2015 Brady Make America Great Again Hat
Tom Brady's official retirement bulletin on Tuesday has, predictably, been met with a variety of takes. These takes tend to fall into iv categories:
"What a great 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 hate Tom Brady!"
The camp y'all fall into may be inadvertently personally revealing; information technology's a fun trivial Sorting Hat for our sporting era.
The camp you autumn into may be inadvertently personally revealing; it's a fun little Sorting Lid for our sporting era. Clearly, Brady is a cultural lightning rod, but equally 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 board with Donald Trump in the commencement place.
Nonetheless, the "MAGA-hat-loving Brady" fable has been such a big function of his narrative for more than a one-half-decade that information technology has taken on a life of its own; I've really heard him called "this generation'due south Lindbergh."
Perchance you detest Brady and maybe yous don't, but as the news cycle begins litigating and relitigating Brady's larger-than-life legacy, let's be clear about what he did — and what he didn't — say or practise. It's unavoidable that one of the greatest North American athletes ever be mythologized, merely at least let u.s.a. mythologize based on fact, not fiction.
Brady didn't put the hat in his locker
If you know one affair most Brady's alleged politics, it probably ties back to that famous movie of Brady with the "Make America Great Once again" lid in his locker way back 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 game with."
But it'south worth noting that Brady isn't the one who put the hat in his locker: That happened via Patriots owner Robert Kraft — Brady'south boss, such as it was — who was such a longtime Trump friend and supporter that he may have asked Trump to attempt to intervene during the team's Spygate scandal.
Remember, besides, that this was September 2015: Brady, like almost of America and then, surely didn't take Trump's candidacy particularly seriously. (Be honest, you lot 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 non exist seen as an endorsement of that. (He afterwards said, "Political support is a lot dissimilar than the back up of a friend.")
The hat was never seen once again, and Brady never said a word in back up of Trump over again afterward. Indeed, the merely matter he ever said nigh Trump politically was to say he "disagreed" with him when Trump said protesting athletes should exist "dragged off the field."
Besides Kraft, Patriots coach Bill 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 that, despite a cadence that sounded suspiciously similar Trump's, Belichick confirmed sending. ESPN writer Seth Wickersham subsequently revealed that some on the squad were so upset by Belichick'due south Trump support that they nearly boycotted do. Just none of them ever said a discussion most Brady.
Brady never went to the White Business firm when Trump was there
Brady did not visit the White Firm with the Patriots when the team historic with President Barack Obama in 2015. Only he also did not 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 Due west. Bush in 2004 and 2005 and President Joe Biden final twelvemonth. During his visit with the latter, Brady joked, "Not a lot of people think that we could have won. In fact, I think nearly xl percent of people still don't recall we won. You understand that, Mr. President?" It was widely considered a swipe at Trump.
Brady'south married woman has been less circumspect
Brady has never explicitly said what he thought of Trump politically, just 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!"
Besides, on the 24-hour interval when Brady'south teammates were visiting the Trump White House — and her hubby was not — she tweeted a link to the climate change protestation specifically slated for Trump'south 100th mean solar day in office. She even reportedly told Brady to stop talking about politics at all, lest in that location be any defoliation, advice he clearly followed.
Ultimately, Brady is dissimilar almost athletes — and Americans. But where he is very much like most athletes, and most Americans, is in his credible want not to talk virtually 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 "post-obit" politics, he has, like many celebrities, more often than not just supported blandly safety causes and charities.
This doesn't make him brave, and there'southward certainly a case to be made that he should wield his considerable ability and influence differently. Brady has mostly ignored the trend of the athlete-activist, typified by stars similar LeBron James or Megan Rapinoe. Do many of us wish Brady had spoken up against Trump? Of form. Only the fact that he didn't makes him exactly similar, oh, every other Super Bowl quarterback of the final 20 years. (Well, almost every one.)
It is possible that Brady is secretly a Gettr user and a heavy financial supporter of Trump (though no donations have ever been given to a Trump campaign in his proper name), and he'due south just been incredibly stealth well-nigh it. Only information technology's more likely that Trump was just a golfing buddy who suddenly ran for president.
And so you tin can hate Tom Brady all you want. There are enough of legitimate reasons to do and then (I didn't fifty-fifty impact his wellness stuff or his support of Antonio Brownish). Only him being a Trump supporter isn't one of them. Pitiful.
Related:
- From Tom Brady and the NFL to the WNBA and NASCAR, Trump nevertheless 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.
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Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tom-brady-donald-trump-retiring-nfl-great-s-maga-myth-ncna1288381
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