Tom Brady: 'I Don't Really Care How The Patriots Are Perceived, Truthfully'
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady is not worried about what you consider to be his or the Patriots' legacy.
The quarterback, named GQ's Man of the Year, talked with writer Chuck Klosterman, who asked Brady a series of questions about DeflateGate, the accusations from the NFL, and Brady's relative silence with regard to some simple accusations.
Even in an article celebrating him, and even when given the opportunity to shift the conversation in any direction he wanted, Brady passed on the opportunity.
"I'm not talking about anything as it relates to what's happened over the last eight months. I've dealt with those questions for eight months," Brady said. "There's nothing more that I really want to add to the subject. It's been debated and talked about, especially in Boston, for a long time."
Klosterman asked Brady if he believes the events of the past year have altered the way some people might view the Patriots. Brady's response indicated he could not care less about how other people define his legacy.
"I don't really care how the Patriots are perceived, truthfully. I really don't. I really don't," Brady stated. "Look, if you're a fan of our team, you root for us, you believe in our team, and you believe in what we're trying to accomplish. If you're not a fan of us, you have a different opinion."
Klosterman, eager for a quote, pushed Brady further, saying that Brady has never really denied being "generally aware" of some plan to deflate footballs.
Brady fought back.
"Chuck, go read the transcript from a five-hour appeal hearing," Brady told him. "If that's what you want to talk about, then it's going to be a very short interview."
That it was.
Even in a "Man of the Year" interview, Brady found himself getting peppered with questions he had been forced to answer for two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl as well as the entire offseason. He had to answer the questions in front of Roger Goodell in June, and he had to sit in front of a federal judge in August. All over some footballs possibly being a fraction of a PSI below where they should have been.
So even in the midst of dominating the NFL, he's managed to keep his stiff-arm at the ready whenever DeflateGate questions may arise.
In refusing to discuss the topic, Brady avoided a series of questions from Klosterman, most of which (again) he's already answered. Klosterman listed the questions he wanted to ask:
At what point did you become aware that people were accusing you of cheating? (He has answered this.)
Do you (or did you) have any non-professional relationship with Jim McNally and John Jastremski, the Patriots employees at the crux of this controversy? (He has answered this.)
Do you now concede some of the balls might have been below the legal limit, even if you had no idea this was happening? Or was the whole thing a total fiction? (Science has answered this.)
Do you believe negligibly deflated footballs would provide a meaningful competitive advantage, to you or to anyone else on the offense? (He answered this.)
How do you explain the Patriots' fumble rate, which some claim is unrealistically low? Is that simply a bizarre coincidence? (That "study" was bogus. And you want Brady to talk about receivers and running backs fumbling the football?)
If you had no general awareness of any of this, do you feel like Bill Belichick pushed you under the bus during his January press conference? Were you hurt by this? Did it impact your relationship with him? (If Brady were force-fed truth serum, he'd give a great answer on this one, so it would have been worth asking. But anyone who's seen Brady speak publicly in the past decade or so knows he'd never answer this question.)
It is odd, to be sure, that GQ's article on its Man of the Year kicked off with the premise of Brady being the best quarterback of all time before going on to dedicate more than 2,500 words in a 3,100-word story to cheating accusations, with the writer choosing to disregard Brady's under-oath testimony and lament his inability to ask a series of accusatory questions that have already been answered. But hey, whatever it takes to sell a few magazines.
Brady's happy to put on some fancy clothes and smile for the cameras, but he knows better than to add fuel to the fire that is the never-ending saga known as "DeflateGate."
"I don't have any interest in talking about those events as they relate to any type of distraction that they may bring to my team in 2015," Brady said. "I do not want to be a distraction to my football team. We're in the middle of our season. I'm trying to do this as an interview that was asked of me, so ... if you want to revisit everything and be another big distraction for our team, that's not what I'm intending to do."
Brady currently leads the league in passing yards and passer rating. He's thrown the most touchdowns and the fewest interceptions. The Patriots are 9-0. It seems as though he's doing a masterful job of avoiding those distractions.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
