Rodney Harrison praises Tom Brady for skipping OTAs

Patriots Hall of Famer Rodney Harrison went on the air to make a point about how he thinks Tom Brady missing OTAs is actually beneficial to New England.

According to NFL legend Rodney Harrison, there comes a time in a player’s career – if he’s earned it – that missing OTAs and other voluntary team-building activities isn’t the end of the world. In fact, if that player is six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, Harrison actually thinks that missing OTAs is a good thing.

“I think it’s great,” Harrison said on “Quick Slants the Podcast,” part of NBC Sports Boston. The podcast hosts had asked him for an honest reaction on Brady skipping OTAs for the second offseason in a row (he attended OTAs every other season previous to 2018). Harrison, in true Harrison form, didn’t hold back in dishing out his opinion.

"“I think at this point in time in his career, after all the years and all the levels of commitment that he’s shown that if he needs a break and he needs to spend his valuable time (with his family, he should). Tom Brady can’t be who Tom Brady is if he’s not at peace with himself. If he’s not spending time with his family, if he’s not making them breakfast, if he’s not waking up and taking them to the beach (he’s losing something) that’s very, very special and those are the things as an older player that you really value because you know you give up so much during the season.”"

After 19 years spent in the NFL, no one knows better than Brady what it means to be an older player who “give(s) up so much during the season.”

He has devoted the majority of his adult life to fanatically honing his craft, whether that be through actual games, practices, gym sessions, film study, pliability training, etc. The list goes on and on for most players, but especially for quarterbacks – and particularly for someone as obsessively single-minded and driven as Brady.

“Everybody knows Tom Brady, his work ethic, his level of commitment,” Harrison added. “And you know when he’s not there he’s working his ass off… so I think it’s fine. I think it’s really smart.”

Would it be a different story if the Patriots had floundered and Brady had noticeably struggled in 2018, rather than winning another championship after an offseason spent away from the team with his family?

Perhaps. But Brady’s also done enough over the course of his Hall of Fame-caliber career already to earn himself some well-deserved down time during the offseason. He has wife, he has children, he has parents… he even has a thriving health and wellness brand to attend to.

So long as he keeps coming back in September without any obvious rust – and so long as he keeps taking the Patriots deep into January and early February – Brady has earned the right to pretty much do what he wants with his free time, especially during the NFL offseason.