OPINION:
Maybe Tom Brady, stripped of his football glory and the rich business fanboys who inevitably try to attach themselves to star athletes, is a dummy at heart.
His pro wrestling flirtation certainly doesn’t instill confidence in his intelligence. Or maybe it raises questions about how many blows he took to the head during his 18 years in the NFL.
Or maybe he’s bored.
Brady made a spectacle of himself at last week’s WWE Fanatic Fest in what looked like a poorly staged confrontation with wrestler and YouTube buffoon Logan Paul that included the NFL legend slapping Paul on stage in a pathetically executed bit ot wrestling match kayfabe.
WWE posted the video of the slap on its official X account, as did Brady on his own social media.
The two also gave each other the middle finger at the World Cup Sunday.
These were proud moments for the celebrated future Hall of Famer. Maybe he’ll have The Undertaker introduce him at Canton. He did an imitation of the wrestling legend rising from a coffin in a video also posted on WWE’s account.
In case there were any questions about Brady’s intentions, he made it clear at the Fanatics event that he wants to climb in the squared circle. On WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes’ podcast, he said he wants to be part of the show.
He made a reference to the brief wrestling career of his former teammate Rob Gronkowski — certainly a MENSA role model. Gronkowski’s stint included hosting WrestleMania 36 in 2020.
“I need to get an invite,” Brady said. “I’ve been waiting for (president of WWE) Nick Khan (who is partners with Brady as a fellow minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders) to come up with some storyline for me to get in the mix. I feel like I’m retired from football, have an opportunity to go out there and still showcase that I’m a little bit of an athlete.”
Like the embarrassing Roast of Tom Brady two years ago, Brady joining the WWE circus can’t do anything but tarnish his image and his credibility.
I understand we are in an age where credibility doesn’t carry the credibility it used to and embarrassment may be a nostalgic notion. And pro wrestling has become the cultural standard in our country. But Brady had ascended to the level of global celebrity royalty. Could you imagine Messi doing this?
Brady wouldn’t be breaking new ground here. He mentioned Gronkowski.
During Vince McMahon’s WrestleMania reign, he often brought in professional football players to spice up the shows, including Lawrence Taylor, Kevin Greene and others.
And before that — when wrestlers were more like pulp fiction figures than comic book characters — professional football players would supplement their income by wrestling during the off-season.
Back then, it wasn’t just for laughs. There were legendary professional football players back in the day who became world champions in the ring. Two American Football League stars were pro wrestlers in the off-season — Ernie Ladd and Wahoo McDaniel.
Ladd was 6-foot-9 and weighed 320 pounds, a four-time AFL All-Star who became a fixture in the ring after a knee injury forced him to retire from football in 1969 after eight years in the league.
McDaniel played linebacker for eight years in the AFL during the same time that Ladd played. He, too, turned to wrestling to supplement his income. Ladd and McDaniel would generate heat as rivals in the ring.
Before that, there were two particular pro football players — Hall of Famers — who would become Hall of Fame grapplers as well.
Leo Nomellini played offensive and defensive tackle for 14 years for the San Francisco 49ers from 1950 to 1963.
He was a nine-time All-Pro, a star by any standards. But he needed to wrestle to pay the bills, and he was good at that as well — a nine-time tag team champion. He once defeated the great Lou Thesz in a two-out-of-three falls match, but did not win the heavyweight title because the first fall was a disqualification.
The great Bronco Nagurski played fullback and defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears from 1930 to 1937, and arguably did so better than anyone else in the game at the time. He was a three-time world champion and four-time All-Pro and part of the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
There is a story about a run Nagurski had against the Redskins. He supposedly knocked two linebackers in opposite directions, stomped a defensive back and crushed a safety, then bounced off the goalposts and cracked the brick wall at Wrigley Field. He came back to the huddle and reportedly said, “That last guy hit me awfully hard.”
He did the coin toss for Super Bowl XVIII in Tampa in 1984 between the Redskins and the Los Angeles Raiders.
Nagurski became a heavyweight champion in the ring, defeating Thesz in 1939. He is a member of multiple pro wrestling halls of fame.
These were men who were not married to supermodels. And I think Nagurski would slap the joke out of both Paul and Brady.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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