Just calm down already, right? Tom Brady, former Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, texted congratulations to Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald after Seattle defeated the Pats in Super Bowl LX, and fans of Brady's first team seemed to have lost it on social media.
The biggest question is...why? All Brady did was text with Macdonald. Seattle's head coach might have responded to Brady with a wry, "Thanks for stealing our OC," but that was just friendly chatter. After all, Brady no longer belongs to New England, but instead to FOX Sports and the Las Vegas Raiders, of which he is a part-owner.
Hopefully, Pats fans are simply going bananas about their former favorite player's texts because the Seahawks beat their favorite team, but that's still silly. Would 12s have an issue with Richard Sherman sending a text to Mike Vrabel had the Patriots won? (OK, maybe, but things are different.)
Patriots fans need to relax over Tom Brady's texts to Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald
On X (the artist formerly known as Twitter), one fan wrote, "Brady’s ego can’t bare to see the Patriots win games without him."
Again, and to be clear, Brady, an owner of the Raiders who has called Seahawks games this year for FOX Sports, simply said congrats to Macdonald. Also, the Patriots are the ones who no longer wanted Brady in the end, so if he does hold a grudge (and there is no evidence he does), he has a right to.
Another tweeted, "Nice of Tom Brady to congratulate Macdonald for Seattle’s well-earned championship. Equally true that Brady doesn’t want the Patriots to be successful w/o him. Unfortunate that he’s as insecure as he was successful."
Brady didn't need the Patriots to be successful (he won a Super Bowl with the Bucs), so why would he not want the Pats to win without him? The odd part is that New England didn't win without Tom Brady, yet Tom Brady won without the Patriots. That has to be harsh for New England fans.
Someone else said, "Its so funny how Brady wants nothing more then the Pats to fail now lmao."
Had Brady texted the Seahawks coach before the game and said, "I hope you destroy New England," then maybe there is an argument. Instead, the former quarterback was simply one of hundreds of people to tell the coach congratulations. Heck, that's just good business, as he works for a network that will require him to talk to the coach before games in the future.
Ultimately, why is the Richard Sherman scenario different than the Brady one? Because Sherman doesn't own a team where he understands that sometimes it's healthy to be friendly to teams whose coordinators you might want to hire. Former Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak was hired to be the head coach for the Raiders. After all, it's just good business.