Don’t get so hung up on it
Old-man Brady a little cranky
Much is being said and written this week in the wake of Tom Brady’s outof-the-blue decision to press the little red “hang-up” button during his weekly phoner on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan” program.
As always, everyone has an opinion. As always, these opinions run from end zone to end zone.
“They were overdoing it with the questions about Alex Guerrero.”
“It was a bad look for Brady to hang up like that.”
“Stick to football!!!”
“What’s
Brady hiding???”
The hangup got the obligatory national media play, Brady being the GOAT and all. It was also the second time this summer Brady received the what’s-eating-Gilbert Grape treatment, the first one following his walk-out of a media scrum when a reporter asked him about the Julian Edelman suspension and if it’s fair that “a lot of people” are making a connection with Guerrero. As in Alex Guerrero, who is the quarterback’s business partner, trainer, buddy and, if you watched the serialized Facebook documentary, masseuse from Hell.
The WEEI hosts didn’t ask anything that was out of bounds. Brady is news. Guerrero is news. Brady plus Guerrero is we-interrupt-this-program-forthis-special-bulletin news. And while I’m not a fan of questions that are delivered with the a-lot-of-people-are saying disclaimer, it wasn’t unfair to solicit Brady’s thoughts on Edelman’s suspension and a possible connection with Guerrero.
But nor is Brady the bad guy here. While it’s true we wouldn’t be talking about this to such a dizzying degree if Brady had played nice, the blunt hang-ups and walk-offs aren’t anything to get in a snit over.
Deal with it, people: Brady’s getting old. As in old and cranky. As in short of patience ... yelling at clouds ... backing out of the driveway without looking both ways. Old.
He is 41. Now that doesn’t make him old old in the way we generally measure oldness. If he were a regular working stuff like the rest of us, 41 would place him on the cusp of his next promotion, the one with the private office, expense account and really, really good health plan. If he were a highperforming accountant at Ernst & Young, he’d be in line to make partner. If he were a department head at Gillette, he’d be angling for Vice President in Charge of This or That. If he were a weekend host, he’d be sniffing out the Monday-to-Friday lineup. But 41 in football is, well,
old. The number in and of itself isn’t a huge deal, since we see 40-somethings popping up with our local pro sports teams all the time. Vinny Testaverde had just turned 43 when, on Nov.19, 2006 at Green Bay, he came off the bench to do some mop-up as the Pats were finishing a 35-0 victory over the Packers. In 2011, Tim Wakefield was 45 when he pitched his last game with the Red Sox. Jaromir Jagr was 41 when he did a one-month residency with the Bruins at the close of the 2012-13 season.
But while Testaverde and Wakefield had distinguished careers and Jagr is still plugging away in Czechia, they never enjoyed the rights and
privileges (or suffered the burdens and degradations) of being their sport’s GOAT. Jagr gets a seat at the table, sure, but there’s Bobby Orr, and Wayne Gretzky, and Gordie Howe ... and never mind.
Brady has been to eight Super Bowls. He has won five of them. He has set so many records that reciting the numbers becomes needless and tedious. He has never had a bad season.
Now he’s 41 and misses the old days when the Pats played the Titans of New York at the Polo Grounds. OK, so he’s not that old, but old enough to get bored by the same rituals, the same schedules, the same obligations and, I guess, the same questions.
Wanna know what’s really scary? We aren’t even at the point where Brady gets dragged through the muddy streets of Farewell City. We saw it with David Ortiz a few years back, the big fella signing off on a be-carefulwhat-you-wish-for Farewell Tour that, he later admitted, left him exhausted by season’s end.
My hunch is there will be no Tom Brady Farewell Tour, that he’ll end his career by winning one last Super Bowl and then make the mother of all postgame announcements. Until then, we have this: Tom Brady, football’s Lion in Winter, getting cranky during phone-in radio interviews and gatherround media availabilities.
He’d be saving himself a lot of aggravation if he returned to pivoting as in days of old. Or perhaps there are no aggravations because he’s at an age when he simply doesn’t give a damn.
It’s not an exotic explanation, but it’s the one that makes the most sense. Tom Brady wants you to stay off his lawn.