Again, please remember that I'm not commenting on the Silver story as a whole here, as I've said that I don't see the Patriots letting Brady move on even if he wants to.....
The question of how "close" said sources are is an absolutely valid one. However, unless people are going to claim that Silver is making up those sources, they do exist for our purposes.
Not only how close, but whether there is any basis to believe that Brady/Kraft-Belichick shares their sentiment is what matters. Prisco talked to a league source who opined that it would be ludicrous to think that as savvy a businessman as Kraft would walk away from or allow TFB to walk away. That's a fairly commonsensical conclusion. Silver talked to someone or someones close to Brady who opined that the team was not expressing a sense of urgency in getting a new deal done. From which sentiment Silver he lept to the conclusion that there is a growing disconnect between the player and this organization among other things...
The real disconnect is with a media that chooses to ignore some pretty compelling circumstantial evidence like the similar lack of urgency actually expressed by Bill Polian surrounding getting a Manning deal done in an uncharted labor environment or the simple fact that the vast majority NFL players have families and children whether by one or more mothers they spend time with in the off season who live in cities other than the one the player plays in., and most players were fans of a team other than the one they have played the first decade of their career - in this case a HOF career - for.
Or the fact that Belichick actually directed Brady - who hasn't won the parking spot in at least 4 seasons - among other veterans to get away from football following this teams last SB appearance because he appreciates both the physical and mental toll extended seasons and remaining competitive have taken on his increasingly limited group of core veterans. Something I might add owners don't appear to appreciate. Brady was here for all the OTA's, voluntary or not, and attended a substantial portion of the roughly 40 day in house off season workout program both in 2009 and 2010. Belichick rode a damn bike 50 miles with his cougar in tow to support Brady's charity endeavors two weeks ago, and Brady's mantra this off season appears to be as a team we have to listen better to coach, so I don't think those two have any issues.
On the eve of his crushing superbowl loss, Indy's owner expressed his intention to again make Manning the highest paid player in the league. That was over 4 months ago, and we now know on the heels of his backtracking about the difficulties inherent in doing that while retaining other deserving players, courtesy of the man who actually handles all the negotiations in Indy, that the two sides have yet to even talk contract. If some intrepid scribe were to corner Olivia Manning she might make a similar comment about her son's situation as someone close to Brady apparently made to Silver.
In the wake of Brady's third superbowl victory, Kraft stated that they hoped to get a new deal done with Brady...provided he wasn't demanding Manning money - in which case any extension would be difficult. Talk about alternate approaches... I bet if Silver spoke to anyone close to Brady at that juncture he might have gotten some interesting commentary about this organizations attitude towards ensuring that transpired... Not to mention after those negotiations - in which Brady had quickly agreed to accommodate the teams parameters - hit a structural snag that Brady's camp was clearly ticked off to the extent that they leaked their concern to the public via Tom Curran. And yet, 6 years later, he still shows up for work and says all the right things despite the media's best efforts to spin controversey around him. He went to Israel the following season with the boss, and the boss attended his wedding in Costa Rica last off season. I don't doubt his boss was behind his interest in and locating an estate in Brookline this past winter that wasn't even on the market when Brady placed a million dollar deposit on it... Although his wife who claims to be a Bostonian now probably had some input into that decision too.
Tom is a politician. One of his myriad of intangibles is the ability to say and do the right thing to keep all his constituents placated... Owner, HC, teamates, union, fanbase... He learned early on here that this organization preferred to limit public information flow to a minimum where all team business was concerned. He also learned a long time ago he can't entirely control his friends and families interaction with the the public or the media, so he quit confiding much of growing interest to the public in most of them... The last time he signed a deal here his dad had no clue it was done until he read the announcement in the media. I've said before I don't doubt his family and friends are frustrated with his situation. I'm frustrated with it and I've never even met him. Doesn't mean a damn thing at the end of the day because it's how Tom feels that matters, and from everything he's stated (as well as the team) from the past to the present I am hard pressed to manufacture an iota of concern about his retiring here in several more seasons...
