers aren’t saying why Brady is out, but NFL Network has reported that it’s for personal reasons unrelated to football. Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles is expected to address Brady’s absence after practice.
Although Brady is expected to be away from the team for the next few days, the good news is that he won’t miss any more practice time. The Buccaneers have a preseason game against the Dolphins scheduled for Saturday and had already planned to keep him on the bench for that, so he won’t be missing anything there.
The Buccaneers don’t have a practice scheduled the day before the game (Friday) or the day after the game (Sunday), so if Brady returns to the field by Monday, then he’ll only have missed Thursday’s practice this week.
That being said, Thursday’s practice will mark the third time in eight days that Brady hasn’t been on the field with the team. Brady didn’t practice on his birthday (Aug. 3) because the team gave him the day off, which was scheduled. Two days later, Brady was excused from practice. He then returned to the field for four practices (Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday) before missing Thursday’s session.
One interesting note about Brady’s absences is that he still hasn’t met with the media since being named in the NFL‘s investigative report into the Dolphins. Back on Aug. 2, the NFL punished the Dolphins for tampering with Brady by docking the team two draft picks (one first-rounder and one third-rounder).
That’s not to say Brady is skipping practices to avoid the media; it’s just to say that it will be interesting to hear his side of the story on the Dolphins’ stuff, and based on his continued absence from practice, it looks like we’ll have to wait a little bit longer before we hear it.
