NFL
Tom Brady Owns Up to a Risky Decision That Could Have Cost Him $50,000: ‘That Was Not Smart’
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterPublished08 Apr 2021
While physical skills are obviously important, the best NFL quarterbacks are also pretty intelligent. During the course of a single game, a signal-caller has to make hundreds of split-second decisions; a single mistake can be the difference between victory and defeat. Based on his resume, Tom Brady hasn’t had any problem making the right choice more often than not.
After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl victory, though, Tom Brady made national headlines by throwing the Lombardi Trophy across the water to his teammates. Now, TB12 is owning up to that mistake.
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had no problem celebrating their Super Bowl victory
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During the past year, the coronavirus pandemic has turned life upside down; things that we all took for granted became impossible in the blink of an eye. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however, still managed to celebrate their Super Bowl title, albeit in slightly different circumstances.
Rather than rolling through downtown on buses, the Buccaneers celebrated their Super Bowl title with a boat parade. As you might expect, the players relished in the chance to cut loose; Rob Gronkowski, for example, unsurprisingly removed his shirt to soak up the Florida sun. Even Tom Brady got in on the action.
While the quarterback doesn’t always seem like the most easy-going guy—he’s known for holding his teammates to a high standard and following a strict diet—Brady needed some help walking after the parade wrapped up. He later poked fun at himself on social media, tweeting about “avocado tequila,” referencing his famous indulgence of avocado ice cream.
That wasn’t the only way Tom Brady made headlines, though.
A now-infamous pass featuring the Lombardi Trophy
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During his NFL career, Tom Brady has thrown plenty of eye-catching passes. A throw during the Buccaneers Super Bowl parade, however, was unlike anything the quarterback had ever done before.
During the parade, Brady was holding the Lombardi Trophy and apparently decided that it was time for someone else to have a turn. The quarterback then wound up and released an underhand throw, tossing the trophy across the water to his teammates on another boat.
As you might assume, that pass quickly went viral. While most fans were amused by Brady’s decision, it wasn’t a laughing matter for everyone. Lorraine Grohs, the daughter of a silversmith who helped make the Lombardi Trophy, felt like throwing it across the water was disrespectful. She even publicly said that Brady should apologize for his actions.
Tom Brady owns up to his potentially costly mistake
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As the cliche says, hindsight is 2020. Now that some time has passed since the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl parade, Tom Brady knows that tossing the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another wasn’t the smartest idea he’s ever had.
“First of all, there was not a lot going through my mind at that point. That was not smart for a couple reasons,” Brady told Michael Strahan during a Good Morning America interview. “One is, if we drop it, that’s a little bit of a problem. But the worst thing that could happen is the edges on that trophy are so sharp and had those things clipped one of my boys in the other boat, it would have been an ugly parade.”
As TB12 himself said, dropping the Lombardi Trophy would have been a pretty awful outcome. Despite the embarrassment—imagine being remembered as the guy who won the Super Bowl, then threw his prize into a river—the Lombardi Trophy is pretty valuable. While Tom Brady could have easily afforded a $50,000 replacement, no one wants to fork over thousands of dollars just because they did something stupid.
At the end of the day, though, Tom Brady completed the pass and avoided disaster. Whether he’s on the football field on a boat, TB12 knows a thing or two about coming through in the clutch.
