Plenty of Americans still insist (without proof) that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. In the presence of the declared winner of that race, Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady poked fun at the lingering election deniers.
“We got on a roll,” Brady said during the team’s visit to the White House. “Not a lot of people think that we could have won. In fact I think about 40 percent of the people still don’t think we won.”
“I understand that,” President Joe Biden interjected.
But Brady had more scripted material.
“We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was,” he said. “I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing. And they started calling me Sleepy Tom. Why would they do that to me?” (Trump routinely called Biden “Sleepy Joe” during the campaign.)
The 40-percent crack drew laughs (as intended), but at some level you can bet that Brady’s motivational tactics for his teammates in 2021 will include telling them that people don’t think they were the best team last year, and that they didn’t deserve to get to the Super Bowl or win it. That’s the best way to nudge them to make the commitment needed to get back there again.