Getty Tom Brady played through knee pain throughout the 2020 season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said he couldn’t take his attention off his knee lasts season before he had “pretty serious” knee surgery in the offseason.
“Every week I was kind of tending to my knee, and I thought I would love to see a season where I can focus on some other strength stuff that I want to do, some other technique stuff where I’m not just focused on protecting my knee all the time,” Brady told the Hodinkee Radio podcast.
Brady started all 20 games for the Bucs in their run to winning Super Bowl LV and never landed on the team’s injury report due to injury. Bucs head coach Bruce Arians originally called it “a cleanup” but Ben Volin of the Boston Globe reported that Brady’s knee condition was more serious than initially reported.
Brady confirmed as such the latter when talking with Hodinkee hosts Stephen Pulvirent and Ben Clymer.
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Brady: ‘Pretty Serious Knee Surgery’
“I had a pretty serious knee surgery this offseason, which is the first surgery I’ve had in about 12 years,” Brady told the Hodinkee hosts. “I was really interested to see how it was going to go, because last year it just took a lot.”
Brady tore his ACL in 2008 but hadn’t missed time to knee-related injuries since that season. During the 2020 season, Brady notably had his fewest rushing yards and average ever — six yards on 30 attempts for a 0.2 yards per carry average. Brady, who has always been more of a pocket-passer, had averaged 51.8 yards pers season in New England.
Brady had been seen wearing a knee brace amid rehabbing this offseason and hopes to get back on the field soon. The Bucs anticipate having him back to throwing next week according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.
“So It’s been pretty intense this offseason from that standpoint because it’s been six and a half weeks that I’ve been dealing with the rehab process,” Brady told the Hodinkee hosts. “The season went pretty long, obviously into February. It’s just now that I’m starting to feel like the offseason is happening. And I’m going to blink my eyes and the offseason is going to be over.”
Getting Back to On-Field Work
Stroud reported that the throwing sessions will likely include backup quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert, Kyle Trask, and Ryan Griffin in addition to “many” Bucs wide receivers and tight ends. The Bucs return all receivers and tight ends amid bringing back all 22 starters.
Brady already reached out to Trask, the Bucs’ second-round draft pick from Florida, about working out together.
“Yeah, he actually did reach out to me a couple of days after the draft and was checking in on when I am going to get into town, so we could get together and do some throwing and things like that,” Trask told the NFL Network. “It meant a lot to me. Not only Tom, but a couple of other guys have reached out. So, you can definitely tell that they have a great culture and a great group of people in this building, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Where the Bucs quarterbacks and receivers will work out remains to be seen according to Stroud. Brady and company practiced at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa last spring per Stroud and Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times.
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Tom Brady Called His Knee Surgery ‘Pretty Serious’