Tom Brady on suspended Patriots game day staff: 'I certainly feel terrible for them'
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady is preparing for the New England Patriots’ season opener rather than the start of the four-game suspension a federal judge overturned last week.
But Brady expressed regret Sunday that the two low-level team employees the Patriots suspended indefinitely May 6 as an NFL-appointed investigator probed an alleged ball-deflation scheme — John Jastremski and James McNally — aren’t here with him.
“I think that, you know, it’s been a very tough situation for everybody,” Brady, two-time NFL MVP, said in his first session with reporters in months. “It’s been a lot of stress on everybody’s families, and I feel bad that anybody’s in the position that we’ve been put in.
“Hopefully, we can just keep learning from life experiences. I certainly feel terrible for them that they’re not able to be with us right now.”
In announcing discipline against the Patriots and Brady on May 11, the league said McNally and Jastremski may not be reinstated without prior approval from NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, and even then they would not be permitted to hold their usual roles this season.
The NFL said Sunday the Patriots have not requested reinstatement for McNally or Jastremski.
Asked if he has been in contact with either of them, Brady said: “Those are personal things, and I think they’ve been obviously put through a lot so — as my family has — and I think that’s a challenging part. But I think right now for me, I’ve got to think about what I need to do to help this team win, and that’s be the best quarterback that I can be.”
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