NFL and NFLPA will look into Gisele's claim of Tom Brady's concussion

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

This Tom Brady concussion story better not end up with Ted Wells doing another 250-page report, circular arguments over destroyed cell phones and various courts getting involved.

Brady’s wife Gisele opened up a can of worms with a CBS interview that was released on Wednesday. She said Brady had a concussion last season. It isn’t a shock that an NFL player suffered a concussion, except in Brady’s case it was never reported anywhere. That’s a no-no, with the NFL’s injury report rules.

“He had a concussion last year,” Gisele told Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning.”

“I mean, he has concussions pretty much every — we don’t talk about it, but he does have concussions.”

That raised eyebrows for a few reasons. One, it’s Brady, the biggest name in the sport. Two, it’s the New England Patriots, and folks will use any excuse there is to accuse them of skirting rules. Also, the concussion issue is always a hot-button item. And, on top of it all, it’s mid-May and there’s not a ton of NFL news. Voila, instant story.

The NFL put out a release Wednesday saying it had no record of Brady suffering a concussion, or of him reporting any symptoms. The league said it will team up with the NFLPA to look further into the matter.

The problem with all of this is Gisele isn’t exactly qualified to diagnose concussions, and her statement is so vague (“we don’t talk about it”) that it’s clear this won’t go anywhere. You think Brady is going to cooperate with the NFL and tell the league his concussion history after what went down with deflate-gate? Ha.

Did Brady not tell the Patriots about a possible concussion? Perhaps. Are we so naive to think this doesn’t happen on a regular basis around the league? If Brady suffered a concussion — and just because Dr. Bündchen said he had a concussion doesn’t make it fact — there’s no way the NFL is going to figure it out. This isn’t the Richard Sherman knee injury story. Now, if the NFL finds out that the Patriots knew about a concussion and purposely withheld that information (there is zero indication that happened, by the way), then it’s worth going crazy about. Good luck cracking that case.

For now, all we have is Brady’s wife saying he had a concussion. The NFL will look into it, and probably find nothing. And players will probably keep hiding concussions, no matter how much the league doesn’t want that to be the case.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala on May 1. (AP)
Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala on May 1. (AP)

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!