Did Tom Brady suffer a concussion last year? Gisele says he did

Tom Brady is one of the most durable athletes in football, and he’s said he wants to play well into his 40s. But his wife Gisele doesn’t appear to be on board with that idea, and on Wednesday morning she suggested he may have suffered many as-yet-unreported concussions during his playing career.

“He had a concussion last year,” Gisele told Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning.”

“I mean, he has concussions pretty much every — we don’t talk about it, but he does have concussions.”

That’s a significant admission, one that Gisele appeared to backtrack from mid-answer. Given the NFL’s increased emphasis on concussion safety, and the increased visibility of players suffering from concussions in middle age and later, the fact that the NFL’s marquee player is suffering from concussions is fairly noteworthy.

“I don’t really think it’s a healthy thing for a body to go through,” Gisele said, before miming helmets knocking together. “That kind of aggression, all the time, cannot be healthy for you. I’m planning on having him around, doing healthy things when we’re like 100, I hope.”

Brady was not removed from any game because of a suspected concussion last season, and the New England Patriots did not indicate on any injury reports that Brady underwent postgame concussion protocol at any time last year. (He was listed on injury reports for knee and thigh issues.) Players who have suffered concussions must undergo a five-step recovery process, which can take days or weeks. Teams that do not adhere to concussion protocol — and, again, there’s no indication other than Gisele’s word here that the Patriots acted improperly — face fines and the possible loss of draft picks under new rules implemented by the NFL last year.

Brady loathes discussing anything other than the business of football — Bill Belichick has trained him well — and likely won’t have much to say on this issue. But in the past, he’s called concussions “just part of life” in the NFL. His wife, at least, isn’t so blasé about the aggression inherent in the game.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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