Why Brady Skipping OTA’s Should Worry You
We’ve heard it time and time again. The Patriots will out prepare, out practice, out coach, and out play you. And this all starts with off season OTA’s in the summer. We’ve all been told that no one practices like the Patriots. Until this year. Not only was Tom Brady absent, tight end Rob Gronkowski also skipped out of this year’s OTA’s at Gillette Stadium.
(Photo Courtesy: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Alex Guerrero
I think it’s pretty obvious that Brady (and Gronk’s) personal trainer Alex Guerrero is a big factor in this. Brady and Gronk have been going to Guerrero for quite some time now and recently, Belichick won’t allow Guerrero in the locker room. If you watched episode 5 of “Tom vs. Time” you’ll see that prior to one of the Patriot’s games last year, Tom went to Alex for his pregame session. Tom was weary that people would look in to the suite they were in so they were hanging blankets, piling up chairs, etc. just so that no one would look in. But he was fine with a camera crew in there? That’s another topic for another time. However; not having Guerrero immediately available is a big reason we’re starting to see a riff amongst the power 3 in Foxboro.
Belichick isn’t one to curtail to one particular player. Even Brady. Taking Guerrero away from Brady and others was a way of him saying he’s still in charge. But at what price did this come?
(Photo Courtesy: Tom vs. Time/Facebook Watch)
Why We Should Worry
Tom always prides himself of prepping for football. Practice, film watching, etc. He was always there at OTA’s to begin his season and trying to make a deep post season push. But why isn’t Brady there. The answer is actually quite simple. Jimmy Garoppolo. Now the the “future” is gone, Brady is good. He’s the guy again. He doesn’t have to worry about “the future” chasing him anymore. Because of this, Brady cares a little less now. He knows that the job is his. Notice how well Brady played when Garoppolo was there? 2 Super Bowl titles, and an MVP award. But he has no one chasing him anymore! Just hope that this year isn’t a “going through the motions” year. The team is still probably upset at Bill for the stunt he pulled in the Super Bowl benching Butler. Hopefully they’ve put that behind them and they can focus on this upcoming season.
But if there is one thing we’ve all fell victim to, is that the second we think the Patriots are in disarray, they seem to find a way to bounce back and prove us all wrong.
-Brian Berard (@RockyBerard)