The NFL announced that it will release its full 17-week schedule next week, despite the uncertain future surrounding leagues around the world in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Perhaps no NFL team is more anxious (and hopeful) for a 2020 season to start on time than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have been the major story this offseason after landing quarterback Tom Brady in free agency and then swinging a trade for retired tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Brady’s arrival in Tampa will hopefully bring with it an end to a Bucs-playoff drought that’s stretched more than a decade. The Bucs haven’t been to the playoffs since 2007 and haven’t won a postseason game since their Super Bowl XXXVII victory following the 2002 season. But having a six-time Super Bowl champion like Brady under center brings with it immediate championship expectations.
But, as former Brady teammate Tedy Bruschi warned, Bucs players will have to stop themselves from “Brady-watching.”
Bruschi, who won three Super Bowls with the Patriots and played with Brady from 2000 to 2008, spoke about the mindset some of Brady’s old New England teammates tended to fall into if they dropped a pass or gave up a touchdown late in the game.
Per Bruschi (via ESPN):
“They need to get over Brady-watching. Because they get to the sideline and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘It’s OK, Tom will bail us out.’ That’s what I call Brady-watching. I’ll be watching that early on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, if they’re Brady-watching or if they feel themselves as a team that everything is important, and not just when that guy right there is under center and everything is gonna magically happen.”
Bruce Arians is going to have to manage expectations with this team and remind them they haven’t accomplished anything as a group. What Brady (and Gronk) did in New England has no bearing on how the Bucs will do this season.
Bucs fans are welcome to Brady-watch until they’re blue in the face. But the players? Not so much.
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