Washington (AFP) - Superstar quarterback Tom Brady missed Tampa Bay Buccaneers' second joint practice with the Miami Dolphins on Thursday in a pre-planned decision to allow him to deal with "personal things".
The 45-year-old, who retired in March only to rescind that decision 40 days later, is not expected to return to the team for several weeks.
"Tom has been excused today.He's going to deal with some personal things," said new head coach Todd Bowles.
"It's something that he needs to handle.We trust him.We talked about it," said Bowles who added that the absence was scheduled before training camp began and that Brady would return after next week's pre-season game against the Tennessee Titans.
The Bucs open the NFL regular season against the Dallas Cowboys on September 11.
In the absence of the seven-time Super Bowl winner, backups Blaine Gabbert, Kyle Trask and Ryan Griffin will get some all-important gametime.
"This is something we talked about before training camp started," said Bowles.
"Knowing he wasn't going to play the first two games he didn't want to take away reps from Blaine and Kyle, as well as Griff."
The Buccaneers face Miami on Saturday in their first pre-season game after which they practice with Titans in Nashville before their August 20 game.
