COME CLEAN, TOM BRADY

Super Bowl MVP is the greatest ever. And his legacy is at stake.

As the NFL season enters the second half two quarterbacks are under the microscope. One because of his political stance, the other for how well he performs on the field as a 40-year old combatant.

A now ex-NFL quarterback, forced from the game in his prime, still longing to participate. And a quarterback blissfully playing the game, hoping to win another championship.

Colin Kaepernick, who just a few years ago took San Francisco to the Super Bowl, is now better known for taking a knee last year during the playing of the national anthem. Kaepernick, who is not officially retired, somehow has not found an NFL home this season, despite past success that overshadows some starting quarterbacks and all back-up QBs currently playing in the NFL.

Today, Kaepernick is loathed by many Americans the same way Muhammed Ali was hated in the 1960’s for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam.

As was the case with Ali, who ultimately was proven correct, time will vindicate Kaepernick who is, after all, exercising his constitutional right when he kneels during the playing of the national anthem.

Many people now believe the NFL has blackballed Kaepernick, whose lawyers recently filed a collusion lawsuit against the NFL and its 32 teams.

In the meantime, Kaepernick is on track to complete his pledge of donating $1 million to community organizations.

According to GQ magazine, Kaepernick has hit the $900,000 mark, which does not include jersey sales proceeds, which he is also donating. Kaepernick is accomplishing this despite not receiving an NFL salary after separating from San Francisco last March.

Love him or hate him, Kaepernick has been under intense pressure and scrutiny the past year.

Which brings us to Tom Brady.

Brady is widely, and rightfully, considered to be the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League. (Some would argue aided by surveillance cameras and deflated footballs.) Many observers, outside of Green Bay and Indianapolis, agree that when it comes to quarterbacks Tom Brady is the man.

Brady is a 5-time Super Bowl champion. He’s won four Super Bowl MVPs (a record). He’s twice been MVP of the regular season. And he’s been to 12 Pro Bowls (NFL all-star games). Brady is the closest thing the NFL has to what Michael Jordan was to the NBA.

And like Mike, Brady does endorsements and is viewed as a man of style, equally at ease on the playing field, out and about town, or in a boardroom.

However, Brady may also go down as one of the most gullible athletes ever.

A Michigan grad, or as the great Bo Schembechler once said, “a Michigan man,” is supposed to be the thoughtful and intelligent beneficiary of an education that’s placed in high value by those who highly value education.

Yet, despite the top-quality educational advantage that comes with graduating from a school like the University of Michigan, Brady has, by his own self-proclaimed friendship with Donald Trump, fulfilled the classic dumb jock stereotype. Inexplicably, Brady is cozy with The Donald.

Brady’s bromance with Trump is as baffling as when three African-American men, Jim Brown, Ray Lewis and Kanye West, paid a goodwill visit to Trump Tower last fall to meet with the president-elect. (Kanye can be excused because everybody knows he’s crazy. Ray Lewis can be excused because, not to make light of football’s CTE brain issue, his bell’s probably still ringing from his NFL days. But the great black activist Jim Brown literally saying, “I love” Trump? No, Jim, no!)

All of Brady’s Super Bowl rings and Most Valuable Player trophies cannot undo his Paris Hilton-like, horrific judgment of being a friend and supporter of Trump.

Usually, your friends are people with whom you have shared values. That is why, for example, LeBron James is not friends with Louis Farrakhan. Can you imagine the outcry if LeBron admitted to being pals with Farrakhan? People would go nuts!

Remember what happened to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama when it was discovered his pastor was the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Obama caught so much heat that, to save his candidacy, he was forced to give a speech about race relations in America.

Which begs multiple questions for Tom Brady, considering the values Donald Trump has demonstrated his entire life.

Is Brady a misogynist? Is he a closet white supremacist? Is he a Nazi sympathizer? Does he approve of Vladimir Putin and Russia interfering with our election? Does he ridicule people with disabilities? Does he shrug his shoulders when it comes to the topic of sexual assault?

Those are legit questions of anyone who claims to be a friend of Donald Trump, not to mention the irony of Brady plying his craft in a region considered the birthplace of the American Revolution. And yet here is Brady, friends with unpatriotic Trump while playing football in the city of Paul Revere and Crispus Attucks.

There is no way around the fact that Tom Brady’s legacy is tarnished by his friendship with Trump. The stain is more than a mere asterisk or footnote.

This is a big deal. Tom Brady, an all-time great football player, mastermind of the game’s X’s and O’s, but lacking the natural instincts to recognize that Donald Trump is a vile, obscene fraud and serial liar.

Brady’s friendship with Trump has damaged his legacy and it feels like, (cue Carole King song), it’s too late for Brady to call an audible and save himself.

When Brady’s Hall of Fame career ends, his enduring legacy will be captured like this: “Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all-time, BUT…he’s…friends…with…Donald…Trump.”

The greatest loss of Brady’s career.

Douglas FreelandNovember 9, 2017