Sox’ biggest rival is man named Brady
Tom Brady has done more damage to the Boston Red Sox in the past 16 years than Bobby Valentine, Derek Jeter and Carl Crawford combined.
Brady’s ascension to alltime-greatest everything status, the Patriots’ NFL dominance and those five Super Bowl trophies have eclipsed the light that would have otherwise shone unfiltered on Big Papi and the three-time World Champion Boston Red Sox.
Keep that in mind whenever you see stories about Brady’s completely “legal, commonplace and transparent” (via Michael McCann of Sports Illustrated) charity dealings in John Henry’s newspaper.
In case you missed the story in the Boston Globe: Since 2011, Best Buddies has donated $2.7 million to Brady’s Change the World foundation, with a pledge of another $500,000 this year. The money was given in return for Brady’s efforts to raise millions for Best Buddies — nearly $20 million in that period. Change the World then gave the money to several charities with personal ties to Brady.
Just by reading the Globe’s tweets, you’d think it was time to throw Brady in jail right after President Trump’s impeachment trial.
It turns out, of course, this sort of somewhat dingy practice is routine among the elites. I help you raise a few million, you help me raise a few million. Those helped by the money probably care little about the details.
Speaking of charitable foundations: the Red Sox Foundation paid out $1,293,599 in salaries, compensation and employee benefits on $7,564,235 in contributions and grants in 2015. The director made $204,490 and another $159,469 was paid for legal counsel to one attorney. That is from the most-current IRS Form 990 available, but remarkably consistent with past years.
Since John Henry purchased the Globe in October 2013, the paper has run 92 stories with the term “Red Sox Foundation” in them. Not one has mentioned the foundation’s finances.
Why would anyone want to donate money to the Red Sox Foundation to help its very worthy causes when the director is pulling in $200G and nearly one dollar in six is going for employee expenses? Seems like an excessive amount, especially sans context.
By the way, Henry dropped $84 million on a boat in November that could stretch from first to third at Fenway Park with 48 feet to spare on each side. That story does not appear in the Globe’s archives, either. Cue the outrage. The Red Sox Foundation director’s salary represents a mere 2.7 percent of total contributions raised. And Henry is free to do whatever he wants with his billions.
See what a difference context makes?
Don’t expect much context from Henry’s media empire where Brady is concerned. TB12 has been George Bailey to Henry’s Old Man Potter ever since Henry bought the Red Sox. The Patriots captured their first AFC title of the Brady Era in 2001, two days after Henry’s group closed their deal to buy the team. The sale was approved by Major League Baseball about 55 hours before Brady prevailed in the “Tuck Rule Game.” Brady added a Super Bowl win to his resume a week before Henry’s Red Sox reported to their first spring training.
Brady’s four-game 2016 suspension ended in the same city — Cleveland — where the Red Sox were swept out of the playoffs a day later. The Red Sox then got Chris Sale only to see the hype obliterated by Brady’s “2016 Revengeance II — Destroy the Universe” title run.
Brady took a nifty shot at the infamous “A Bitter End” Super Bowl headline via Instagram on April Fools Day. And the bromantic romp between Brady and Rob Gronkowski was the lasting takeaway from Opening Day at Fenway Park.
The biggest nail in Brady’s coffin within Henryland is his support of President Trump, even though the GOAT skipped last week’s White House trip to be with his mom/avoid the wrath of Gisele.
There are no best buddies in this relationship.
Only rivals.