Tom Brady

About

Tom Brady is an American football player and current quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League (NFL), with whom he has won four Super Bowl championships. Following an investigation by the NFL regarding the Patriots' alleged use of deflated footballs in early 2015, Brady was suspended for four games in the beginning of the 2015 season.

History

Career

Tom Brady's pursuit of a career in American football began in the late 1990s during his college years at the University of Michigan, where he initially served as a backup quarterback for the first two years before rising to the starting quarterback position in 1998. After his graduation, Brady was selected by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the National Football League (NFL) draft in 2000. Since assuming the role of the team's starting quarterback in 2001, Brady has played his entire professional career with the Patriots for 13 full seasons, during which he rose to national stardom by continuously leading the team to winning seasons, including 13 division titles and six AFC Championship titles between 2001 and 2015. In addition, Brady has personally enjoyed a decorated career in the NFL by earning four Super Bowl victories, three Super Bowl MVPs and two league MVPs, which has given him the reputation of being "one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time."

#DeflateGate

#DeflateGate refers to the controversy surrounding the New England Patriots’ alleged use of deflated footballs towards the team’s advantage during their American Football Conference (AFC) Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in January 2015. The accusations of foul play has prompted an investigation from the National Football League (NFL), leading to the suspension of Brady for the first four games in the 2015 season. On January 30th, 2015, the schmoyoho YouTube channel uploaded an auto-tuned version of a press conference in which Brady discusses the Deflategate controversy (shown below).

Suspension Rulings

On September 3rd, 2015, Judge Richard M. Berman removed Brady's suspension, declaring that he received inadequate notice, was denied access to investigative files and was no provided the opportunity to examine a lead investigator. Brady subsequently played all 16-games during the 2015 season. On September 6th, the Latin Times^[7] published a compilation of various internet reactions to the ruling (shown below).

On April 25th, 2016, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled in favor of the NFL and reinstated Tom Brady's four-game suspension. That day, the @NFL_Memes^[4] Twitter feed posted a photoshopped courtroom sketch of Brady with the Crying Michael Jordan face superimposed on his head (shown below, left). Within six hours, the tweet gathered upwards of 3,100 likes and 2,800 retweets. Meanwhile, Twitter user @cledra^[5] posted the Bradying photograph with Crying Michael Jordan edited on to Brady's face (shown below, right). Also on April 25th, the sports news blog Bleacher Report^[6] published an article featuring various Twitter reactions to the ruling.

Online Presence

In June 2011, the @TomBradysEgo^[2] parody Twitter feed was launched, featuring tweets written from the perspective of Brady. Within four years, the account gained over 236,000 followers. On May 27th, 2012, Funny or Die released a parody video featuring in which a retail store employee accuses Brady of having a thick Boston accent (shown below).

On November 24th, 2013, the Fox Sports YouTube channel uploaded a segment from the Fox NFL Kickoff show, in which football cornerback Richard Sherman discusses an image macro in which he is depicting as saying "U mad bro?" to Brady (shown below). Within two years, the video received more than 3.9 million views and 4,000 comments.

On January 24th, 2014, the /r/tombradygifs^[1] subreddit was launched for animated GIFs of Brady. On September 15th, a Tom Brady Facebook^[3] page was launched, which gathered upwards of 3.2 million likes in the next year.

Related Memes

Touchdown Tom

Touchdown Tom is an online nickname given to Tom Brady, which is typically used when the team is performing poorly in reference to the many unexpected victories orchestrated by Brady over his 15 years in the National Football League (NFL).

Be Attractive, Don't Be Unattractive

"Be Attractive, Don’t Be Unattractive" is an expression typically used as a tongue-in-cheek response to people asking for dating advice on the Internet, suggesting that the only important quality for romantic success is one’s level of physical attractiveness. The phrase comes from an episode of Saturday Night Live, in which Tom Brady demonstrates how to properly ask a woman out at work (shown below).

Bradying

Bradying is a photo fad that involves taking pictures of oneself sitting on the floor with the head lowered and hands clasped between the legs. The pose was inspired by a photograph of Brady on the football field following his team’s loss against the New York Giants at the Super Bowl XLVI.

Tom Brady's Courtroom Sketch

Tom Brady’s Courtroom Sketch is a photoshop meme based on a coarsely drawn portrait of the New England Patriots’ star quarterback in a courtroom sketch produced at the first court appearance of Brady in a settlement lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) for his four-game suspension penalty in the aftermath of Deflategate.

Tom Brady Smiling

Tom Brady Smiling refers to a photo and gif of quarterback Tom Brady looking over his shoulder and smiling while seated in an official-looking room in a building. The image has been used online as a reaction image, describing joy and also moments of recognition between friends in a public place.

Personal Life

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr. was born on August 3rd, 1977 in San Mateo, California. Brady is married Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, with whom he has two children: Benjamin and Vivian.

Search Interest

External References