Posted: Monday May 10, 2010 12:03AM;
Updated: Monday May 10, 2010 8:18AM
Peter King>MONDAY MORNING QB
The disgrace of two former New Jersey heroes and one from LSU headlined the week -- and yes, I believe any award or postseason honor, including rookie of the year, should be stripped if a player tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance, as apparently is the case with defensive rookie of the year Brian Cushing of the Houston Texans.But I'm not leading with bad news. I'm leading with Tom Brady breaking his offseason silence to discuss his bi-coastal life, hopes for his team, a charity he is very bullish on and how much his world has spun in the past few years.
"Life changes,'' he said from California Saturday morning -- at a very dad-like time of 8 a.m. Pacific -- while watching his sons. "You've got to be able to change with it.''
Brady tries to disappear in the offseason, which is difficult given his own star power and that of his wife, model Gisele Bundchen. He's bi-coastal now, living part-time in the Boston area and in Los Angeles, and we don't see him much other than through the prying eyes of the paparazzi. But he surfaced Saturday to talk for a half-hour because he wanted to promote a passion of his -- the 11th annual Audi Best Buddies Challenge: Hyannis Port, a flag-football game (he'll be quarterbacking) at Harvard on June 4 and a bike ride from Boston to Cape Cod the next day.
Best Buddies is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit, now with 1,500 chapters nationwide, founded to encourage friendship and create employment opportunities for mentally handicapped people. The group helps to mainstream those with intellectual and developmental disabilities while helping them develop friendships that are often rare in their lives. Brady got involved from friendships with agent Brad Blank, who lived in his Boston neighborhood, and the group's founder, Anthony Shriver.
"I first did the ride nine years ago,'' Brady said. "I rode 40 miles with my sisters, and it was a great family event. I really liked the premise -- trying to build friendships for those less fortunate than we are. That was the premise, the importance of friendship. I think of the value of my friends in my life, and that's something some of these [mentally challenged] people don't have, based on something that was out of their control when they were born. It's just unfair. And this group does so much for them that I just wanted to do my part.''
This year his part will be the football game at Harvard and riding the next day, hoping to encourage people to donate to the cause. Brady is halfway toward his goal of getting supporters to donate $100,000 to Best Buddies through Team TB12 and hopes, obviously, to surpass his goal. To learn about the organization, and for ticket information for the Friday night flag football game, go to www.bestbuddies.org. I've gotten to know Brad Blank well over the years, and rarely do we have a conversation that doesn't include his passion for this organization. I wish them the best.
The Brady football headlines:
• He will be back in Foxboro this morning to resume work in the Patriots' offseason program. But he's not been a regular in the program thus far. Brady used to win awards for his attendance and fervor in the offseason program, but he said he has spent two weeks in the program since it began in mid-March. File this under the "life changes'' category. The son he had with Bridget Moynahan, Jack, turns 3 in August. Benjamin Brady, his son with Bundchen, is 5 months old. Brady sounds like he'll be as much of a full-time dad as he can be while shuttling between Los Angeles and Boston.
• He said he's healthy and able to work out harder this offseason than last, when he was recovering from knee surgery and a subsequent staph infection to the knee. "This is the best I've felt in a long, long time,'' he said. "Last year I was ready for the season, but this year I'm not doing rehab; I'm just getting ready as normal for the season.''
• He said he's been throwing "quite often'' on the West Coast to a rehabbing Wes Welker, recovering from knee and rotator-cuff surgeries. He made no predictions about when Welker would be ready to play, and was unspecific about how much Welker is doing now. But Welker is only three months removed from major surgery to his knee and shoulder, so it'd be a shock to see him early in the season. "He was an undrafted free-agent and has had to work for anything he's ever gotten,'' Brady said. "So don't put anything past him.''
• His solution to the Patriots' late-season slide, culminating in an embarrassing home playoff loss to Baltimore? "We've got to start listening more to coach [Bill] Belichick. We've got young kids who are good players. We've got the best football coach of all time. He's got the answers. We as a team have to take the teaching and the coaching we're being given.''
• He's not down over the team not adding a significant running back or wide receiver (other than the aging Torry Holt and third-round pick Taylor Price) to a team that needs an offensive boost with Welker's status in doubt. "I like [2009 injured draft pick] Brandon Tate a lot, and Julian Edelman was so effective for us last year, plus having [free-agent] David Patten back is going to help. The two tight ends we drafted [Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez], from what I hear, are really good players,'' he said.
The Patriots are in a weird spot. They have a team 90 percent of the owners (and most fan bases) in the league would die for. They won three of the last nine Super Bowls and still have the coach and quarterback who were the most important pieces in all three of those seasons. They won 58 games in the past five seasons; only one team in the league, Indianapolis, won more consistently in the regular-season over the same span. To average 11.6 wins a year ... that's failure? Of course not. But the bar has been set mile-high in Foxboro. The question around New England and around the league is the same, particularly with the Jets and Dolphins nipping at the Patriots' heels: Are the Patriots on their way up again, or on the way down?
"Our fans think just because we're wearing the same jerseys, we're the same team. And we're not,'' Brady said. "Teams change in this league every year, and ours is no exception. Last year was pretty disappointing in a lot of ways, obviously. Losing to Baltimore the way we lost in the playoffs, losing leads late, losing on the road. Every year is so different, and the way we approach this year will be extremely important. We need to see the toughness. We need to see the commitment. Can we take the coaching?''
Brady will hear a lot of questions about his commitment, now that he's spending so much time in Los Angeles. Hs goal in the offseason used to be to win the prized parking spot given to the most dedicated player in the offseason program. Now his family goals take precedence, and because his older son (he shares custody), lives in Los Angeles, he feels he has to be in southern California more. He made it clear he's not going to give short-shrift to either of his sons, and if he has to work on his own for a good part of the offseason, away from his teammates, so be it.
"It's a balancing act,'' he said. "I don't want the next 10 years to go by and to say I wasn't there for my sons. I wish I could be there [in Foxboro daily in the offseason] the way I was when I was 24, but life is different now. Things actually are much more simple than they've ever been. I used to spend every weekend running around with friends. Now I've got two great kids, and I love spending time with them. [Benjamin] is usually up at 6 in the morning, so that's when the day starts now.''
He said he's going to go back and forth through the offseason and will attend all the mandatory camps and as much of the offseason program as time allows. But he was honest about the fact he's not going to know his new mates as well as he used to know everyone in the locker room once training camp begins in late July.
"I'm not going to have the same relationship with the guys as if I was there every day,'' he said. "I hope they can understand. I've seen it handled different ways by a lot of guys on the team in the past, including some of the real leaders. I've seen Willie McGinest and Rodney Harrison when their family lives turned in different directions and they couldn't be in the offseason program every day. Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: We've all got to be ready to play.''
Just then he said, "Hold on,'' and said to his son Jack, "Want to go on the swing?''
Time for one more topic: the Jets ... the never-ending fortification of the Jets.
"They're always a team that gives us problems, and they've sure made a lot of changes this offseason," he said. "When your archrivals do as much as they've done, you've got to pay attention. They went to the conference championship game, they've got a great defense, they can run the ball as well as anyone, and they've got a great young quarterback who can make a lot of plays. Our whole division's improved. To win the division, we'll really have to earn it this year.''
As Brady knows, winning the division isn't enough in New England. It's easy to forget that Brady threw for his second-highest yardage total (4,398) and touchdown passes (28, tied with two other seasons) last year. No matter how much Brady's around this spring, I doubt we'll look back next January and say, "Yup. Brady missing big chunks of the offseason program doomed the Patriots.'' It'll be the effectiveness of those around him that determines the Patriots season -- and how good the team 190 miles to the southwest plays.
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Find the rest of this article at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/05/09/mmqb.tom.brady/index.html
The total opposite of Beliprick. 
