Tom Brady had his name emblazoned across headlines everywhere on Wednesday after comments made by his wife went viral.
Gisele Bundchen appeared on “CBS This Morning.” She said that Brady had a concussion last year and that “he has concussions pretty much every . . . you know, we don’t talk about it but he does have concussions.”
#NEW: @giseleofficial told @CharlieRose on @CBSThisMorning that Tom Brady had a concussion last year. "He does have concussions." pic.twitter.com/K4B8ixDN9X
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 17, 2017
Needless to say, the NFLPA immediately said it would be looking into this claim.
Not long after that, the NFL, which was in contact with the NFLPA on this matter, released the findings of its own initial investigation into Bundchen’s comments.
The full statement from @NFL on Tom Brady's concussion-related questions (including working with @NFLPA on it): pic.twitter.com/Piek9sR80E
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 17, 2017
They key here is that the NFL could find “no records” to substantiate Bundchen’s comments. This doesn’t mean Brady didn’t have a concussion last year. What it means is that, if he did have one, he either didn’t let his trainers and team doctors know about it or they knew about it and didn’t keep records of it.
Either way, what this does is highlight that, no matter how much the NFL does to protect its players, it’s still up to players and teams to follow through.
It’s going to be interesting to see what “more information” might reveal in the coming days and weeks, if anything at all.