Brady missed practice yesterday and will miss today's walk through.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/08/11/tom-brady-misses-patriots-practice/NXorLytB4aTxv0q3vHidrL/story.html?p1=Article_InThisSection_Bottom
Nothing to get hysterical about. Tom rarely plays in week one. A veteran like Tom can surely miss a few practices without consequence, especially at this time of year.
But he will be absent again next week for a few days. And on some level, it has to be a negative to be dealing with lawyers and judges rather than being part of the regular routine in Foxboro. Pro athletes famously thrive on routine and Tom has always said how much he enjoys practice and how important he thinks it is.
Again, no one needs to put it in context (early in training camp, this isn't Tom's game anyway, etc.) for me. That is fully understood by all, I think.
But being forced to focus on things other than football and discretionary time away from the field by this mess is not wholly irrelevant in my view, even for a guy like Tom who seems so good at isolating on what's important and ignoring all the noise.
It takes two to tango and that the NFL would rather have any reduction be imposed by the Judge rather than agreed upon in advance seems to be quite real. So regardless of whether doing a deal is advisable for Tom, it may not be possible.
But if Tom
can settle this on terms that are at the lowest range of acceptable to him, ending the missed practices/court appearances is one reason why I hope that he does.