8/31/2020 football Edit

Tom Brady Getting Accustomed To New Team, Impresses In Scrimmage

Clayton Sayfie • Maize&BlueReview

Staff Writer

Former Michigan star and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is getting acclimated in his new home. After 20 years and six Super Bowl championships in New England, the 43-year-old is adjusting to life with a new team under unique circumstances, with preseason games being canceled.

Still, Brady is impressing. In the Bucs' first team scrimmage of the year on Friday, and Brady's first time playing at Raymond James Stadium as a member of the organization, he led the first team offense to three touchdown drives, including a 16-play, 98-yard scoring march to start the scrimmage in style. Statistics and specific details about the competition were not released to the public, with it being a private team event, but the consensus coming out of it was that Brady had strong command of his unit.

"I thought Tom was very, very efficient," Bucs head coach Bruce Arians said. "Good job of leadership — I think when you get the first long drive of the year, guys start dragging. He got their asses in the huddle and got them rolling and keeping under the 25 second and 40 second clock pretty good — we weren't close at all. He was commanding that pretty good and overall I thought he had a hell of a day."

"No butterflies," Brady said of his first bit of game-like work with his new club. "I've been in a lot of moments on the field, but it's more excitement than butterflies. You're on the field, prepping with your teammates. We all got to dig a little deep — a 16-play drive to start the scrimmage, guys were getting hit, going in and out. There was a lot of great things to learn from what we were doing."

With just two weeks until the Bucs open up the season against division rival New Orleans, Brady understands the need for urgency in the team's limited opportunities at the stadium while simulating a game atmosphere.

"I think the competition's on," Brady said. "It doesn't start in two weeks. It's already started. So every day that goes by, we've gotta learn from what we're doing, we've gotta learn with each other — the plays, the corrections, all the different things that we're trying to get up to speed with because it's very different with no preseason games. ... It's coming fast.

"And I think today was a good indicator for all of us that it's right around the corner and we're gonna have to tighten some things up so we can be ready to go against a great football team in a couple weeks."

One unique aspect of the NFL's season is pumped-in crowd noise for games without fans, such as the Bucs' opener against the Saints in which the stands will be empty. Discussing the topic, Brady used the opportunity to take a light-hearted jab at the Indianapolis Colts', who were accused of adding artificial crowd noise in the early 2000s.

“I thought it was one of the Colts’ old tapes when they used to pump all that sound in the RCA Dome,” Brady said. “I was telling [quarterbacks] coach Clyde [Christensen], he must have pulled that one out of his basement for today’s practice.

"That was a joke, everybody, just want to make that clear.”

Overall, the four-time Super Bowl MVP believes Friday's scrimmage was a positive and necessary exercise.

“I love the idea of practicing in the stadium,” Brady said. “You get the proportions. You envision plays that you make in practice happening in the game. … I remember a lot of practice touchdowns in end zones in the stadium, and we got to a point where the stadium wasn’t that big a deal. It was another great place for us to go perform. I really think there’s a value going in there, feeling it out, seeing where the sun hits … which routes you can throw into the sun. All those things are really important any time you get accustomed to a stadium.”

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