Tom Brady, Patriots are being sketchy about his absences

What in the world is going on with Tom Brady?

He did not play in the first pre-season game against the Saints because he was attending a memorial service (believable). He did not play in last week’s pre-season game against the Bears because he sliced open his thumb with scissors while tending to his cleats (sketchy, but a decent excuse). Then, No. 12 missed Sunday and Monday’s practice. Those absences were “excused by the team” but were “not injury related.”

The narrative surrounding Brady over the past 15 years has centered around him being the greatest practice player of all-time. He’s the first to arrive, last to leave, demands perfection – all that. So it’s extremely curious as to why Brady is missing all this valuable practice time.

Now, it’s possible that the Patriots are just fine with all this as they want to give most of the preseason snaps to Jimmy Garoppolo anyway – considering he’ll be the one starting in Weeks 1-4. It’s also possible that Brady is upset with Bill Belichick that he hasn’t taken a preseason snap yet. It’s also possible that Brady and the Patriots have legitimate excuses for all of the above issues and aren’t talking too much about the matter because they don’t like to talk about any matters.

The Patriots’ recent track history here is troublesome as it took days for details to emerge regarding Chandler Jones showing up shirtless and high on synthetic weed on a Sunday morning. Belichick also showed up for a press conference that week with a black eye.

Just odd stuff.

The explanations from the team were late and far from thorough and those stories would have blown up if the Pats weren’t so damn good on the football field. (They coasted past the Chiefs in the divisional round of the playoffs later that week.)

Yeah, it’s possible that everything is on the up and up regarding Brady and his absences, but this is a time where the team could do itself a favor by being a little more transparent. If everything really is fine and dandy – they’ve created their own distraction by being needlessly sketchy.