Monday was Super Bowl 51 media night. The Patriots arrived in Houston and made the first of many media rounds scheduled this week. All world quarterback Tom Brady, as per usual, had a large crowd of media around his podium. The future Hall of Famer answered an array of questions in usual Patriots speak. But, there are certain questions Brady will not answer. Presumably because he is not qualified…
SB Nation tweeted a quote from Brady’s media availability.
Tom Brady didn’t want to say anything about anything but sports at Super Bowl Opening Night. pic.twitter.com/NdnxOkCkxy
— SB Nation (@SBNation) January 31, 2017
Brady is not required to answer any questions outside the realm of the game, so he is well within his right to not discuss anything he does not want to. However, Brady is being naive and disingenuous regarding “what’s going on the world.”
Let’s start at the beginning. Brady opened himself up to this line of questioning by having a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat prominently displayed in his locker at Gillette Stadium. Whether he “believes” it or not he made a statement. Truthfully, it does not matter if he is a Trump supporter or not, but he opened the barn door on that line of questioning. Now, by ducking and refusing to answer questions and act incredulous as to why people care about his relationship with Donald Trump, he is only making it worse.
Super Bowl media week is unlike any other media week, and Brady knows this as a veteran of seven Super Bowls. There will be media members there who only care about the game and the stories related to the game. But there is a whole other group of media members who don’t care about the game and will ask all kinds of questions, and some will be out of left field. While other questions will be asked with the goal of acquiring social commentary from highly visible athletes.
Brady can duck all he wants, but the questions will be asked all week and he can’t skip these mandatory appearances. He can continue to refuse to answer, but it will only fan the flames and fuel speculation. Not to mention a President Trump interview will air on the pregame show and media members know it. The President will probably mention the Patriots and his relationship with Brady at least once during the interview. As he clearly has no problem with his relationship to the star quarterback. The question remains why Brady is unwilling to address or acknowledge? Well, as he says, he’s a positive person. Maybe he doesn’t want to link himself to anyone controversial. But then that would mean he is aware of what’s going on in the world…