Why YOU Mad?

Tom Brady drew the attention of a lot of people this week because of his comments on Patriot fans leaving the game early during their week 1 win over Cincinnati. My question is why? Who would get upset over his disappointment in fans leaving early? Some have questioned Tom's motivation for calling out his own fans and even giving the slightest hint that another team's fans would be superior to his own. Brady said that the Jets fans would not pick up and leave if the game was secured. Now if you look at the video you can see Brady has a half smirk on his face while delivering this thought to reporters. While many will see this as Tom being an arrogant, smug bastard (and they may be right) I take a different point of view.

Brady had been on a meteoric rise from 2001 to 2005. He won titles, dated hot famous women, and did horrible Stetson cologne ads. Do money and fame change who you are as a person? That may be too philosophical a debate to settle on a sports blog that has four readers. Perhaps they enhance negative characteristics, or maybe they don't change the person at all, they were just selfish and greedy (read: people) to begin with. There are those that think Brady has changed and every comment he makes while eliciting an emotion is him being a prick and acting as if he is too self-important to judged by normal men.

My opinion is this: Brady lost faith in people somewhere along the way. I can't pinpoint the date and time but I think it was around the time that TMZ video of Tom came out with the "errand boy" chant. Then the Boston media, one of the more disgusting examples of bitter journalism with the absence of integrity, writes crap like this and you wonder why Tom is not all warm and fuzzy with the media. Ever since he won 3 of 4 Super Bowls nothing will be good enough for the media machine who only became more emboldened after the Celtics and Red Sox took titles of their own. Now winning a title is the only true outcome for a season and if it fails, the retribution ranges from harsh to ridiculous. The media wants Brady to be the golden boy while they run to their keyboards and slam him for who his wife is, what he does in the offseason, and his haircut.

The New England fans have been equally two-faced. Perhaps they forgot just how hard it is to win a Super Bowl. Lions, Browns, Falcons, Chargers, Vikings, Bills, Bengals, Eagles, Titans, Seahawks, Panthers, and Cardinals fans could let them know. The sense of entitlement has seeped into the entire fanbase. Fans are quick to just point to the "rrrrrrrrrings" argument instead of making salient points about the team. Robert Kraft deserves credit for building a great stadium and turning the Patriots into a brand, but something is missing in the stands now. The most spirited fans are choosing to stay home. Why deal with traffic, parking, concessions and high ticket prices when you can catch the game from all the angles at home? That leaves the stands mostly filled with people that are there to be catered to, entertained as they clap from their seats. Living and dying with each play and watching all the way through the 4th quarter to fully gain perspective on how good the team will be this season was not on the menu for a lot of them. They just wanted to go home. That's fine and that is their right, but don't be upset when the quarterback calls you out for it. Definitely don't try to profess your infinite fandom later in the season or during playoff time.

That was Tom's point and that's why it made sense and that is why people got offended. No one likes to be called out. Everyone else piling on this are just Brady-haters of which there are a lot and I don't blame them. Celebrating like a viable clean energy solution had been discovered when Brady had his knee injury is going a little too far but I understand why people don't like him. There is a lot of not like about the guy if he doesn't play for your team. I believe Brady says these things now not because he has become a different person but because he sees the hypocrisy out there and enjoys calling people on it. He may do it because of his high self-confidence (arrogance if you like) but he knows it will push people's buttons and he does not care about backlash. He got backlash when he was on his best behavior with the media, when he tried to keep his private life private. Tom realized haters were gonna hate, and he might as well keep them hatin'.