Re: Another Brady Article
Was Brady away from the Pats at an "eye-brow raising rate"? I must have missed it. I am pretty sure he was in Foxboro this offseason more than he was in Foxboro last offseason. It was last year where people were talking about his holding Gisselle's purse at a fashion show in Europe, his body guards shooting at paparazzi in Brazil at his wedding, etc. Brady seemed to be in Foxboro at least every third week and was at all the voluntary OTAs (although he might have missed a day or two here and there).
Brady hasn't won the parking space since maybe 2004... In 2008 Belichick told him to get the hell away from the game to recharge his batteries. The veterans all needed that after the way undefeated slipped away after all the increasing pressure they performed under for 20 weeks.
This particular piece is just another example of Florio's hits driven mentality. He used Breer's redundant, not to mention inept contract musings as just one more excuse to pen a what I've heard but can't source report about how unhappy Brady is here with the bumbling cheapskate FO and ownership he's gone to four superbowls with in eight seasons as the starter here... You know, those two SOB's he's so disconnected to he had one at his very private wedding last off season and the other recently rode a bike 50 miles to support him at a charity event he conducted during one of his hit and run three week off season stints here...
If anyone needs more reason to conclude Brady isn't going anywhere, it's what owner in his right mind would alienate a QB whose more successful on the field and apparently more commanding of attention off it than even freakin' Peyton Manning...
Tom said a long time ago on the record that IHO the difference another million made after taxes wasn't significant enough to him to matter. Winning here mattered more. And it was about a million he left on the table because he was never going to get what Manning got because Manning was franchised at the time and Tom was three years into a five year extension. He also said he didn't expect others to emulate him, he was doing what he did based on what mattered to him. Just like Tedy did. And it wasn't so that they could overpay Deion Branch or anyone else, either. He understood their financial discipline and their system that included spreading the wealth among a stronger, deeper middle class, and he said he respected them for it and for not letting emotion cloud better judgement. Had they overpaid to retain Branch and Givens or even Samuel, guys like Welker and Moss and Bodden wouldn't be here now. They extended Warren and then Wilfork but after moving on from Seymour. Mankins likely won't be here past this season, but eventually others on that OL will replace him on the field and in the payroll. Bob and Bill don't sit in the back room divying the savings. It always goes into the product one way or another.
Kraft is on record saying that the goal is a deal that is fair for both sides. It's unfortunate they don't know in advance what kind of parameters that deal can entail just yet because - as Polian stated in commenting on both his Manning and Brady contract situations just this weekend - there is no CBA in place for 2011 and beyond, though eventually there surely will be... And this has always been a place where cap management mattered. As it has in Indy, albeit while employing a different formula. In 2006 Polian threatened to sue everyone because it turned out his best laid plans for ongoing bonus conversion were suddenly disallowed under terms of an expiring CBA. He's not going to put himself in that position ever again. That kind of discipline may annoy fans and mediots looking for instant gratification, but it's the way smart business men conduct business unemotionally.
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