Tom Brady Is Wrong; There's Nothing "Ridiculous" About Questioning His Trainer

New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman is going to serve a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. The last year Edelman played (2016), he caught 98 passes for 1,106 yards, then missed all of 2017 with a torn ACL from which he has now recovered, thanks in part to the work of Tom Brady’s personal trainer, Alex Guerrero, with whom Edelman has been training for several years.

Edelman is a big part of the Patriots’ plans, and he’s going to miss 25 percent of his team’s season because he took a substance he wasn’t allowed to take.

This is a big deal.

That this happened while Edelman was training with Brady’s weird trainer is a fact worth exploring by anyone who covers the Patriots or the NFL, and regardless of where the reporting leads, asking Tom Brady about it is rote, procedural journalism — perhaps the first of hundreds of journalistic maneuvers aimed at acquiring the truth — and if we all lived a thousand more years, nothing about that would change.

Tom Brady knows this, or should. Instead, Brady, who for 17 years has been a starting NFL quarterback and one of the most famous athletes in the world, acted like like a question about this situation was an affront to human dignity, and stormed off in a big showy show.

"“I have no comment. It is just ridiculous,” Brady said when asked if he felt such a connection was fair because Edelman, in addition to others, trains with Guerrero. “I’m out. See you guys.”"

It goes without saying that Brady doesn’t have to answer any question he doesn’t want to, but he’s being dishonest and manipulative by acting like the question is ridiculous, and that’s a bad way to be.

In fact, the most famous PEDs case of the last 20 years involved Barry Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson, distributing steroids to baseball players (he pleaded guilty in 2005). Further, the Patriots and Brady have butted heads over Guerrero and his unusual methods. So anyone with any curiosity whatsoever — and remember, a reporter’s job is mainly to be curious — is going to have some questions about what’s going on there.

There’s nothing ridiculous about asking those questions, and Brady’s getting huffy about it isn’t going to stop anybody.