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Belichick finds loophole: Tom Brady might not talk until after Sunday's game

Eric Edholm

It’s Tom Brady Week in the NFL, and yet it has been noticeably quiet around the New England Patriots.

Head coach Bill Belichick was short with the media following the Patriots’ first loss of the season in Week 4 — and short again the following day — and Brady has only said a few words about his return from a four-game suspension to his pal, Jim Gray at Westwood One. (What did Brady tell Gray? Allow us to recap: “Blah, blah, blah … not looking back, focused on present … blah, blah … hopefully, I represent well … blah.”)

We might not hear Tom Brady talk again until after Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns (AP).
We might not hear Tom Brady talk again until after Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns (AP).

That’s apparently all we’ll hear from Brady until after the Week 5 game at the Cleveland Browns.

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We know you don’t shed too many tears for the media when a star such as Brady doesn’t speak, for whatever the reason. We wouldn’t expect you to. But this is no ordinary week — Brady’s return has been one of the more anticipated stories of the season, and there’s added weight to it coming off a game in which the Patriots were blanked at home for the first time since 1993.

That apparently doesn’t change things for the Patriots, but it technically doesn’t matter from their perspective. Brady currently isn’t on the roster yet, as the league has granted them an exemption — the Patriots don’t have to add him (or Rob Ninkovich, who also was suspended) officially until Saturday. There’s no media access that day as the Patriots will be traveling to Cleveland.

In lieu of Brady, they offered up a friendly alternative to the quarterback.

Could Brady surprise people and have a chat during open locker room in the next few days? Perhaps — but it seems fairly unlikely. Why? Because there might be a deeper meaning here. In a season in which the NFL has seen flagging TV ratings (they were down again in Week 4), Belichick isn’t likely to do the enemy a solid by letting his in-demand quarterback speak prior to the game.

Now, we don’t really think the Patriots are trying to game the system here. They just have zero incentive to let Brady talk on his own before they have to, and since their starting quarterback currently isn’t on the roster, they’ve found a within-the-rules workaround to prevent it.

Of course, don’t tell us that Belichick isn’t taking an ounce or two of pleasure out of this — even in his grumbletonian state this week.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!