In his younger years, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady specialized in practical jokes. As he closes in what inevitably will be the final years of his career, his teammates should heed this advice: When you least expect it, expect it.
“I gotta get back to that,” Brady said earlier this week regarding practical jokes, during a visit to PFT Live. “You know I’m so much older than everybody else now I’m always trying to build bridges with everybody so sometimes I don’t want them taking my pranking too seriously. But it is a fun part, and we’ve had a lot of jokesters over the years.”
Brady said there weren’t many pranks at all in 2016, and he reflected on the purple-foot trick that Drew Bledsoe played on Brady.
“He got me with this purple ink that he put in my sock,” Brady said. “It looks like a clear ink or whatever and when it contacts your skin it turns this dark purple. So I worked for all of practice, by the time I got inside I had to peel my socks off my feet because I looked like Barney the dinosaur with how purple my feet were. So I’ve tried to use that a few times. I tried to use it on Dan Koppen once. I tried to use it on Matt Cassel.”
So watch out, young Patriots. Brady perhaps has been setting you up by laying low for the past several years. As he prepares to turn 40, there could be a rash of feet with a purple rash and other similar jokes aimed at lightening the mood in a place where sometimes things are taken too seriously.
In case you missed it, or if you didn’t, the full interview is above (if you’re reading this in the Rumor Mill) or below (if otherwise).