Tom Brady Make Donald Drumpf Again
Tom Brady'south official retirement bulletin on Tuesday has, predictably, been met with a variety of takes. These takes tend to fall into four categories:
"What a peachy player! I love Tom Brady!"
"I hate Boston sports teams! I hate Tom Brady!"
"What a cheater! I hate Tom Brady!"
"Good riddance to that MAGA-hat-wearing symbol of white oppression. I really detest Tom Brady!"
The camp you lot fall into may be inadvertently personally revealing; information technology's a fun little Sorting Chapeau for our sporting era.
The army camp you lot fall into may exist inadvertently personally revealing; it'south a fun lilliputian Sorting Hat for our sporting era. Conspicuously, Brady is a cultural lightning rod, but as his legendary career ends, I feel obliged to point out one criticism that should exist corrected. Not only was Brady non any kind of fascist, I'm pretty sure he was never really on lath with Donald Trump in the first place.
Yet, the "MAGA-lid-loving Brady" legend has been such a large part of his narrative for more than a half-decade that information technology has taken on a life of its own; I've actually heard him called "this generation's Lindbergh."
Perhaps you hate Brady and maybe yous don't, merely as the news cycle begins litigating and relitigating Brady's larger-than-life legacy, permit's be articulate about what he did — and what he didn't — say or exercise. Information technology'due south unavoidable that one of the greatest Northward American athletes ever be mythologized, only at least permit us mythologize based on fact, not fiction.
Brady didn't put the lid in his locker
If you know one thing about Brady's alleged politics, information technology probably ties back to that famous pic of Brady with the "Make America Great Over again" hat in his locker way dorsum in September 2015. Brady had said he was "friends" with Trump and that "he's a hell of a lot of fun to play golf with."
But it's worth noting that Brady isn't the 1 who put the chapeau in his locker: That happened via Patriots owner Robert Kraft — Brady's boss, such equally it was — who was such a longtime Trump friend and supporter that he may take asked Trump to attempt to intervene during the team's Spygate scandal.
Remember, too, that this was September 2015: Brady, like most of America then, surely didn't take Trump'southward candidacy particularly seriously. (Be honest, yous didn't either.) Brady was explicit in an interview that week that he was non expressing support for Trump for president and that the hat should not be seen as an endorsement of that. (He later said, "Political support is a lot different than the support of a friend.")
The hat was never seen again, and Brady never said a word in back up of Trump once more afterward. Indeed, the just affair he always said well-nigh Trump politically was to say he "disagreed" with him when Trump said protesting athletes should be "dragged off the field."
Besides Kraft, Patriots coach Neb Belichick was a real Trump supporter. On the eve of the election in 2016, Trump read from a letter Belichick had sent him — a letter of the alphabet that, despite a cadency that sounded suspiciously like Trump'due south, Belichick confirmed sending. ESPN writer Seth Wickersham afterwards revealed that some on the team were so upset by Belichick's Trump support that they nearly boycotted practise. Merely none of them ever said a give-and-take about Brady.
Brady never went to the White House when Trump was at that place
Brady did not visit the White House with the Patriots when the team historic with President Barack Obama in 2015. But he also did non join when the team visited the White House during the Trump administration.
Brady's career has spanned many different presidents, and he did visit two of them: President George W. Bush in 2004 and 2005 and President Joe Biden final year. During his visit with the latter, Brady joked, "Not a lot of people think that we could accept won. In fact, I recall about twoscore per centum of people still don't think nosotros won. You empathise that, Mr. President?" It was widely considered a swipe at Trump.
Brady's wife has been less circumspect
Brady has never explicitly said what he idea of Trump politically, but his wife, Gisele Bundchen, sure has. When, on the eve of the 2016 election, someone asked her on Instagram if she and Brady were voting for Trump, she gave an emphatic "No!"
As well, on the mean solar day when Brady's teammates were visiting the Trump White House — and her husband was not — she tweeted a link to the climate change protest specifically slated for Trump's 100th day in office. She even reportedly told Brady to end talking near politics at all, lest at that place be any confusion, advice he clearly followed.
Ultimately, Brady is unlike most athletes — and Americans. But where he is very much similar virtually athletes, and near Americans, is in his credible desire not to talk about politics — at all. Is Tom Brady a Republican? A Democrat? A Proud Boy? A Bernie Bro? While Brady said years ago that he did enjoy "following" politics, he has, like many celebrities, mostly just supported blandly safe causes and charities.
This doesn't make him dauntless, and there's certainly a case to be made that he should wield his considerable ability and influence differently. Brady has mostly ignored the tendency of the athlete-activist, typified by stars like LeBron James or Megan Rapinoe. Do many of us wish Brady had spoken up against Trump? Of course. Merely the fact that he didn't makes him exactly like, oh, every other Super Bowl quarterback of the last 20 years. (Well, well-nigh every one.)
It is possible that Brady is secretly a Gettr user and a heavy fiscal supporter of Trump (though no donations have ever been given to a Trump campaign in his name), and he's merely been incredibly stealth about it. But it'southward more probable that Trump was merely a golfing buddy who all of a sudden ran for president.
So you can hate Tom Brady all y'all want. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to practice so (I didn't even bear upon his health stuff or his support of Antonio Brownish). Simply him being a Trump supporter isn't one of them. Sorry.
Related:
- From Tom Brady and the NFL to the WNBA and NASCAR, Trump still haunts pro sports
- Carl Nassib, the first openly gay active NFL player, could be turning point for male sports
- Colin Kaepernick's NFL slavery comments on Netflix made waves. Good.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tom-brady-donald-trump-retiring-nfl-great-s-maga-myth-ncna1288381
0 Response to "Tom Brady Make Donald Drumpf Again"
Postar um comentário