Even an icon like Tom Brady can’t avoid criticism these days
Tom Brady of the New England Patriots is the greatest quarterback in football history. That doesn't exempt him from criticism when it's warranted.
On April 23, The Boston Globe ran a story about the relationship between Brady and Best Buddies International, a charity that benefits people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Globe's Bob Hohler, a former Monitor sports reporter and columnist, wrote: "Since 2011, while Brady has served as the face of its signature Massachusetts fundraiser 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." Brady's Change the World Foundation Trust has given money to his "high school alma mater, his children's private schools, and charities operated by his football friends," Hohler wrote.
None of what Hohler reported means Brady is a bad person. There is nothing illegal about the handshake agreement between Brady and Best Buddies, and Brady has been credited with helping to raise $46.5 million for the charity since 2001. It's the very definition of win-win. To criticize Brady for a lack of "pure altruism," as the president of Charity Watch did in Hohler's story, sets an unreasonably high standard. No athlete, no matter how handsome, wealthy or beloved, has to do more than the bare minimum of charity work. That's a low bar, but it's one Brady clears with ease.
But try, just for a moment, to separate Brady the hero-athlete from Brady the millionaire philanthropist. The work Brady does for the charity is admirable, but think about the people who donate money with the expectation that it will help some of the "Best Buddies" they meet at fundraisers. What would their reaction be if they found out their $100 went to the University of Michigan or Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo? Maybe all of the beneficiaries of Brady's Change the World Foundation are great causes, but they were not the causes people believed they were sup- porting when they wrote a check to Best Buddies.
And there's a ripple effect. How would you feel as an administrator at Apple Orchard School in Brookline, Massachusetts, where Brady's children go to school, if you learned that the donation you received from the football star's foundation was intended for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and not the school's Sandwich Club?
For Brady, the old saw that no good deed goes unpunished must ring especially true this week. If he can see this situation with the same vision he sees a football field, the next play is obvious: He should tell the charity to skip the next $500,000 payment to his foundation. He should explain, in as much detail as possible, what institutions and programs have benefited from the Change the World Foundation so Best Buddies donors can see what else they supported, directly or indirectly. He should also make sure that from this moment on, the relationship between Change the World and Best Buddies is openly acknowledged.