The amount of headline attention garnered by Tom Brady’s post-game press conference yesterday is surprising. It was even picked up by TMZ, whose sports interests generally revolve around scandals and untimely deaths.
Would it be as news worthy if it wasn’t Tom Brady?
Probably not.
It seems to have grabbed as much or more attention than the game between Washington and Tampa Bay itself. That’s a bit of a shame when a bottom five team just beat the defending Super Bowl Champs.
That’s a good story on it’s own.
Besides, it wasn’t even that scandalous of a press conference.
Make It Quick!
To be clear, a one-minute press conference is worthy of some news note. It isn’t the norm obviously.
But it was the way Brady led the presser off that sealed the way it would be spun:
“Let’s start. Make it quick.”
That’s gold right there.
Besides, he’s supposed to be pissed off isn’t he? His 6-2 team lost to a 2-6 team. He didn’t win seven Super Bowls by not being a fiery competitor. Of course he was upset. The Bucs got beat by what he felt was an inferior team in Washington.
To play devil’s advocate, wouldn’t it actually be more worthy of note, if he just came out and acted like it didn’t matter at all?
A Minute Of Joy
It was a fantastic press conference.
All one minute of it.
There really aren’t any fireworks, but the tension is absolutely palpable.
One
Brady seemed ready to pounce from the jump. So, did the first reporter ask his question in a passive-aggressive manner because of it?
“Tom, there weren’t many shots down the field today, I know there were a couple of interceptions, balls going off guys hands and stuff… what were they doing to keep you having some splash plays like in past games?”
It seemed to irk, an already irked Brady.
You can almost feel Brady’s inner voice telling him to, ‘Stay calm. Don’t react.’
“We never really played on our terms. We played from behind the whole game. They played a good game. They had a good plan.”
Two
The second reporter took a much more direct approach:
“Last year you came out of the bye, kind of set things in the right motion for the end of the season. How hard is it to do the exact opposite in the first game back?”
Did that lack a little tact in Tom’s mind? Defensively, Brady doesn’t even really answer the question:
“We obviously…. you know… you obviously said… not a great day of football from us,” Brady said. “Doesn’t matter who we play, if we have a bunch of self inflicted errors too. I mean… we gotta eliminate those and see if we can go out and execute the plays that are there.”
Three
Third and final question. Again a seemingly passive aggressive manner is used to ask a potentially sensitive question.
“What did you see on the two interceptions?”
At this point, if Tom Brady was a cartoon, steam might have started coming out of his ears to the sound of a kettle.
He still tried as best he could to take some sort of high ground. Furthermore, he didn’t really react other than with brevity to his words.
“Uh. We started with the ball. They came away with it. So. Thank you guys.”
Then Brady gets up and walks away.
Arguably the best part of the whole press conference is provided by an off camera reporter at the end, indignantly asking, “Is that it?”
Much Ado About Nothing
It really wasn’t that noteworthy of a press conference.
It could have certainly been much worse.
The tension was the most entertaining part.
Note to self… don’t ask Tom Brady negative questions, in a passive aggressive manner.