Sean Payton backs Tom Brady skipping practice: "He's earned the right"

Tampa Bay Buccaneers superstar Tom Brady missed practice in the leadup to his team's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brady did so to attend New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft's wedding.

Many are connecting the team's loss to the quarterback's decision to go to the wedding and his apparent rise in attendance issues. However, speaking on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd," NFL analyst and former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton gave Brady a pass. Here's how he put it:

"He's earned the right for personal days. When you're when you're someone like Tom, he's going to handle some whatever it is. I was saying this earlier. You have a a large roster of 65 guys and coaching staff."

Payton went on to list a couple of instances where his players could be excused:

"There are funerals, there are weddings, there are births and the player would always come up and say, 'Hey, you know, my wife's going to be going into labor.' We'd have a plan in place if it was in-season."

Lastly, he claimed that if Tom Brady had won on Sunday (Oct. 16) against the Steelers, his absence would not even be a discussion this week:

"The funerals, unfortunately, we deal with those. It only becomes newsworthy because of the training camp days missed and then they lose the game. If he had played well yesterday, we'd be on topic B right now. We wouldn't even be addressing [the Buccaneers]."

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How did Tom Brady play against the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tom Brady was seen yelling at his offensive line on the sideline. It was clear that the signal caller was unhappy with the performance of his offensive line. That said, how did "TB12" do on Sunday?

In the game, Brady completed 25 of 40 passes for 243 yards, a touchdown, and zero interceptions. In total, he completed 62.5 percent of his passes and earned a quarterback rating of 87.8. He was also sacked twice.

It was Brady's third-worst quarterback rating and his third-lowest yardage total of 2022. He will hope to turn it around next week when the Buccaneers face the Carolina Panthers.

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If any of the above quotes are used, please credit the Herd with Colin Cowherd and H/T Sportskeeda.