Getty Tom Brady played briefly in the preseason opener, but his sideline work grabbed even more attention.
Well beyond the time Tom Brady put on his sideline baseball cap during Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason opener on Aug. 14, he got back to work with rookie center Robert Hainsey.
Brady and Hainsey practiced the snaps during the fourth quarter of the Bucs’ 19-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals while third and fourth-string players competed on the field for roster spots. Kyle Burger of ABC Action News caught the video, which has since gone viral.
It’s the 4th quarter of a preseason game and Tom Brady doesn’t rest.
He’s working on snap counts with rookie center Robert Hainsey. #GoBucs
Brady played the opening drive, throwing two passes and taking a sack. He and the other starters sat out otherwise from the early first quarter on.
Hainsey, a third-round pick from Notre Dame, was injured and didn’t play in the game. The Bucs have Hainsey working on multiple positions on the offensive line in camp to add depth behind the starters. He played tackle for the Irish but also showed the versatility to play other offensive line positions, which impressed the Bucs.
Brady Stresses Importance of the Preseason
Despite 21 years of NFL experience, Brady doesn’t downplay the value of preseason games.
“It’s real game speed and there are little unpredictable looks that you don’t necessarily have in practice,” Brady said in an Aug. 12 press conference. “It’s been seven months or so since we’ve gone up against a team — not that everybody is game-planning, but everybody has different techniques and styles that everyone is working on. Things that they’ve done in the offseason maybe that they’re trying to implement.”
“You do it against your own team for a while and then you go up against another team,” Brady added. “You kind of have the stuff you have been doing and see how it works against a new opponent. It’s a good opportunity for us and really a good opportunity for a lot of guys to play. Last year, you kind of have the same group that plays most of the whole season. Now you have a new group of guys in here — a lot of guys are going to get different opportunities and you’ve got to see what they can make of it.”
Brady Feels Comfortable With Bucs’ System in Year Two
With no preseason last year, Brady was still learning on the go in Week 1 of the regular season. Training camp practices alone didn’t suffice.
“A year ago, three weeks into camp I was still trying to figure out formations. What does ‘Tampa right’ mean, you know? I don’t even know what that means,” Brady said. “Now, it just kind of rattles off your tongue. You get used to similar ideas and concepts, but they’re all named differently. It would kind of be like English and Spanish. You have to literally learn a different language and then really kind of learn what you’re doing.”
“Then, you have to learn if your players can do it and then you have to study how the defense is doing things,” Brady added. “So, there are a lot of different challenges that you face.”
This year, the Bucs already had a little more than three weeks of training camp before the first preseason game. As Brady noted, that’s only “about midway through camp” with two more preseason games to go.
“I think for me this year, mentally, it’s been much better and much easier to kind of assimilate my way into camp,” Brady said. “Going to really keep working at pressing that communication, but we’re definitely making improvements. We’re going to have to keep making improvements to be where we want to be by the opener against Dallas.”
Brady may not take many more snaps at game speed during the preseason, but he clearly showed in the opener that he doesn’t take the night off when done on the field.
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Tom Brady Sideline Video Goes Viral