EXCLUSIVE: The Boston Globe is Putting Together a Tom Brady Tribute After Spending 20 Years Ripping Him
I get it. Things are tough all over. Everyone's desperately scrambling around to come up with some way to keep the money coming in with so little commerce being done. And nobody has it tougher than the traditional, old school media outlets who still operate under a system where they deliver the news to my 89 year old mother-in-law's front porch printed on dead trees 24 hours after it happened. Those companies were drowning in a tsunami of red ink long before Covid-19 made everyone scale back their advertising budgets. So they need to get genius-level creative to come up with something, anything, to come up with ways to put eyeballs on screens.
In the case of The Boston Globe, they've decided to try something novel: Blatant hypocrisy. They're attempting to pivot 180 degrees by releasing a big budget, high production values tribute video to Tom Brady, a man they've spent the better part of the last 20 years trashing.
The Globe is reaching out to New England area corporate entities asking them to sponsor the project. It's a five part video series with the working title "Thank You Tom," made in conjunction with Brady and Gotham Chopra's production company Religion of Sports who produced "Tom vs. Time." And according to the email, Brady endorses it and his reaching out to celebrity friends to appear in it. The Globe is asking upwards of $150,000 from these companies, promising them three million views per episode for a total of 15 million for the series. The stated goal here is not just to make money, but as the title implies thank Brady for a great career while also "supporting journalism."
Speaking only for me, that last part is the money shot. I can get why Brady would be on board. It's good not only for his brand but for his film production company to do a project like this. But he's got to understand exactly what sort of "journalism" he'll be supporting. Because at various times in his Patriots career these same "journalists" have accused him of:
Being a cheater and liar.
Bend yourself into a pretzel if you must, but Brady and the Patriots are insulting your intelligence if they want you to believe that they were not aware of what was happening to the footballs on game days. ...
But it is Brady who has the most explaining to do.
It stretches all believability to conclude that he had nothing to do with this. And it damages his hard-earned legacy across America. There are simply too many football people telling us that there is no way Brady can be telling the truth.
Destroying evidence in order to cover up his cheating and lying.
What do you say now, Patriot fans? Still think the NFL is out to get the Patriots? Still think Tom Brady is clean? Still think this is a witch hunt? …
Please. Give up. It's time for local loyalists to parachute down from Planet Patriot and get in touch with reality. Stop twisting yourselves into knots to justify the petty crimes and coverups of the Patriots and their quarterback.
According to the NFL, the Patriots cheated. They tampered with footballs after the balls were approved by game officials. The NFL terms it an ongoing "scheme.'' It's not a huge transgression, but the tampering was done to gain a competitive advantage. It appears to have been systematic. Tom Brady knew about it, then he destroyed evidence.
Being a Trump supporter, thereby destroying people's faith in the Patriots.
Stealing money from people with Special Needs.
Since 2011, while Brady has served as the face of its signature Massachusetts fund-raiser and helped it raise nearly $20 million, Best Buddies has paid $2.75 million to Brady’s own charitable trust and has pledged to grant the organization an additional $500,000 in 2017 — a total of $3.25 million. …
The payments, made at Brady’s request, support his Boston-based Change the World Foundation Trust, whose giving has focused almost entirely on causes tied to Brady’s personal interests, including his high school alma mater, his children’s private schools, and charities operated by his football friends. Aiding those with disabilities, the focus of Best Buddies, has been a lower priority.
Allowing that Special Needs charity to be "hostile and petty" by removing a Globe photographer from their event.
Being a snake oil salesman and having a sketchy under-the-table deal going with the Kraft family.
The Patriots, in an unusual departure from National Football League practice, have created a revenue stream for a private business owned by their franchise quarterback, Tom Brady, and a partner who faced federal sanctions after falsely presenting himself as a medical doctor and deceptively promoting nutritional supplements.
One notable product that Brady’s partner, Alejandro “Alex” Guerrero, promoted — and the quarterback enthusiastically endorsed — was marketed as helping to prevent and heal concussions, a grave health issue for NFL players and a challenge to the sport’s image. The Federal Trade Commission effectively shut down sales of Guerrero’s “neuroprotective’’ drink, Neurosafe, in 2014, repudiating his “extraordinary claims.’’
Showing "a deep lack of respect for women" and trivialzing prostitution.
No way was [Brady] showing disrespect to Patriots owner Bob Kraft when the quarterback appeared in a cameo in the new Netflix series “Living With Yourself,” walking out of an Asian day spa in a strip mall. … Instead, here’s what his cameo was really about: solidarity with his boss. The short scene reduces Kraft’s prostitution charges at the Orchids of Asia Day spa to a punch line in a TV show. As if to say: no big deal. …
Brady’s cameo is yet another example of how the NFL in general, and the Patriots in particular, just don’t get it. They don’t get how their actions reveal a deep lack of respect for women. … And Tom Brady, in this brief appearance, helps trivialize prostitution.
Like I said, for the Globe to get behind a tribute series to The GOAT is a good business move for them and for him. But let's not pretend it's anything other than a cynical money grab. It's them selling the snake oil. Trying to profit from the loyalty this entire region has shown to Brady while he's been getting viciously dragged by the very news outlet that's now looking to make a buck off his #Braxit departure. It's like J. Jonah Jameson suddenly doing a Daily Bugle special pullout section in honor of Spiderman. I'm all about capitalism. I just want us all to call this what it is. The Boston Globe paying tribute to a guy they think is a cheating, lying, evidence destroying, alt-right, fanbase destroying, charity fund-swindling, hostile, petty, misogynistic trivializer of human trafficking. Good luck with your little project, John Henry.