The NFL offseason is typically a time for players to unwind after a grueling year of football and relax for a couple months while physically and mentally preparing for the next campaign.
Unfortunately for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, that hasn’t been the case. The future Hall of Famer was implicated in the Deflategate saga, which due to the NFL’s stubbornness and Brady’s unwillingness to acknowledge wrongdoing has not concluded.
According to Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald, Brady joked about the past seven months since the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX.
“Yeah, it’s been such an enjoyable offseason.”
Now, Judge Richard M. Berman’s decision could come at any moment, since Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel notes Berman set a tentative timeline: the end of this week.
https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/status/638814043357102080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
No matter the ruling, though, Brady’s offseason has officially disappeared.
After seven months of Deflategate hovering over his head, Brady is soon entering game preparation week. The Patriots open the 2015 campaign on Thursday, Sep. 10, against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Jimmy Garoppolo has practiced with the first-team offense throughout training camp and the preseason, so New England is prepared for the worst-case scenario of Brady’s four-game suspension being upheld—or at least not eliminated entirely.
But without a doubt, if Brady cannot enter the first outing of 2015, he won’t look back at that as an enjoyable experience, either.