Throughout his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady has had to adhere to questions that pertain to his former team in the New England Patriots. While being asked a question about New England's failure to make the playoffs, Brady slyly avoiding the question.
Within the press conference with reporters, Brady was asked questions about a missed throw to Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots missing the playoffs. You can watch the entirety of Brady's session with the media here.
After being asked the pair of questions, Brady masterfully proceeds to ask the reporter if he should answer the Gronkowski question with a smile across his face.
“Which question do you want me to answer?” a smiling Brady said, via Michael Hurley of CBS Boston. “The Gronk one?”
Despite taking a comedic approach to the questions, Brady did end up speaking about his former team's failure of making the postseason.
“As far as the Patriots, they have their own thing going,” Buccaneers QB Tom Brady said. “I’ve really been focused on how my play needs to be at quarterback, the execution of mine. They’re not really an opponent of mine. Obviously I have a lot of friends there, a lot of great relationships. But they’ve been focused on what they need to do, and I’ve been trying to focus on what my job is.”
In their first season without Brady, the Patriots were eliminated from the playoffs in Week 15, making it the first year they won't be in the postseason since 2008. At the same time, they are going to finish with a record that is .500 or below for the first time since 2000.
As for the 43-year-old quarterback, he's focused on helping the Buccaneers get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Even though he downplayed the question that involved the Patriots missing the playoffs, it likely motivates him to see his former team struggle without him operating the offense.