Tom Brady Likens Football Season to Military Deployment; Then Walks it Back
Football legend Tom Brady compared the rigors of a football season to a military deployment, then walked it back.
Tom Brady compares slog of NFL season to military deployment
By Ben Morse and Matt Foster, CNN
Published 4:45 AM EDT, Wed October 19, 2022Tom Brady has compared the slog of playing in an NFL season to “going away on deployment in the military.”
Appearing on his “Let’s Go!” podcast on Monday, the 45-year-old Brady was speaking with cohost Jim Gray and NBA superstar Kevin Durant about the mindset top-tier athletes need to adopt to cope with the rigors of professional sport.
When discussing the balance between his job and his life, Brady said: “I almost look at a football season like I’m going away on deployment for the military. And it’s like: ‘Man, here I go again.’
“And, there’s only one way to do it, and Jim, we’ve talked from time to time just about, how do you enjoy certain moments of it?” said the seven-time Super Bowl winner.
Yes, it is just like a military deployment. Often, I turn over to talk to my wife in my poster bed in my five-star hotel room and whisper sweet nothings because I’m on radio silence. I have to stand in line behind my wife to get cracked lobster and champagne. It sucks.
Well, he immediately apologized for his choice of words. From Sports Illustrated…
Tom Brady Apologizes for Controversial Comment He Made on Podcast
Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady controversially compared going through an NFL season to military deployment on his Let’s Go! podcast with Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray earlier this week.
“I almost look at like a football season like you’re going away on deployment in the military, and it’s like, ‘Man, here I go again,’” Brady said.
“There’s only one way to do it. … The reality is you can really only be authentic to yourself, right? Whenever you may say, ‘Oh man, I want to, you know, make sure I spend a little more time doing this.’ When it comes down to it, your competitiveness takes over and as much as you want to have this playful balance with the work balance, you’re going to end up doing exactly what you’ve always done, which is why you are who you are. You’re going to go, ‘How the [expletive] do I get it done?’ You know, ‘What do I got to do to get it done?’”
After receiving backlash for the comparison, Brady opened his Thursday media availability by apologizing, calling the metaphor a “very poor choice of words.”
“Earlier this week, I made a statement about playing football and the military, and it was a very poor choice of words,” Brady said. “I just want to express that to any sentiments out there that people may have taken it in a certain way, so I apologize.”
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More BS from the National Felons League.
Who cares.
Yep.
Turd Brady et al.
Oh, he’s hard core…
Tom Brady? Never heard of her.
I remember him, he used to play pro football back when I watched in the middle of the last decade. Back before they started glorifying criminals and hating on the police.
Needs to stick with football. Public speaking isn’t his strong suit.
Never got interested in sports except a short stint in Little League as a kid.
At least I got to carry a weapon (bat) and swing it.
Because a short toss is the same as an incoming mortar…yeah, I get it.
Not.
No one will stand him against the wall for failing to do his job.
Oh, and I’d trade paychecks!
Big ol’ ‘meh’ from me. Head injuries make some people say the darnedest things.
Commissar2024: “You will suffer for the utopia and pretend to like it!!!”
Yeah…when I signed my enlistment contract I got $7 million a year for 4 years…didn’t everybody?
What a goddamn entitled, disconnected douchebag.
There’s often some hyperbole in metaphor (simile, in this case).
I’m no Brady fan (in either football or firearms), but I am not at all offended by his comparison.
Obviously, a professional football season is very different from a deployment in very many ways, but there are undeniable similarities in some respects.
Yeah, except for that sudden violent death thing, they’re exactly the same.
Clearly, the two aren’t the same (though Chuck Hughes did die suddenly on the field).
Still, how butthurt can you get over what he actually said? He’s obviously ignorant of what a deployment (and military life as a whole) entails, that’s not the same as being glib or dismissive of it.
He made a simile liking his mindset toward a new season with what he sees as an extremely difficult undertaking.
He’s not Hanoi Jane, photo-opping on an NVA AA gun. He’s not Bradley [edit] Manning, selling out his own by being a pussy. He expressed hyperbole.
I’m not butthurt. I’m laughing at his ignorance. And it seems that he’s gonna be ignorant with half of his stuff soon.
😆
I don’t know about that…seems his old lady has more money than he does.
Give me millions of dollars a year and I would have gladly done that 3rd tour in Iraq instead of signing a dec statement and taking a bar to reenlist and GTFO of the Army.
I volunteer to be the Jody for Gisele while he’s on deployment. That, and all of the other reasons listed will REALLY give him an idea of what deployment is all about.
Strange how non-military folk always want to compare things to a deployment, something they have not experienced so would have no point of reference. Guilt, maybe? I think no matter how good or famous they are they still get jealous when they see us in uniform with ribbons/medals on.
A lot of these “athletes” (thugs?) would not even survive boot camp, a deployment to a combat zone would blow their conceited minds.
I’m fairly certain they make those comparisons because, in their imaginations, it’s among the hardest things they can think of – which glorifies their own struggles through the comparison.
I’m sure we’ve all known those joes who fall well short of their imagination, as well as those who suffered and endured far more profoundly than those athletes could ever know.
When speaking of professional NFL players, I’d be very surprised if there are any who wouldn’t excel at boot camp (at least among the skill positions). Being able to serve has never been a very high bar; it’s actually taking the oath and serving honorably that gives the job its special place in the heart of the populace.
Many famously have… in the past. Rocky Bleier was drafted and volunteered to go to Vietnam where he suffered some devastating wounds and was told he would never play football again.
His story is one that will never be repeated due to the total assholery of leadership in team owners and management. We will never see another team owner like Art Rooney who believed in people more than profit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Bleier
I think Bleier, from his unique perspective summed it up best:
“For me, to have someone yell at you was second nature, in combat, as we have come to learn, when you’re are put in harm’s way, there is a chance of permanent injury. There might not be a tomorrow, and that is the question that always lingers in one’s mind. Will I get back safely? Will I be able to survive this combat? In football, there will always be a next week.”
5JC,
I totally agree with about Rocky Blieier. He was a testament to that generation and his own self. Todays generation, not so much.
Pro athletes sign a contract, but can also quit at any time and the only consequence is forfeiture of pay. Try quitting on deployment and see what happens.
I still grieve for Pat Tillman.
Duffel Blog is all over this story:
https://www.duffelblog.com/p/airmen-on-jet-skis-in-guam-disgusted
Oh yeah, $mil paychecks, groupies, partying every night– just like it, man!
I could understand it if he referred to it like the first week of boot camp. That’s about the closest approximation that I could think of that might resemble football season. Still not that close but I really don’t have a lot of respect for football players anyhow.
On deployment, is there a lot of putting one’s hands under another man’s butt?
Asking for a friend.
Nothing gayer under the sun than Infuntreedoods on deployment.
Don’t ask me how I know.
Never leave your buddy’s behind.
Dang skippy…
I went through Infantry Officers Basic Course with two former Houston Oilers (special teams and a tight end). They did quite well. I actually take it as somewhat of a compliment that people want to compare something they think of as hard and sacrifice to a military deployment. Speaks volumes to what the Great American Public thinks about the sacrifices our military members endure.
I’m sure the Tillman family feel differently.
IDGAF about any part of the NFL since they decided to go woke beginning with them kowtowing to Colin Kaepernick’s pissy-assed hissy fits.
Fuck-’em to the 118th power and then some.