Patriots quarterback Tom Brady played two preseason games without an NFL logo on his helmet, a subtle two-word, seven-letter message to the league that has suspended him four games. But the potency of the message is diluted by the twist applied to the tale by Tom Curran of CSN New England.
Appearing on Monday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, Curran said that, as Curran understand it, Brady would say he didn’t know the logo was missing.
Absent eyewitness testimony from someone who saw Brady remove the sticker or an electronic paper trail (from, you know, Brady’s cellphone) that proves he knew about it and/or did it, there’s no way to disprove the claim that he didn’t know the logo was missing. But does anyone really believe that the absence of the logo was accidental?
Every NFL helmet displays the league’s logo sticker. Every one. If proof emerges that, from time to time, the logo sticker simply isn’t there, Brady’s claim becomes plausible, although the absence of the logo sticker from his own helmet would be at best a very convenient coincidence.
Then again, why wouldn’t Brady just admit that he deliberately removed the logo or directed someone to do it? Maybe he didn’t want to get in trouble again with the league office. Maybe he thinks it’s beneath him to care about such trivialities. Or maybe he was trying to make an ironic point regarding the ability of the team’s equipment staff to do (or fail to do) something without him knowing it.
As Gantt pointed out this morning, maybe the Patriots also have a helmet guy who calls himself the “Peeler” because he likes oranges.
Regardless, with Brady now out of pocket for four weeks, it’s highly unlikely that the issue will still matter by the time he returns -- unless during a Week Five visit to Cleveland his helmet once again lacks the NFL logo.