Mixed feelings on Tom Brady's SI writeup

The big news for the Patriots this week was Tom Brady's return to the team. ESPN cameras caught him throwing a football on the field at Gillette Stadium. A Boston.com blog that embedded the video reported, "Brady showed no lingering effects from surgery for the torn left ACL that sidelined him for nearly the entire 2008 season."

Then, in a Peter King article that will appear in this week's Sports Illustrated, Brady said unequivocally that he has no lingering effects from the injury. "There's nothing I can't do." Wes Welker was also quoted swearing up and down he's the same.

But there's something off-putting about the Brady that appears in the King piece, and I say this as one of Brady's staunchest fans and defenders over the years. It started with Brady referring to himself, playing football, as "one of the real gladiators." It's hard to picture the buttoned-down, polished Brady of years past making this kind of statement.

That feeling only deepened when I read what he had to say about leaving the game last year in Week 1 - how shocked he admitted to being when they kept playing the game without him. That doesn't sound like the team-first Brady his teammates talk about.  

What sealed my queasy feeling, though, was this:

Two days after the Oct. 6 surgery, he defied Bündchen's pleas and his doctor's orders to stay off the leg by putting Jack on his shoulder and moving around the hospital room, playing with him. A hematoma developed in the knee, and the staph infection ensued.

Are you for real? Tell me that's not real. Tell me the guy who wears No. 12 for our team was not stupid and arrogant enough to start horsing around on a busted knee two days after surgery. Tell me he didn't almost throw away his entire career on some weird moment of machismo.

And especially, tell me that's not the same attitude he's working with now.

Comments

[Brent]

I don't think so when you see howo excited he is just to get on the field and practice.

"So, this year if I hear [the Pats have] two-a-day practices? Great! Let's have three. Whatever you say, Coach. You need something from the players? Let me know, and I'll do what I can to get the players to do it."

"I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to -- practice," he said. "Screw the games; they'll take care of themselves. I want to be out there with my guys. I'm so anxious to get out there and practice."

[Beth]

Thanks for pointing out those other quotes, that's a good point - it may have been the 'gladiators' thing was just getting caught up in his enthusiasm to get back to the field. And it's well-known that he's an extremely competitive person. I'm sure it's been killing him not to be on the field.

You could also interpret the surprise that they played the game without him as the 'denial' stage of his grief process being taken out for the season - I'm sure a similar feeling occurs to lots of people who are sidelined from whatever they do with an illness or injury.

In the end I think the thing that I remain mad at him about (and it sounds like his wife was too!) is the walking-on-the-knee thing which seems to have led to the infection. Luckily the infection was got under control with subsequent surgery, but that's no guarantee--he might've wound up with surgery on BOTH knees if the infection had continued to cause problems. Then you're looking at a potential end to his career. It just seems like it was so dumb of him to do that, and I don't think of him as a dumb person.

But all's well that ends well, I guess. I hope he really is feeling as good as everyone says now.

[Brent]

I am just glad the operated on the correct knee..... imagine if they went into the wrong one.