The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will do battle in Super Bowl LX on Sunday — which surprisingly doesn’t spark any significant feelings from Tom Brady.
Brady, who you might remember has significant connections to one of those franchises, came out this week and claimed that he doesn’t “have a dog in the fight” during his appearance on Sirius XM’s Let’s Go! podcast with Jim Gray.
Huh?
I don’t have to tell you why that upset so many people, but let’s look at the facts…
Brady is viewed as the greatest football player of all-time due to his accomplishments — six Super Bowl wins, five Super Bowl MVPs and three NFL MVPs — while with New England. The Patriots themselves even recognized all of that with a six-ton statue bearing his resemblance outside Gillette Stadium, but somehow that isn’t enough for the man himself to throw them a bone?
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Why?
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It’s true that he is currently a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and a play-by-play analyst for FOX, but those things shouldn’t stop him from being at least somewhat supportive of the team that took a chance on him almost three decades ago — just like they didn’t stand in the way of each other when his purchase took an inordinate amount of time to be approved by other owners.
If not only for the fact that ownership (Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft) has not changed since he first joined the franchise and that the current head coach (Mike Vrabel) is one of his most iconic teammates, perhaps he could recognize the support that he has continuously received from the fanbase throughout his role in several cheating scandals, the crypto scam that cost him and several others millions, the weird middle-aged social media posts and that odd stage when he cloned his dog.
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It’s a loyalty thing…
Vince Wilfork, Tedy Bruschi, Asante Samuel and several other former teammates seem to understand that as they immediately spoke out against his stance, with the former calling it “bullcrap” and the latter threatening to “expose” the legend on social media. Robert Spillane was rather dramatic, but even he was hurt by the lack of support — so it struck a nerve with those who have direct ties to both sides.
Dave Portnoy and Bill Simmons, two of his most ardent supporters, were even bothered enough to finally be critical of the “G.O.A.T.”
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I’ll admit that there are decent arguments for playing it down the middle. The Raiders have all but agreed to terms with Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to become their head coach next season, so perhaps the minority owner doesn’t want to ruffle feathers. FOX gives him special treatment and doesn’t force him to make game picks whenever he makes studio appearances, in which he has taken full advantage.
I just can’t help but think those excuses are rather lame.
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Brady was beloved for his ability to win, but also for all of the things that made him a winner — his uber-competitive demeanor, near-psychotic desire to beat his opponent and ability to elevate those around him.
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That was cool.
Brady definitely doesn’t owe anybody anything, but choosing not to take the layup is at best annoying and at worst cowardly — which makes him look like a public relations robot and is starting to undo all the good will built up over the years..
This sucks.
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