Bucs Gameday

Tom Brady's Group Workouts are Risky Business

Despite recommendations from both the NFL and NFLPA, Brady's private workouts with Bucs teammates have continued.
Luke Easterling|
Tom Brady's Group Workouts are Risky Business
Tom Brady's Group Workouts are Risky Business

Tom Brady may have nothing to fear but fear itself, but this is bigger than one person. 

Yes, even the GOAT.

As positive cases of COVID-19 continue to rise throughout the country, the NFLPA recently issued a strong recommendation to its players that they stop getting together for private group workouts in preparation for the 2020 season.

Brady has been organizing such workouts with his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates throughout the offseason, and those workouts have continued in recent days, despite the recommendation.

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer, and DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA's executive director, have both been asked in recent days specifically about Brady continuing to hold these practices despite these recommendations and the risks such group activities present in the midst of a pandemic.

"Those practices are not in the best interest of player safety," Smith told Mackenzie Salmon of USA Today Sports. "They're not in the best interest of protecting our players heading into training camp, and I don't think they're in the best interest of us getting through an entire season. I certainly understand how competitive our players are, and I get that. But, at the same time, we are in the process of trying to negotiate, we have to negotiate with the league about what happens to a player if they test positive during the season . . . All of the things that players may want to do during the offseason have a direct impact on how well we can negotiate protections for them once the season starts."

Brady hasn't publicly addressed these recommendations, or the concerns about the safety of these workouts in general, other than quoting FDR in his Instagram story (via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times):

Yes, Brady has made a legendary 20-year career out of beating the odds, surprising the doubters and overcoming adversity. But this is bigger than football. This is a public safety issue, and these workouts are taking place in a state that has broken its daily record of new COVID-19 cases multiple times in the last week. At last count, Florida had reported nearly 10,000 new cases in a single day.

Brady has built a reputation as a tireless worker who will do whatever it takes to out-prepare his opponent, and organizing private workouts with his new teammates to build much-needed chemistry, timing and rapport certainly fits that description. And if this were any other NFL offseason, he would be lauded for his continued commitment to excellence, and rightly so.

But this has been anything but a normal NFL offseason. Yes, the lost minicamps and OTAs make workouts like these even more valuable, but at what potential cost to himself, his teammates, and everyone they come in contact with on a daily basis? And do what degree could these workouts make it harder for the NFLPA to fight for the best interests of Brady and his fellow NFL players once training camps and the 2020 season begins?

Brady may have convinced himself, and some of his teammates, that they have answers to those questions that are adequate enough to warrant continuing to hold these workouts. And it's entirely possible that nothing bad will happen, and that their time spent together will indeed prove to be helpful once the 2020 season kicks off. 

But if something goes wrong, Brady will have nobody to blame but himself. You can't be the man in the arena if you're stuck in quarantine.

Sometimes, a little fear can be healthy.

Published
Luke Easterling
LUKE EASTERLING