BOSTON—Brady's bunch will be riding in style, courtesy of the All-Pro Patriots quarterback and reigning NFL MVP.
Tom Brady announced Friday night at a charity appearance that he'll serve for the next three years as honorary chairman and celebrity ambassador of the Audi Best Buddies Challenge: Hyannis Port, a bike ride founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver to raise money for people with intellectual disabilities.
As part of the deal, the five starting members of Brady's offensive line -- Matt Light, Stephen Neal, Dan Koppen, Logan Mankins and Nick Kaczur -- will get the use of new Audi Q7 SUVs for the next year.
Brady didn't take questions after the announcement, but Koppen and Neal said they weren't affected by Spygate developments this week, including former Pats' video assistant Matt Walsh meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Spector. Also this week there were front-page apologies by the Boston Herald and writer John Tomase over a story written on Feb. 2, the day before the Super Bowl, in which Tomase claimed that a source had told him that the Pats had taped the St. Louis Rams' walk-through before the 2002 Super Bowl.
"I could care less about it," said Neal. "It didn't affect me in the least then and it still doesn't."
Koppen said he put the whole Spygate matter out of his mind after the second week of the season and doesn't believe the Tomase story had any effect on the Patriots' 17-14 Super Bowl defeat by the New York Giants.
Koppen did take issue with Brady's claim that he and his Best Buddies race partner, Katie Meade, 24, of Des Moines, Iowa, had beaten Koppen and his sister in last year's
"He's a very competitive person but there's two things he can't beat me at -- backgammon and bike racing," said Koppen, who in the off-season regularly takes rides of up to 20 miles near Bakersfield, Calif.
