With Pro Wrestling Stunt, Tom Brady Is Watering Down The Tom Brady Experience

With pro wrestling stunt, Tom Brady is watering down the Tom Brady Experience originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

In the Boston sports scene, nobody in history could ever earn a longer leash than Tom Brady.

Think about. Not David Ortiz, not Bobby Orr, not Ted Williams and not Larry Bird or Bill Russell could inspire local fans to wear anything quite as heinous as a split Patriots/Buccaneers jersey. That’s something only Brady — a true local sports god (lowercase G) — could have accomplished.

Yet now, less than a year removed from the unveiling of a massive Brady statue at Gillette Stadium and just two years removed from Brady’s sold-out jersey retirement ceremony, it does seem as though even die-hard Patriots fans have grown tired of witnessing the 48-year-old Brady chasing seemingly every possible business venture under the sun.

And for whatever reason, the latest escapade — a contrived, pro-wrestling style feud with the famous-for-one-reason-or-another Logan Paul — seems to be a bridge too far for even the most ardent Brady defenders. Brady slapped Paul in front of a crowd at last week’s Fanatics Fest and then spent some time at Sunday’s World Cup final exchanging middle fingers with the influencer.

There was also whatever this is:

Bussin’ With The Boys’ Will Compton summed up the situation perfectly and succinctly, tweeting, “I legit don’t understand why Tom Brady is doing all of this.”

Nobody does.

Perhaps the schlockiness of the pro wrestling gimmickry is beyond the pale for most people. Or perhaps it’s simply the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Regardless, the public rejection and pushback on Brady for this endeavor feels notably stronger than anything in his past, even from fans in New England. And if Brady is losing his appeal in New England, where exactly might this schtick be connecting with … anybody?

As has always been the case, Brady is getting criticized from a number of national voices. Yet it’s gotten to a point where at least two of the four Barstoolers who legitimately got themselves arrested for Brady during the peak of Deflategate hysteria are tapping out on defending Brady.

“One day I’m gonna have to tell children that I went to jail for an internet guy,” John Feitelberg lamented on Barstool’s “Sports Central” show. “I’m gonna have to tell kids, like, ‘Yeah, I went to jail for that guy who wrestles with Logan Paul.’ What the [bleep], man? What the [bleepin’ bleep]?! It is … it’s a nightmare.”

Dave Portnoy took it even further on “Wake Up Barstool.”

“This, to me, is one of the great downfalls of an icon, with Tom Brady,” Portnoy said. “Very few athletes — Michael Jordan, [Lionel] Messi, [David] Beckham, [Wayne] Gretzky — these are superstars that seem so above the fray that you don’t want to see them mixed up in all sorts of low-brow, TikTok, flag football leagues in Saudi Arabia or whatever it is, the wrestling. Everything about him is cringey right now to me, and it’s highlighted with this wrestling stuff.”

It’s worth remembering that for the bulk of Brady’s playing career, he did stay out of that fray. You might have seen him in an occasional magazine advertisement for a high-end product or his beloved Ugg boots, but you’d never see him hawking products during every TV commercial break — very much unlike his contemporary rival, Peyton Manning. (The “cut that meat” commercial still slaps, by the way.)

That has, obviously, changed a lot. Dating back to his on-stage forays with Tony Robbins, through his work selling highly overpriced electrolyte packages and vibrating massage balls, to the life-altering pajamas and the extremely awkward mattress commercial, Brady expanded his commercial interests throughout the 2010s. In his retirement, he’s ratcheted up the endorsements and public engagements with pizza ads and trading card companies following his previous run with crypto deals (whoops) NFTs.

To be fair, some of the business ventures work. Brady’s improved greatly as an in-game analyst in a short time, and he’s clearly put in the work to make that happen.

Any time he talks football, really, it tends to be gold.

Any time he tries to be an actor, it’s usually tough to watch.

Obviously, Brady’s free to do whatever he wants. But the underlying question everybody seems to be asking is simple: Why is Tom Brady doing this?

Or, to take it one step deeper: What’s he chasing?

On the one hand, it’s easy to understand that one of the most competitive athletes to ever play professional sports is having some difficulty replacing football in his life. On the other, it’s hard to fathom how someone with loads of money and a history of decent business sense can seemingly no longer say no to any opportunity that comes his way.

But the real question boils down to this: Just who is Tom Brady doing this for?

Perhaps the locals might be less interested in Brady’s antics after his “I don’t have a dog in the fight” comment before the Super Bowl in February. That one line appears to have done some irreparable damage, even with those who fully understand that Corporate Tom and Minority Owner of the Raiders Tom and Trying to Hire Klint Kubiak Tom and FOX National Analyst Tom can’t really say he’s rooting for one team over another. And it was telling that so many people in New England were quick to point the finger at Brady when Mike Macdonald recently shared that someone with a “conflict of interest” shared some good information on how to beat the Patriots ahead of that Super Bowl.

Most likely, the Brady fatigue we’re witnessing and perhaps even experiencing firsthand is simply the result of years and years of ignoring or downplaying a number of eye-rolling investments/engagements/endorsements.

Whatever the case may be, it seems as though so many people just want to remember Brady’s glory days on the football field. They want to revere him and keep him in a special place reserved for only the greatest of the greats. Yet by constantly finding new ways to pitch products and companies and investments via shoddy acting bits and ill-conceived wrestling spectacles, Brady’s making that a lot harder than it needs to be.