Brady banters with Biden while champion Bucs visit White House
President welcomed and the Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the White House on Tuesday, the first visit by the reigning NFL champions since 2017.
It was Brady’s first visit since 2005 with the New England Patriots when George W. Bush was in office. Brady has won the Super Bowl during four different administrations but skipped visits by the Patriots in 2015 with Barack Obama and 2017 with Donald Trump.
The Patriots as a team chose not to attend after winning in 2019.
Brady was front and center, accompanying Biden, coach Bruce Arians and owner Bryan
Glazer into the ceremony, which included jokes about age and the election and a push from the president for players to get vaccinated against the coronavirus if they hadn’t already.
Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, put on quite the comedy routine, comparing the Buccaneers’ run to Biden’s election victory.
“Not a lot of people think that we could have won, and in fact I think about 40% of the people still don’t think we won,” Brady said with a big grin. “We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started calling me ‘Sleepy Tom.’ Why they do that to me?”
Biden was presented with the traditional gift of a No. 46 jersey — which
Glazer said was appropriate since Tampa Bay is heading into its 46th season as a franchise.
Elsewhere: New York Jets assistant coach Greg Knapp was in a “horrific” bicycle accident last weekend and is in critical condition. ESPN reported the accident happened Saturday near his home in Danville, California. He was struck by a single motorist at close to 3 p.m. according to the San Ramon Police Department . ... Los Angeles Rams running back Cam Akers is out indefinitely after tearing his Achilles tendon in an offseason training session.
ETC.
Boxing: Anthony Joshua
will defend his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles against former undisputed world cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sept. 25. The fight pits two 2012 London Olympic gold medallists against each other: Joshua topped the podium in the superheavyweight division and Usyk reigned supreme in the heavyweight bracket.
Auto racing: Brad Keselowski is leaving Team Penske, where he won the 2012 championship, because he wanted an ownership role in an organization as part of his legacy in NASCAR. With Roush Fenway, Keselowski will not only drive the No. 6 Ford next season but have a considerable role off the track. Keselowski, who will replace Ryan Newman, paid for a minority ownership stake in the team, but neither 79year-old team owner Jack
Roush nor the Fenway Sports Group relinquished any shares . ... IndyCar announced an extension with NBC Sports that guarantees a majority of its races will be on the main network broadcast rather than cable, including a series-high 13 events on the flagship channel next season.
High schools: Louisiana state senators narrowly voted to overturn Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ rejection of a bill prohibiting transgender students from participating
in school sports, on the opening day of the first veto session under the state’s nearly 50-year-old constitution. Senators voted 26-12 for the veto override — the exact number of votes needed. The vote fell along party lines, with Republicans in support of the measure and Democrats in opposition. The debate now shifts to the House, where Republicans will need to pick up some backing from Democrats and independents to overturn the veto and enact the ban in law.