Mazz: What does Tom Brady love more than anything else? Power
Just so we’re all on the same page, Tom Brady did not change his mind. He didn’t have some sort of epiphany or arrive at some unforeseen realization. He used you to get whatever he really wanted – again – because he has become one of the great sports divas in American history.
The GOAT is now a PITA.
Pain.
In.
The.
Arse.
So before anyone gets confused and says that Tom Brady is “coming back,” let’s not create false storylines. He never really left and he never really had any intention of it. As we’ve learned with Brady over recent years, especially, most everything has to do with his contract, with money, with power. He’ll exploit you for immunity powder during a pandemic or try to sell you a 12-pack of nuts for $50. He’ll even let someone pay more than $500,000 for the football used on the “final” touchdown pass of his career before rendering the pigskin as valuable as a breakfast sausage.
And the timing of Brady’s latest “announcement” – or, should we say, maneuver?
It just so happens to have come within days of Deshaun Watson’s arrival on the trade market and seemingly blocks Tampa Bay’s ability to trade for Watson until they settle whatever differences they have with Brady.
How convenient.
Is this good for football, or at least good for the NFL? You bet it is. In that way, it’s actually good for you, too. The Tom Brady drama is good for ticket sales, TV ratings, storylines. And we’ll all eat it up. But there is a cost here, too, for Brady, who has cheapened himself into one of the great used car salesmen of all-time.
From now on, before Brady makes any decision, we are required to ask: what’s his angle now?
During his final years here in New England, as we all know, Brady and coach Bill Belichick were engaged in a power struggle, to the point where Brady’s wife, Giselle Bundchen, told owner Robert Kraft that the Patriots treated her husband like “Effing Johnny Foxboro.” Looking back, does that sound like a woman who wanted her husband to retire? Or does that sound like a woman who wants her husband to grind the Patriots (and everyone else?) to a pulp because she is even more vindictive than he is?
The point: don’t buy the narrative that Brady “retired” because his family wanted him to. It’s quite the contrary. Brady “retired” because he and Giselle are now tired of the Bucs, and because they probably thought the Bucs were treating him like “Effing Johnny Tampa.”
Does any of this validate Brady’s actions? Sure. Maybe. Definitely. It really depends on how much you believe business is business and where those lines are. Brady learned from the masters, after all, because the Patriots leveraged him repeatedly during his time here in New England. They asked him to take less and he bought it – hook, line and sinker – and he’s probably still mad at himself as a result. Brady saw Bill Belichick leverage one teammate after the next as he approached his final years in Foxboro, and then he saw Belichick leverage him right out the door that Kraft mercifully (foolishly?) opened for his departure.
So now …. guess what? Brady has turned into that thing he most resented. He has turned into Belichick. He has become a power-hungry mercenary who is loyal to only himself, which is entirely fine in the cutthroat world of professional sports in general, of the NFL in particular. He is who he is. And that is totally fine so long as we all accept it that Brady is not what he wants you to believe he is, just a guy who loves his family first and football second.
Frankly, it’s time to wonder whether he really loves football at all.
Or whether he just loves the power it gives him.
PHOTOS: Tom Brady and the Lombardi Trophy
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