Tom Brady shows Antonio Brown some support, but won't say his name
Two weeks after he had offered to be roommates with Antonio Brown, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady distanced himself from his former teammate. The best quarterback of his generation now wants nothing to do with the troubled wide receiver he once embraced joining his team.
Brady’s appearance on The Greg Hill Show on Boston-based WEEI on Monday morning shows a quarterback under pressure and wanting to throw the proverbial ball away. Brown was cut last week by the Patriots after Sports Illustrated revealed that the star wide receiver had allegedly sent harassing text messages. This comes after the player was accused earlier in the month of rape by his former personal trainer.
The Patriots quarterback sounded downtrodden by the questions on Monday morning, just hours after his Patriots had blown out the New York Jets to move to 3-0 on the year. But he also provided some loose defense of his former teammate, whom he had invited to live at his house when the Patriots signed Brown three weeks ago.
On the radio show, Brady spoke in superlatives and vaguely. He didn't invoke the name of his former teammate but said he has "personal feelings" that he doesn't want to share, Brady acknowledged that the situation is difficult.
When Hill talked about the Patriots’ mentality and how Brady must have felt hurt by everything that unfolded, the Patriots quarterback wouldn’t mention Brown by name but went all zen in his response.
"I think – and again it’s not this situation, it’s every situation. There’s a lot of forces at work that are working against that. There’s a lot of things that happen that work against that because it is profitable or because there are other forces at work," Brady told WEEI.
"I try to combat them by caring more, by giving more to try combat other things that maybe are trying to pull apart our team, our community, our family. Because unfortunately, that’s the way that the world has probably always been. But I guess in some ways, I’ve always had a bit naïve-ness about me and naiveté about people. I believe in goodness and I believe the good in people and good intentions. As far as I’m playing and part of a team, as far as I’m a part of a community, I’m going to do the best I can do. I’m going to keep believing in people and joy and love. That’s what works for me."
Brown, an ultra-talented playmaker and one of the best wide receivers in terms of pure ability in the league, is now looking for his fourth NFL team this year. Months after the Oakland Raiders traded for Brown from the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was cut by the AFC West team after a physical altercation with general manager Mike Mayock.
Now the Patriots have cut the troubled star, perhaps representing his last best hope of playing in the NFL this year.
Without mentioning his name, Brady tried to provide cover for Brown while also slightly stiff-arming when it comes to his relationship with the troubled talent.
"I am very optimistic. People who know me, I think know how optimistic I am and just my belief that positivity and optimism can overcome a lot of things,” Brady said.
“There’s a lot of things that get in the way of that, and again, I think we’re in a culture that we want to pass judgment so quickly on people. We want to disparage people so quickly. It speaks to me that a lot of people are probably hurting because when you’re not feeling great you want other people to know that. I think it becomes very emotional and again, it’s a tough life. Life is not easy. Football is not easy. Evolving and growing as people is not an easy thing.”