OTA's, this stands for Organized Team Activities. This is the time of year when players start to slowly gather and the start of the preseason gets closer before we know it. However, with the Patriots, there is one noticeable absence. Tom Brady has yet to show up and he isn't even at his TB12 facility across the way in Patriot Place. Nope, Tom is currently spending time with family and doing other business commitments instead of working with his teammates. I mean even Tom himself in June 2013 talked about the importance of OTA's . So after hearing Tom talk about how he feels OTA's are important and him not showing up may not be a good look to some fans, I'm here to tell you to fear not Patriots fans, everything will be fine.
This is something we should've expected first of all too because if we recall from the Tom vs Time documentary he said he'd spend time with his family "This offseason is gonna be about my family, and they deserve it. There's more to think about than just me, and I think that's what you commit to when you have a family. And they commit a lot to me. That obviously goes both ways". Heck, even Belichick knew this was coming too saying "We’ve communicated with all of our current players, the new players, the players who were on the team from last year. We have the voluntary offseason program that starts on Monday. It will be heavily attended, but I know there are a couple players that I’ve talked to that have other commitments, but that’s the way it always is, too". The fact that Bill has said he already knows about some players not attending OTA's should help calm the nerve of some because if Bill knows, it's fine. Players that won't be there right away have communicated with the coach and it seems that both parties here know when their return date would be. They won't tell us because what fun is that?
However, without Brady at these OTAs, I and I'm sure all of you are going to lose sleep over the fact that we will not know his seven-on-seven stats. Which is extremely concerning, of course, as we all know that football is played at seven-on-seven and without contact. Without being able to physically see and hear Brady tell us that he's in great shape after an offseason of workouts, we seem to have been left to assume that he has succumbed to a lifestyle of Netflix marathons sponsored by Cool Ranch Doritos and Mountain Dew two-liters all day, every day. I wonder if he was able to power through all of Stranger Things in one sitting while some seventh-string wideout we'll never know outside of a Preseason Week Two moment finds his chemistry with Danny Etling instead of Brady. See how dumb this sounds? Let's all be smart here because, at the end of the day, we should realize how meaningless this all is.
If you are worried though for Brady having a break during OTA's, let me remind you of something. Brady missed the first four games of the 2016 regular season due to his Deflategate suspension. All he did was roar back with an 11-1 record with 3,554 yards, 28 touchdowns, and just two interceptions before marching to the fifth Super Bowl title (and third Super Bowl MVP Award) of his career. During that suspension, during which Brady was not even allowed to be near his teammates, Brady did everything from serving as an honorary captain at a college football game to film a commercial, and throw with old teammate Wes Welker in his backyard. So let's all take a step back and relax here with the missed OTA's, if this absence continues into mini camp when attendance is mandatory, then sure, let the concern rise. Until then, take a breath Patriots fans.
