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In the week since Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen announced their civil divorce, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback looked locked in to face the last team to deny him a ring.
Brady and the Bucs (3-5) face the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, which unseated the Bucs in the 2021 playoffs last season. While Brady faced plenty of questions of how the Bucs could dig out the first three-game losing streak of his career, he also couldn’t avoid questioning about his personal life amid a high-profile divorce. It’s a divorce he didn’t want according to People Magazine.
“I’ve always tried to do the best I could do here [at the Bucs’ facility], and then when I leave here, I try to do the best I can do. That’s what we all try to do,” Brady told reporters on Thursday. “I’m sure everyone sitting in this room, everyone sitting at home, is trying to wake up every day doing the best they could do for their families and their career. And I’m no different. So just do the best you can do every day. We certainly try to do.”
Brady looked “exuberant” at practice on Thursday per ESPN’s Jenna Laine, a stark contrast to a week ago when he had his head buried in hands after losing to the Baltimore Ravens on October 27. He spent time with his children over the weekend and early this week, which included hurricane relief efforts and trick or treating.
Can Brady and the Bucs Turn Back the Clock?
When the Bucs won the Super Bowl in the 2020 season, the team came storming out of a bye week to win eight-straight games. That year’s Bucs squad sat at 7-5 before turning the corner.
Brady and current Bucs from that squad haven’t forgotten what that took. This season’s squad faces a similar opportunity coming off of a 10-day break albeit under much more dire circumstances.
“I think we talk about it all the time and I think we have a great relationship with everybody to talk about kind of where we’re at and what we think we need to do better,” Brady said. “I think everything kind of speaks for itself — slow starts, have had opportunities to make two-point plays, we haven’t been great in third-and-one, we haven’t been great in the red area, third-and-longs haven’t been great, we haven’t been running the ball [well]. There’s a lot of reasons why things go well and why they don’t go well.”
“When you’re in the situation we’re in, every play feels like it’s critical,” Brady added. “That’s the tough part. You don’t feel like there’s a lot of margin of error and that’s why it’s a tough sport. We’ve got to fight through it, there’s no other way to it. It’s not like it gets easier, it’s not like it gets any less competitive. No one feels sorry for us, nor should they. They’re trying to win those games, we’re trying to win them and we just haven’t done a good job the last six weeks of doing that.”
Brady Calls for Better Leadership by Bucs Veterans
While Tampa Bay remained stagnant at the trade deadline, the Bucs opted to forge ahead with young players at key positions on offense.
Offensive linemen Robert Hainsey and Nick Leverett have less than a season of playing experience. The same goes for running back Rachaad White and tight ends Cade Otten and Ko Kieft. Brady acknowledged those five and emphasized that “it’s hard to put too much on those guys” amid playing regular snaps.
“So the guys that have played a lot of football, we’ve got to do a better job, and that’s part of what leadership is all about,” Brady said. “It’s pushing people in practice, and it’s trying to get a bigger sense of urgency. When everything’s going well, it feels really good and easy. And when they don’t go well, it feels really hard and it feels like a challenge. I think the point is you either back down to the challenge or you step up to the challenge.”
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