Early Tuesday morning, Tom Brady said goodbye to the New England Patriots on his Instagram and Twitter. This closes a chapter and a relationship that Brady has has had with only one team for 20 seasons. Brady is only one of five NFL players to have dedicated their career for 20 years.
Brady’s decision is a day away from Free Agency, in which all NFL teams can reach out to free agent players about the upcoming NFL season. Throughout the years in several interviews, Brady who is 42-years-old has emphasized that his goal was to play until he is 45, but the Patriots were not able to reach an agreement with his contract.
The sports world has been put to a screeching halt and turned upside down due to the Coronavirus. But for many, Tom Brady’s post on social media stunned many football fans even more around the globe. The Chargers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers remain as the top two candidates that Brady might sign with, but only time can tell.
As a consistent social media user and as a Producer of sports television, I have seen how it has become the norm that more and more athletes are communicating life-changing news via their personal Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook pages. As a fan and taking out my Producer hat, I feel that this strategy has its pros and cons. Its pro is that it is immediate and people who are not watching television can hear it directly from their favorite athlete. The con is that it is so informal that people might feel as if their idol has become a traitor in the sense by simply communicating something in one sentence. Would a Patriots fan have preferred that a press conference were set up and that he would have made that formal announcement? What are your thoughts between the dichotomy of new media and traditional media?
“I don’t know what my football future holds but it is time for me to open a new stage for my life and career,” Brady said.
Earlier today in a heartfelt statement, Bill Belichick said: “Sometimes in life, it takes some time to pass before truly appreciating something or someone but that has not been the case with Tom. He is a special person and the greatest quarterback of all-time.”
Now for this upcoming NFL season, the greatest Quarterback of all time and the greatest coach of all time will be able to experience how it is going to be to compete for titles without one another. Who will bring more victories to their team? Who do you predict will make it to Super Bowl next year? Let’s just say this new rivalry is going to make football even more exciting and fun to watch.
References:
ESPN News Services. (2020, March 17). Tom Brady says goodbye to Patriots on social media.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28915341/tom-brady-says-goodbye-patriots-social-media
Littleton, Cynthia. (2020, March 17). Superstar Quarterback Tom Brady to Leave New England
Patriots for Free Agency. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/tom-brady-new-england-patriots-quarterback-nfl-free-agency-1203536739/
O’Connor, Ian. (2020, March 17). Tom Brady leaving the Patriots: Why Brady vs. Belichick
will be the great battle of the dynasty.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28903671/tom-brady-leaving-patriots-why-brady-vs-belichick-last-great-battle-dynasty
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