For Patriots’ Tom Brady, it’s ‘time for me to do my job’

Tom Brady is fresh off one of the biggest victories of his career, but this four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback had no desire to discuss the matter Sunday in his first interaction with reporters since Super Bowl XLIX in February.

Brady won his much-publicized legal battle with the NFL when U.S. District Judge Richard Berman overturned Brady’s four-game suspension last week for Deflategate. In typical New England fashion it was ‘On to Pittsburgh’ Sunday when Brady did a question-and-answer session with reporters for the first time in seven months.

“It’s time for me to do my job,” Brady said Sunday in a conference call with Pittsburgh reporters. “Anything that’s happened over the last seven months really wasn’t my job. This is what my job is, to go out there and try to be a great leader for our team, to try to execute the plays that are called and execute at a high level. That’s where my focus is.”

Brady has never had much problem focusing his efforts on defeating the Steelers. He brings a 7-2 record against the Steelers into the season opener Thursday night with the only two losses coming in 2004 and 2011 at Heinz Field. The opener will be at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., where his mastery over the Steelers is well-documented.

In 2013, Brady and the Patriots shellacked the Steelers, 55-31. The Patriots racked up 610 yards of offense in that game, the most against a Steelers defense. He also put up 39 points on the Steelers in 2010 and 34 in 2007.

“We’ve had some pretty good offensive nights, but this night will be a lot different,” Brady said.

Brady has prepared for Dick LeBeau-led defenses since 2004. Now Keith Butler has the task of slowing the Patriots, and Brady acknowledges the unknowns present problems in preparation.

“We’re trying to figure out how they’ll play us,” Brady said. “They have a good team. They have a lot of experience, a lot of speed. Sometimes, preparing for these openers is tough because we don’t have a lot of film on what they’ve done. This year they’re incorporating new players and new schemes. We can only go on the preseason and what we’ve seen but anticipate there will be things we haven’t seen yet.”

The NFL is appealing the ruling by Judge Berman, but Brady is free to play until another court rules on the case. While Brady can return to work two other Patriots employees remain indefinitely suspended.

John Jastremski and Jim McNally, the two key figures in the Wells Report, remain out of work. Jastremski was a full-time employee in the equipment department; McNally, famously referred to as “The Deflator” in the report, was a game-day employee in the officials’ locker room at Gillette Stadium.

Brady was asked what he would like to see happen with them.

“I think that it’s been a very tough situation for everybody, and it’s put a lot of stress on everybody’s families, and I feel bad that anybody’s in the position that we’ve been put in,” Brady said. “Hopefully we can just keep learning from life experiences. I certainly feel terrible for them that they’re not able to be with us right now.”

Brady would not reveal if he has been in contact with them.

“Those are very personal things,” he said. “They’ve been obviously put through a lot, as my family has, and I think that’s a challenging part.”

As for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and their relationship, Brady kept his feelings to himself.

“I have a lot of personal feelings about everything that is non-Pittsburgh related, but that’s for another time,” he said. “I certainly have a great amount of respect for the commissioner and what his job is. My job is to be the best quarterback I can be, and that’s what I’m going to do on Thursday.”

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