Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Tom Brady is taking some time away from the to “deal with personal things,” the team’s head coach Todd Bowles said in a statement.
“Tom has been excused today,” Bowles said. “He’ll be back sometime around after Tennessee. He’s going to deal with some personal things. This is something we talked about before training camp started. We allotted this time because he wanted to get in and get chemistry with the guys and go through two weeks of training camp.”
He continued, “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 (Ryan Griffin), as far as going into these next two games.”
Brady will return after the team’s August 20 preseason game against the Tennessee Titans.
Bucs linebacker Devin White says the team is fully behind Brady’s decision.
“He’s a grown man — (more grown) than most of us in the locker room, and he’s a human at the end of the day,” White said. “He’s got personal problems going on, but he’s a guy that’s been doing this so long, he (doesn’t) need to be here.”