Monday night is five-cent wing night for most Patriots fans. For Gisele, it’s time to stare straight into the camera. No flash bulb gets by GB. Credit: Getty Images
Much to the dismay of most Boston sports fans, Tom Brady is having another “Look-At-Me May.” It’s become an annual tradition of sorts. The calendar’s fifth month is the quietest of the year in NFL terms, but we’ve annually seen the Patriots QB take full advantage of the time off, sliding down water slides while screaming like a 13-year-old girl and, most recently, celebrating a Kentucky Derby victory while, once again, screaming like a 13-year-old girl.
Now, Patriots fans don’t hate Brady for his off-field schmoozing. At times, it actually kind of makes them feel important – ya know, I root for that guy and he, ahhh, goes to the same events as Kanye. But a cocktail of bow ties and elitism is one drink that most Boston sports fans don’t care for over a number of years. It’s the same reason why Larry Bird remains the ultimate Boston sports figure: He mowed his own lawn, he drank crap beer, he wore trucker hats; he had, generally, no fashion sense at all, and he talked a boatload of smack during games.
So here we are, in May 2013, and Patriots fans have to deal with this:
1. Brady wearing a bow tie while hugging multimillionaire horse owners.
2. Brady wearing a bow tie while attending something called the Met Ball, which attracted the likes of Beyonce, the aforementioned Kanye, Kim Kardashian and her huge child, Madonna, Jessica Biel, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. It’s basically the we’re-better-than-you party of we’re-better-than-you parties … or as the Bradys now call it, Monday night.
3. Steelers safety Ryan Clark blatantly trashing No. 12 on ESPN’s “NFL Live” show on the same day Brady is yucking it up with the cool kids. Of course, ESPN thought the comment was worthy of its own tab on SportsCenter’s morning scroll. We present to you, “Brady Sees Ghosts.”
Said Clark, “When Tom Brady gets pressure and when you’re man-to-man and bumping those guys and making it hard for him to throw, he sees ghosts. Even when guys aren’t around him, even when he’s not about to be sacked, when his clock goes off in his head that the ball should be out, we’ll see him duck, we’ll see him flinch. When you get Tom Brady doing that, the whole New England Patriots mystique goes away.”
It’s pretty obvious by now that Brady is fully in the Rocky Balboa robot-at-the-house stage of his career. Perhaps if Ryan Clark insults Gisele Clubber Lange-style, then and only then will No. 12 finally get back the proverbial “eye of the tiger.” The Boston fan can dream.
Follow Metro Boston sports editor and columnist Matt Burke on Twitter @BurkeMetroBOS
