Last week, Tom Brady spoke to reporters for the first time this season and was asked about his wife Gisele’s comments from earlier this year, hinting that Brady may have suffered a concussion last season that was never reported. Brady broke the silence and said “I really don’t think that’s anyone’s business”, which is partially true.
ESPN promptly lost its mind and had an absolute field day with this comment. Bob Ley on Outside The Lines responded with “The hell it isn’t, Tom…With enhanced NFL protocols now in place to diagnose and treat brain trauma, that the league’s greatest-ever quarterback may have had concussions despite never being listed as such on an injury report? That is news…Tom Brady just turned 40. He says this is all none of our business. And Tom, I sincerely and honestly hope you can say that as you celebrate many birthdays in the years ahead.”
First of all, Jesus Christ. Second of all, Jesus Christ. Sure, Brady’s concussions or the lack thereof isn’t necessarily nobody’s business. The NFL is unique in the sense that they have access to such records and documents on every single player and their health from head to toe. Every individual team and the collective league knows what’s going on. I’m 99.9 percent sure that Brady meant that his concussions aren’t the public’s or the media’s business, which is completely and utterly correct, no matter how badly that hurts ESPN’s feelings.
Everybody knows that anybody who plays football regularly at any level is going to suffer from varying degrees of head trauma at some point. Especially with all of the recent CTE studies and former NFL player deaths linked to the unfortunate disease, the whole world knows that football can cause CTE. This shouldn’t be breaking news to anybody, but many are only just now realizing this. Football players powerfully hit other football players with their bodies, which can cause trauma to the head. That’s what the sport has always been and always will be.
Another thing that any football fan knows is that teams and players will hide “less severe” cases of concussions by simply not reporting them and are swept under the rug. That’s the way it’s been for a long time now. It may not be the right thing to do whether it’s an individual or a team hiding the concussion, but it isn’t the end of the world, either.
Ley knows both of those facts. Ley simply looks like another journalistic hardo thinking he’s changing the world by scolding the greatest of all time for doing something that handfuls of other players in all sports do every day. We know this, folks: there is a national double standard when it comes to the Patriots. Nobody gives a rat’s ass about what some lineman on the Rams is hiding in regards to his mental health. It only matters when it’s happening in Foxboro.
Ley’s concern isn’t about Brady and the Patriots following the NFL’s rules and protocol; his concern is about the national and public news. Like literally everybody else at ESPN, he simply wants the headlines to be all about Brady and him “lying” yet again. Like so many others, he just wants all of the clickbait targeted towards Brady with the perfect story.
Acting entitled to knowing and reporting personal matters isn’t something that ESPN is new to. Two years ago, Adam Schefter tweeted out a picture of Jason Pierre-Paul’s medical records around the time of the infamous fireworks accident. As you may know, it’s kind of illegal to obtain one’s medical records for your own, not to mention literally tweeting out the picture of the document, especially when you’re on the top of the reporting totem pole like Schefter is. A few months later, Pierre-Paul sued Schefter and the whole case went to court.
The lawsuit was only recently settled a few months ago. In summary, ESPN would be wise to keep their noses out of an athlete’s medical business. But, that’s just my opinion, of course.
Any media member of any sort acting entitled and assuming that it’s their mission in life to break medical stories on an individual athlete are the worst. Ley thinks that it’s his and others’ right to gain access to these documents and findings and share them with the public, and that’s pretty disgusting. Athletes are people, too; people tend to forget that. This is cliche, but think about it: how would you feel if someone you didn’t know snatched personal hospital documents of yours with your medical history and shared them with the world on social media? You probably wouldn’t like it. Yeah, this is a different scenario from an everyday civilian, but there’s a reason such cases aren’t reported.
At the end of the day, the NFL doesn’t want to deal with hidden concussions. Neither should the Worldwide Leader. It’s the league’s business and the player’s team’s business to know of such health reports. It is not the media’s business nor the public’s business, and that needs to be respected. Unfortunately, the folks over in Bristol couldn’t care less about someone’s privacy and will do anything to attempt to stay relevant as their ratings and overall interactions go down the toilet.
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