About

Touchdown Tom is an online nickname for the New England Patriots starting quarterback 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).

Origin

As the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots, Brady has led the Patriots to five Super Bowl matches (three victories) and has won two Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophies along the way ^[1]. In early November 2013, SB Nation sports blogger Jon Bois posted a tweet showcasing the "Touchdown Tom" nickname after defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers. (shown below).

Spread

The nickname Touchdown Tom originated in November 2013, though it was more fully explained on January 9th, 2014, when Jon Bois included it in his Breaking Madden video series ^[2] featuring different scenarios in the football video game Madden 25 . Though the earliest instance of the Touchdown Tom nickname was shown in usage on November 4th, 2013, Bois wrote in Breaking Madden that he coined the nickname in "late November", while the Patriots had a 7-3 record (which would have been sometime between November 18th and November 24th). His two sentiments that he expressed on Twitter were that Brady's nickname would be "Touchdown Tom" and that you should never count out Touchdown Tom. That week, the Patriots faced off against the Denver Broncos and were left facing a 24-0 deficit by the first half. However, during the second half (specifically after Bois tweeted that you could never count out Touchdown Tom), Brady led the team to a tie, which they would then win in overtime.

In the first Breaking Madden episode concerning Brady, Bois created a team of Tom Brady characters using the Madden creation tools, and had them face off against the Indianapolis Colts, who were given great defense in the first half, but terrible defense in the second half in order to try and facilitate a comeback (shown below).

Additional installments featuring Touchdown Tom characters were subsequently released, with the final episode published on January 15th, 2015 (shown below, right). The second one involved Brady attempted to run a quarterback sneak from the opposing team's one yard line ^[3], and the final installment found the team of Bradys once more facing the Colts, who were given 7 foot tall, 400 pound super defenders with terrible AI ^[4].

Another mention of the nickname appeared January 18th, 2015, when SB Nation writer Ryan Van Bibber included it in the final installment of his "Gen. Andrew Luck" series ^[5].

On February 5, 2017, during Super Bowl LI, nickname creator Jon Bois officially counted out Touchdown Tom when the Atlanta Falcons held a 28-3 lead over the New England Patriots. He was subsequently forced to rescind this comment once the Patriots came back to win in overtime. ^[6].

Search Interest

External References