Tom Brady: The New Affluenza Boy

Back in 2013, Ethan Couch gained infamy as the Affluenza Teen after killing four of his friends in a drunk driving crash and then claiming he shouldn’t be held responsible because he’d never been made to suffer the consequences of any of his actions. He fled to Mexico with his mother in an attempt to avoid punishment. He was “special”, you see, and now we get to see Tom Brady doing his best imitation of that level of entitlement without batting an eye.

Brady might not have killed anyone, but recent comments have set social media on fire. You see, Brady–who many claim is the GOAT of the NFL–decided that playing an NFL season is akin to being deployed in the military. Let me tell you, the GOAT is proving just what a goat he is.

No one is making him play in the NFL. He certainly has more than enough money to walk away and live more than comfortably for the rest of his life. He has a network standing by to put him to work as a football analyst. He earns more than six figures a year.

And no one is shooting at him or planting IEDs on his way to work.

But he’s as good as going on deployment to play a game and earn the big bucks.

How dare he?!?

As a military mom, I’m appalled at his comments and his lack of apology for them. Not that any of it surprises me. He has been an entitled asshole for years.

So here’s my response to Brady the goat:

You can talk to me about your job being like being deployed when you aren’t allowed to go home (or to a plush hotel room) every night after you finish your shift.

You can talk to me about it being like you’re deployed when you don’t know if you will return home after your shift.

You can talk to me about it being like being deployed after you’ve huddled in a foxhole or hidden in the shadows as enemy troops open fire on your location.

You can talk about it feeling like you’ve been deployed after you’ve had to duck and cover as a drone releases a bomb and it explodes near your location.

You can talk about it feeling like you’ve been deployed when your loved ones worry about whether they will ever see you again because you’ve been sent to an active hostile location.

You can talk about it feeling like you’ve been deployed when you have to eat, sleep, move at the whim of your commanding officer and you’re carrying your gear and weapons and keeping an eye out for snipers or others who want nothing more than to take your life.

You are an athlete, Brady, not a soldier. You don’t put your life on the line for our country. You play ball. Some might say you play a kid’s game and you get paid an obscene amount of money doing so.

You have a family–and that includes a wife you made a deal with (if the media is to be believed, never something I take at face value). You chose to retire at the end of last season and you chose to unretire, apparently without consulting your wife. I don’t blame her for being pissed off.

You have shown just how much of a punk you are, how entitled you feel you are, with your  antics on the sidelines this season. How many tablets have you thrown down in a fit of anger because things weren’t going your way? How many of your teammates have you yelled at because the game wasn’t going your way?

How much more damage are you going to do to your legacy before you realize you need to sit down, shut up and go home?

You have been an exceptional football player, Brady. But your antics on and off the field are tarnishing that image. I suggest you quit thinking about your “competitive” spirit and start thinking about your family and those who mean anything to you–assuming you’re capable of doing so.

And, btw, never piss off a military mom by comparing your overpaid job with her son’s military duty. You won’t like the result.

Featured Image by Chepalos from Pixabay