Tom Brady’s first season as a broadcaster hasn’t generated much headlines from the booth. He made one on Thursday during the Giants-Cowboys game.
Brady criticized Daniel Jones’ decision to request a release from the Giants.
“I don’t know how that whole situation turned out, but to think that you would ask for release from a team that has done a lot for you is Maybe different than how I would have handled that” Brady said via Jared Schwartz of the New York Post.
The most important part of that sentence is the first nine words: “I don’t know how that whole situation turned out.”
Brady should at least have an inkling. The Giants made a business decision to bench Jones, with the goal of avoiding the possibility of owing him $23 million in 2025. If he had continued to play and if he had suffered a serious injury, the Giants would have owed a lot of money. to a player they wanted to release after the season, ideally without further financial obligations.
The Giants essentially found a way to relinquish their full commitment to Jones by yanking him from the lineup and placing him in bubble wrap on the practice field. They were done with him. And so he chose to drop the charade and ask them to do now what they planned to do later.
Honestly, Brady should know that. He covers the league for a living – a very good income, at $37.5 million a year. Business decisions are made all the time. The Giants made one, and Jones made one at right back.
He is not responsible for the outcome. Those are the giants.
Ask yourself this. If Brady had ever been benched not for performance reasons but for business reasons, would he have opted not to get practice reps, with the exception of playing scout team safety during walk-through drills?
Then there’s the fact that Brady’s willingness to undermine the promise Fox made to him by buying a piece of the Raiders has kept him from being involved in production meetings. He doesn’t know how the whole situation went? Well, if he could have met with coach Brian Daboll prior to the Thanksgiving game, Brady could have tried to find out — either with an official quote or an off-the-record conversation.
He could have called Daboll, who spent nine years with the Patriots while Brady played there. At worst, Brady could have asked Daboll or GM Joe Schoen or co-owner John Mara about it on the field before the game.
It’s not complicated. And it’s not Jones’ fault. He didn’t quit with the Giants. The Giants cut Jones.
It’s surprising that Brady doesn’t know that. And it’s hard to believe he would have handled the situation differently than Jones.
