ESPN Finally Gets Into the NFT Game by Partnering Up With ... Tom Brady. Um, What???
Source - Tom Brady apparently is holding no grudges over ESPN supposedly forcing him into a short-lived retirement.
ESPN has announced its first-ever NFT deal. It has gone into business with Tom Brady’s side hustle known as Autograph.
The collaboration between the four-letter network and seven-time Super Bowl-winner launched with an NFT collection based on Brady’s Man in the Arena documentary series, an offering that didn’t have quite the same impact on the overall zeitgeist as The Last Dance did.
The first release, which arrives today, coincides with the ESPN+ series becoming more widely available (it’s heading to Hulu and Disney+) for a limited time.
Tom Brady collaborating on NFTs with ESPN, of all outfits? They ought to call them WTFs. Hah? Amirite?!
After a brilliant mic drop like that, I should probably just call it a blog and be done with it. But I have too many thoughts to see myself out just yet.
Ask anybody who has had an emotional, spiritual (and in my case, physical) connection to Tom Brady since he took over for Drew Bledsoe in 2001 and the one thing we all agree on is that, at some point along the way in his personal journey, he changed. That's not a complaint; just an observation. Everyone changes to some extent. It's all part of growing as a person.
But I can't shake the feeling that at some point in the distant past, the Tom Brady I used to know wouldn't have gotten into financial bed with someone that has done him as dirty as ESPN has. Beginning with releasing his Man in the Arena on their streaming service and now this NFT side hustle, which is technically a side hustle off the MITA side hustle.
That's an odd way to reward a media outlet that acted as the NFL's state run media to push the cheating narrative, let Chris Mortensen leave his Deflategate Tweet up for a year after it had been discredited, had Mark Brunell on the payroll while he cried actual tears on the air over it, and whose highest paid personality, Stephen A. Smith, reported the planted story about Brady "destroying" the phone the Commissioner's office was never entitled to. Not to mention the most recent slap, ESPN leaking the story about Brady's retirement so that he couldn't do it himself on the last episode of his show.
Look, even the old Brady was never great at holding a grudge. He was never on the level of Bill Belichick, who waited five months after Tom Jackson said, "They hate their coach" to respond with, "Go fuck yourself," after winning his second New England Super Bowl. He's a master. Brady was never more than an apprentice. But he was capable, at least. Whether it was torturing Anthony Smith of the Steelers for guaranteeing a win in the 16-0 season, or going cleats up on Ed Reed or hanging up on WEEI after Alex Reimer called his 5-year-old "an annoying little pissant."
But now he seems utterly incapable of staying mad at anyone. (Except Bruce Arians, but that's a topic for another time.) He's gone full The Four Agreements on us, spooning with an organization that has done all in its power to not only destroy his reputation, but spoil his own (non)retirement party. It's weird. And it's hard not to draw the conclusion he's less interested in his reputation than he is in setting up all these business interests. And doing business, like personal growth, is perfectly fine and something we all do. It's just that there was a time when Brady wasn't so preoccupied with side hustles. Where his focus was on football, banging Tara Reid, doing the occasional sporting goods store ad, and guesting on SNL, The Simpsons and Family Guy. None of whom successfully convinced the world he's a conniving scumbag who owes all his success to defrauding the public.
As for ESPN, how do you form a business partnership with a guy you've tried so hard to ruin? In a world filled with Lebrons and Aaron Rodgers and Manning brothers you can't stop fawning over, isn't it the height of sleaze to start spooning with a guy you've destroyed for years? If everyone will forgive me the overdone metaphor, when Will Smith was done leaving his fresh prints on Chris Rock's face, he didn't stand with him and present the Oscar for Outstanding Documentary. You either humiliate someone because he's your enemy or you partner up with him because he's your friend. You can't do both.
Which makes this arrangement evil from the get-go. And I can't help but hope is loses money for all involved. Dammit, Brady, learn to get better at hating people. For our sake, if not your own.