Tom Brady Learns the Media Game Ain’t Easy, Takes Shot at ESPN: TRAINA THOUGHTS
1. As we have noted many times in Traina Thoughts and on the SI Media Podcast in recent months, the Tampa Bay version of Tom Brady has been willing to show us more of his personality than he ever did in New England, and it’s been downright delightful.
Several weeks ago, we told you about Brady “finding his voice.” Earlier this week, we praised Brady’s hilariously absurd Subway commercials. And now we have Brady endearing himself to everyone in the content game.
The future Hall of Famer appears on the weekly SiriusXM radio show Let’s Go with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald, and ESPN’s SportsCenter Twitter account, which has 38 million followers, pulled and promoted a Brady quote from the show. While they did credit the show at the bottom of the graphic, there was no link back to the show in the tweet.
And Tommy called them out.
As someone who has endured this injustice many, many times over the years, I sympathize with Brady.
I also give Brady credit for caring this much. This guy is the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL, he’s coming off a Super Bowl victory, his wife is the richest supermodel in the world and he’s still worried about people getting a link to his weekly radio show.
You have to admire that passion.
What makes this whole thing even more amusing is that Brady is basically business partners with ESPN right now, yet he still scolded the company.
Just a couple of days before this, he was promoting his upcoming documentary, Man in the Arena, which will air on ESPN+:
Nice job by Brady mentioning ESPN+ in his tweet. That’s how you properly promote something!
If Brady is reading this, we just want to say: If you keep promoting SI content like this, we will always link back to your radio show, unlike ESPN.
2. We recently said that the best story in sports right now is J.R. Smith’s tweeting though his return to college, so we loved seeing this Thursday morning.
3. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky has a truly remarkable gift: barking like a dog better than anyone ever has.
4. He should’ve also had to dye the beard.
5. Vice’s excellent Dark Side of the Ring series returns Thursday night with a new season of six episodes. If you’re a wrestling fan, you will want to check out this installment, which covers the infamous WWE “plane ride from hell.”
6. This week’s SI Media Podcast dropped early. A brand-new episode with Jimmy Kimmel, who is an executive producer on ESPN's latest 30 for 30 documentary, Once Upon a Time in Queens, is now available for your listening pleasure.
Jimmy’s Cousin Sal is also a producer on the doc and joins the podcast to discuss the best nostalgic moments from the film, why they wanted to tell the story of the 1986 Mets and which former players stood out for their performances in the show.
Kimmel also talks about his time on Fox's NFL pregame show, how much Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long hated him and almost getting voted off the NFL on Fox. Other topics discussed include why the 1980s were the best decade, what Kimmel’s mentality is doing a late-night show during the age of streaming, the one guest he’d like to have on his show, his reaction to going viral and which question he hates being asked.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I agree with this guy's list 100%.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.
