Colluding with the ‘Phins is one thing; it’s slimy, shady, and certainly an ethical grey-area; as a fan, it sucks, but I can understand as an individual potentially doing similar if it might make me and/or my family happier; it’s not like the guy killed puppies as a result of those conversations with Miami.
What sincerely pisses me off, though, and is much more damning than the above element (in my opinion, at least), is the fact that this is ironclad proof Brady was checked out during his final season with the Pats and that’s absolute horsesh*t; that’s the antithesis of everything Brady represented throughout the majority of his career. It’s unfair to himself, his teammates, his coaches, and especially those young WRs who could’ve really benefitted from an engaged and involved Tom Brady, a treasure trove of football experience and knowledge. Instead he was pulling strings to get himself out of New England while there was still 1 month (4 weeks) of training camp remaining, and 16+ games upcoming. That’s very not cool.
And the thing is, none of this was necessary. It’s not like Tom Brady is a taken advantage of, lowly employee who never would’ve been able to get himself to a better situation without the tampering. He’s Tom f*cking Brady; he absolutely 100% would’ve had suitors and landing spots had he followed protocol and used the designated legal tampering period to have these conversations. Bizarro (and just plain sh*tty) that he instead began those negotiations while his current team (who had 3 rookie WRs at the time) was ramping up their off-season program and had a 4+ month season upcoming.
I’ll be genuinely curious what (if any) impact this has on the post-career celebrations/pleasantries/festivities in New England that we all assumed were a 100% guarantee to happen after Brady (actually) retires. If I had to guess, I still expect all of that ends up happening, but the conclusions in the NFL’s report are pretty damning, so I could see this potentially having a legitimate impact on Kraft’s outlook and perspective regarding his relationship with Brady.