Tom Brady reportedly to take a 'personal day' every Wednesday this season
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady missed Wednesday's practice this past week for what the team called a "not injury-related rest day." Now, it sounds like that will be more frequent moving forward.
Brady will take every Wednesday off for the rest of the season for "a personal day," according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. This is reportedly the first time in Brady's 23-year career that he'll receive a rest day every week during a season, per Rapoport. He's taken occasional Thursdays off in the past, but never the same day every week.
It's unclear exactly why Brady is getting this treatment now, but the veteran did mention he felt more beat up than normal after becoming the first quarterback to start and win a game at the age of 45 this past week.
"There was a few hits and you look at your arm and you got bruises, you got cuts and you got, the way it is and you're like, 'How much longer do I wanna make this commitment?'" he said on his podcast following Week 1. "And I honestly made the commitment for this year and everything's gonna be, you know, like always — continue to evaluate all these different aspects of play."
There has been a lot of speculation about Brady's future in the NFL this year after he retired and then unretired in a 40-day span this offseason. Then came the questions about why he missed 11 excused days of training camp this summer, which was later revealed to be because of a pre-scheduled family vacation.
Rumors about Brady's family life and marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen continued to swirl after she told Elle magazine last week she "would like him to be more present." Brady seemed to refer to this as well in his podcast when he said he's missed Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, weddings and funerals throughout his career.
"And the question is how long are you willing to commit with discipline, to doing the right things, to allow those things to take place over a period of time? And that's what guys' careers are judged on," Brady said. " ... And I think there comes a point in your life where you say, 'you know what? I had my fill and it's enough and time to go on, to move into other parts of life,' which, you know, I push myself to the max and I, I got everything I could outta my ability and I hope that everybody gets everything they can out of their doing."
Now, these personal days could literally just be a day for Brady to rest his body before the Buccaneers' game that weekend. But all of the drama surrounding Brady and his family life certainly cannot be discounted when we're talking about a player who rarely missed practice unless he was injured. At the very least, the hope for Brady and the Bucs is that this extra rest day will help keep the longtime quarterback healthy for the entire season as Tampa Bay makes a push for another Super Bowl.
