Why Tom Brady Is Taking Time Away From Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tom Brady is stepping away from the NFL, temporarily.

After the NFL quarterback missed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice on Aug. 11, coach Todd Bowles addressed Brady’s training camp absence while speaking to reporters. 

“Tom has been excused today. He’ll be taking—he’ll be back somewhere around after Tennessee,” Bowles said, per NBC Sports, referring to the team’s second preseason game on Aug. 20. “He’s going to deal with some personal things.”

“This is something we talked about before training camp started,” he continued. “We allotted this time because he wanted to get in and get chemistry with the guys and go through two weeks of training camp, knowing he wasn’t going to play the first two games. He didn’t want to take away reps from Blaine [Gabbert] and Kyle [Trask] as well as ‘Griff’ [Ryan Griffin] as far as going into these next two games. And it’s something he needs to handle.”