Las Vegas Raiders part-owner Tom Brady expertly avoided a question about the most controversial transaction in the NFL this offseason that directly involved his team.
Earlier in the offseason, the Raiders attempted to trade away star pass rusher Maxx Crosby – having agreed to terms with the Baltimore Ravens on a deal.
But shockingly, the Ravens claimed to have discovered a medical issue that led to them backing out of the deal and sending Crosby back to Las Vegas.
The stunning result has left the league reeling as it seems ever the more likely that he’ll be staying with the Raiders after previously demanding a trade.
Brady was asked by reporters after Saturday’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic about the deal in a two-part question – first, how his role would be different within the Raiders organization this year and secondly about the collapsed trade.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion only answered the first part of that question: ‘You know, I love being involved in the NFL. Like I said, I love football. I love sports.’
Raiders part-owner Tom Brady dodged a question about the Maxx Crosby trade collapse
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‘You know, I was very fortunate in my career to be around amazing people and mentors like Robert Kraft, as an owner of a team, and now getting to work with Mark Davis in the role that I’m at, and to see kind of a different team shape, the way that things are done and how we’re evolving and growing, and, you know, we certainly have a long ways to go.
Brady continued: ‘What I learned about football in 23 seasons is, it’s a tremendous amount of resilience, adversity, discipline, determination, communication, of an entire organization to see, really the value in committing to one another.
‘So, you know, it’s always, I think, process over outcomes, and I think we’re all trying — and all of us in our own role that we have, and the role that we have, and whether it’s an ownership role or a personnel department or strength and conditioning and athletic training and obviously players and positions and offense, defense — everyone’s got to come together. Everyone has to work incredibly hard for the people next to them.’
The reporter who initially asked the question attempted to get an answer about Crosby, but NBC Sports reports that someone else began to ask a different question and the subject changed.
Brady turned back the clock in his flag football performances at the event in Los Angeles.
To start the second game, the 48-year-old shook off a pass rusher and then found receiver Stefon Diggs in the back corner of the end zone for his first points of the day. Then Brady found his longtime Patriots and Buccaneers teammate Rob Gronkowski on the ensuing two-point conversion.
The event was originally scheduled to take place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but was relocated to BMO Stadium in Los Angeles because of the Iran war.
