Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady won’t see a white Christmas this year after 20 seasons in New England previously, and he’s OK with that.
Brady rather enjoys the Florida heat in Tampa as the final weeks of the NFL regular season approaches per The Athletic’s Greg Auman via Twitter.
“Doesn’t quite feel like it’s Christmas-time,” Tom Brady says of living in Tampa and enjoying warmer weather in December. Said he has friends up north sending him pics of 12-16 inches of snow and he doesn’t necessarily miss that …
It seems to point to Brady being content in Tampa and planning to play in a Bucs uniform for 2021 and possibly beyond. Brady also bought a fancy new home in Florida per Business Insider.
He spent 20 seasons playing in a multitude of cold and/or snowy games in December January with the Patriots. Brady, a California native, also played college football in a northern state, Michigan.
“I’m excited for a new tradition of being down here in beautiful weather,” Brady said in Thursday’s press conference per Nick O’Malley of MassLive.com.
That includes “punting” on Christmas traditions O’Malley noted.
“It’s a little different. My kids are really looking forward to it. My kids are getting a little bit older. They are anxious to see if Santa Claus is going to come this year,” he said per O’Malley. “I told them if they’re good, maybe we’ll see. It’s been a good year thus far.”
What Brady won’t get to enjoy about the Florida weather is home playoff football unless the Bucs make the Super Bowl, which is in Tampa. The Bucs (8-5) hold the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs and trail the New Orleans Saints (10-3) by two games in the NFC South.
Meshing Styles
Brady gave a visual in a press conference this week to describe how much it takes for him to learn Bucs head coach Bruce Arians’ offense per Pewter Report on Twitter.
#Bucs QB Tom Brady shows his playbook filled up for this week and says, “You’d think we’re building rockets.” When you play teams late, preparation really takes over. When you’re prepared, you go out confidently and play well.
Much has been made about how Brady and Arians work together but both have efforts to clarify that they work together and get along fine. Brady called it a great relationship according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times on Twitter.
#GoBucs QB Tom Brady on Bruce Arians: “It’s very open, honest dialogue about how I can be most effective and any questions we have…
Arians, who has critiqued Brady’s play in a press conference this season, stood up for the quarterback earlier in the week. Earlier in the season, Arians implied he understands that it takes new players time to gel, even if one of them is considered the GOAT.
“You don’t have a spring at all or a real training camp, it’s hard on the quarterback, especially when you’ve done something for 20 years and then throw all these guys at him,” Arians said in November per Jenna Laine of ESPN. “I think the lack of practice time and everything, and learning of everything, from spring through camp is still showing up.”
Ending Slow Starts
Brady and company hope to change the season-long trend of slow starts. The Bucs haven’t after a first quarter since Week 5 at Chicago.
“Sometimes it’s mental, sometimes it’s physical, and then you’ve just got to try to make the correction,” Brady said about slow starts according to Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times. “It can really be a number of things, and regardless, you’ve got to clean it all up.”
The Bucs play Atlanta (4-9) on Sunday, looking to win two straight for the first time since October.
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