New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Thursday addressed his former teammate, Aaron Hernandez. Brady called the incident a tragedy, but said he and the team are ready to move on and play football.
Brady was among four of New England's captains to address the media, one day after coach Bill Belichick's press conference. Inevitably, Hernandez's arrest came up.
"It's a terrible thing that happened," Brady said, via the Boston Herald. "Look in the city of Boston this year with what happened in the Marathon, these are terrible things that you wish never would happen to anybody. There's a very human, compassionate element that we all have, and when it's someone that has been on our team, it's a very sad thing. I think we as a team have tried to move forward with better awareness and understanding of these types of things. Hopefully, nothing like this ever happens again.
"... Certainly, it's a very tragic thing that happened. Someone loses their life. But all of those things were out of the players' control here. We're not really part of that situation, so I don't think it does a lot for us to get too much involved with that."
Brady said he's moved past losing Hernandez and is ready to focus on the forthcoming season.
"I think everyone had a certain range of emotions, whatever they might have been, but those were really personal and I dealt with them," Brady said. "At some point, you have to move forward, and I think we as a team are doing that. The best part is really coming out to start the football season and talk about the challenges we have ahead of us. Certainly, it's been a challenging offseason, but we're going to try to move forward the best we know how."
Belichick told reporters yesterday that he advised his players not to comment on Hernandez's. Brady followed the company line.
When asked if Hernandez was part of the trusted leaders on offense, Brady paused then said, "I'm really not supposed to comment on Aaron. I wish I could, but thank you for asking."
Hernandez pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd. The former Patriots tight end is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 22.
New England begins training camp on Friday, July 26.
