NFL legend Tom Brady, a recent high-profile free agency addition to the Buccaneers roster, was ejected from a park in his new home city of Tampa for breaking coronavirus restrictions to train.
Brady may well be seen as the saviour of Tampa Bay's NFL franchise but he has drawn the ire of the area's local government following the incident, in which he was asked to leave the public park after being spotted working out in direct violation of a public lockdown order.
Also on rt.com The crumbling of a dynasty: How can the New England Patriots navigate the post-Tom Brady era?The former New England Patriot and six-time Super Bowl winner Brady inked a multi-million dollar two-year deal withe the Florida team during the NFL offseason, where he will take over quarterback duties from first overall pick Jameis Winston. However, his start as a Buccaneer has been hampered by the various restrictions on public gatherings in place designed to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.
Faced with being unable to work out in Tampa Bay's training facility, Brady reportedly took to a local park in order to put himself through his paces but was quickly spotted by a park warden and as Mayor Jane Castor told a news conference, "She went over to tell him that it was closed and it was Tom Brady."
"I got to tell you this story, too. Now, I always tell people, I'm not one to gossip so you didn't hear this from me," Castor said.
"Our parks are closed down; and so a lot of our parks staff they patrol around just to make sure that people aren't doing contact sports and things like that, and saw an individual working out in one of our downtown parks."
"He has been cited," she added.
Days out from the NFL Draft, the league's 32 teams are putting plans in place to proceed with their offseason training plans in the midst of the lockdown. Various teams began their 'virtual offseason' this week with players connected to coaches via online teleconferences, while the Thursday's draft will break with tradition and be an online-only affair.
Also on rt.com 'It was just time to move on': NFL legend Tom Brady explains decision behind Tampa Bay Buccaneers switchA mock draft featuring representatives from all teams in the league took place on Monday but concerns remain over potential technical flaws which could hinder the process.
"I was on the phone with a head coach talking about the mock draft today and he was losing his mind because his Internet went down," ESPN's Dianna Russini reported.
"Apparently his young children were all on their iPads using up the bandwidth. 'Everybody get off the Internet' in loud dad voice. I hung up."