Fans Call Out Tom Brady For Questionable On-Field Behavior
Tom Brady's season came to an anticlimactic end as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Dallas Cowboys 31-14 in the NFC Wild Card matchup. The first question fans and reporters had was what that meant for Brady's future, and if he would return to the Buccaneers or retire from the NFL for good. "I'm gonna go home and get a good night's sleep, do as good as I can tonight," Brady told reporters in a press conference following the loss, per NBC Sports. While leaving the field, the future Hall of Famer tipped his hat to the fans. "It'll just be one day at a time, truly," he told the press. Brady threw for 351 yards and completed two touchdown passes, but his squad was easily handled by the Cowboys. The status of his future loomed over the loss.
Leading up to the playoffs, Brady hinted that he still had plenty of gas left in the tank. During an episode of his "Let's Go" podcast, the Bucs QB was asked if he saw himself retiring after the 2022-2023 season. "I really don't," he said, via Men's Health. Some fans disagreed with Brady's self-assessment, though, and thought his performance in the Wild Card game spoke volumes. "Tom Brady said he would retire when he sucks. If he comes back next season he is admitting that he is indeed a Liar," one viewer tweeted.
However, the real talk of the night happened when Twitter called out Brady for what they deemed a dirty play.
Tom Brady's suspicious slide tackle
As the game started to slip away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a play by Tom Brady had many viewers up in arms. During the second quarter, when Dallas Cowboys safety Malik Hooker recovered a fumble, Brady slid at Hooker's feet and appeared to attempt to trip him, per the New York Post. Dan LeBatard caught the play immediately and tweeted a clip of the incident, which drew attention to the slide. Plenty of others took issue with the quarterback's seemingly dirty tackle attempt. "It appears as if Tom's still very spry ... sick slide tackle ankle kick here," Pat McAfee tweeted.
Fans wasted little time piling on Brady with a barrage of tweets, as many believed the seven-time Super Bowl champion had acted out of frustration. "#TomBrady may be the GOAT but he's also kind of a punk," one Twitter user wrote. "Why did I just see @TomBrady intentionally try to trip a guy after a fumble return," another tweeted. "Tom Brady is dirty as f*** btw," one viewer simply stated. Charles McDonald of Yahoo! Sports tweeted that he believed the league could issue Brady a fine.
A fine for this sort of play would not be unprecedented for the decorated quarterback. A decade earlier, Brady was slapped with a $10,000 fine for a similar play during the AFC Championship game when he stuck his cleats into a player's thigh while sliding. In October 2022, Brady was fined for kicking another player after he was sacked.
It's not all about winning for Tom Brady
Tom Brady being called out for some questionable behavior on the field came shortly after he opened about why he keeps on playing time and time again — despite the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2022/23 season not exactly being the team's best. In December 2022, Brady claimed it's actually not all about winning for him, despite what many may think after his extremely lengthy and extremely successful career. "You would think, 'Oh, well, why is he still playing?' Because all you want to do is win, and that's all sports should be about is winning. And I agree it should be about winning, but it's also, I'm looking at it like, no, what am I learning? What am I learning from putting a similar amount of energy in over the last couple years and not winning? What is that teaching me?" Brady shared on his "Let's Go!" podcast. "You know, why should we feel like we're just entitled to win all the time? We're not. That's not what life's about," he added.
But while there's been much speculation about whether Brady will return for another season after he initially retired in January 2022 (before then un-retiring mere weeks later) there's probably been even more chatter about his personal life. Brady had some fans worried in 2022 after his season with the Bucs started tanking amid a lot of turmoil in his personal life — his high-profile divorce from Gisele Bundchen.