"What were you thinking?"
This question from Dan Hausle to Tom Brady on Saturday about his cameo in Paul Rudd's new show, Living with Yourself, (a cameo which was initially interpreted by many as a reference to Robert Kraft's infamous visits to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa), set Brady off and led him to rail against the media for taking things out of context in a "blame and shame" culture.
And it should have. The phrasing of that question would have made me angry, too. Hausle asked it as if he was scolding Brady before he even knew the full story.
Nobody really knew the full story and that was the problem.
Tom Brady not happy with my questions or headlines about Netflix Paul Rudd comedy scene he shot that has him coming out of massage parlor smiling. Tells me it "was meant to be something different from that". Brady angry so many see as spoof of owner & friend Robert Kraft #7News pic.twitter.com/3IkC9UUbTN
— Dan Hausle (@dhausleon7) October 19, 2019I watched both the first and second episodes of Living With Yourself and Brady's cameo was absolutely taken out of context.
When the scene showing Brady walking out of the Top Happy Spa occurs, the audience does not yet know what is happening. It looks like it could be a spoof of Robert Kraft. But as any good journalist knows, you have to check it out and get the full story before running with it.
As the show goes on, it becomes clear the spa is for cloning. And Brady's line about having gone to the spa six times is clearly a reference to how many Super Bowls he's won.
However, it does seem like the show's creators wanted the audience to think this is a Kraft spoof and that the joke is happy endings are the secret to Brady's championships. And Brady should be angry at the show's creators for this.
But he should place more blame on the media for making a Kraft spoof the story before actually investigating.
Yes, this is a story. How could it not be? Anything Brady does on any given day is a story.
Before getting the full story, a basic headline stating Brady had a cameo in this show without making accusations could have sufficed and let people interpret it as they will before following up.
But many headlines jumped to conclusions, like USA Today's, "Patriots QB Tom Brady spoofs Robert Kraft with cameo at massage parlor," which was tweeted out like this at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday:
Um, okay. https://t.co/grv2Cq30p4
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) October 19, 2019The headline has since been changed to "Patriots QB Tom Brady says his cameo in comedy series was taken out of context."
For The Win also published the story with this headline, "Tom Brady spoofs Pats' massage parlor scandal in bizarre Netflix show cameo." This headline was changed to, "FTW Explains: What's going on with Tom Brady's bizarre Netflix cameo?" once some digging was done and the full story was uncovered, as it should have been before any of these headlines were even published.
Tom Brady spoofs Pats' massage parlor scandal in bizarre Netflix show cameo https://t.co/uzegZ4V8LD pic.twitter.com/VmOnnIIfmi
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) October 19, 2019The worst angle of all from this story, however, was from Shirley Leung in the Boston Globe.
"Brady's cameo is yet another example of how the NFL in general, and the Patriots in particular, just don't get it," Leung wrote. "They don't get how their actions reveal a deep lack of respect for women."
I mean, come on. This is so freaking outrageous and just another excuse to play the "lack of respect for women" card unfoundedly while taking a shot at the Patriots and Brady.
This lunacy and headlines like those from FTW and USA Today, along with Hausle's line of questioning, absolutely should have set Brady off.
Paul Rudd was on with Howard Stern on Wednesday and was asked about this whole thing and he said, "I had a feeling that I've never ever had in my life, which was 'Oh my God, I feel bad for Tom Brady.' It's like this guy was throwing us a bone. He was doing us a favor. And he was kind of making fun of himself and his perfection. And then all of a sudden Boston media ..."
Rudd is lying here, he knew what people were going to think about Brady and Kraft with this scene and he got exactly what he wanted, which was publicity for his show. But he is right about the media, although it wasn't just the Boston media that blew this up.
Paul Rudd and the Netflix show definitely screwed Brady here but the media could have saved him from this by getting the story correct from the start and they failed him.
Other Media Notes:
-- Stephen A. Smith will reportedly discontinue his ESPN Radio show as part of a new deal he is negotiating with ESPN. According to the Big Lead, Smith's contract is up next year and he and ESPN are in the final stages of a five-year contract extension which will keep him with the network into 2025.
