On the same day that Tom Brady became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 600 career TDs in a 38-3 thrashing of the Chicago Bears, a ringless Tony Romo tried to rain on Tom’s parade by suggesting that Brady allow his wife to go on a date with a fan who ended up with the TD ball.
https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1452382463930642435?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1452382463930642435%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmlbbro.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php
According to reports, a fan was mistakenly given the ball and as Bucs officials were trying to retrieve it, Romo jokingly suggested that the fan who returned the ball could go on a date with Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
Yahoo sports pretty much summed up how most of the people who heard the comment felt about them.
“Gisele Bündchen is an incredibly accomplished woman, and in many parts of the world, she is more well-known and recognizable than her husband. She is a stalwart environmentalist, an activist for numerous other causes, a best-selling author, businesswoman and mother. But in an instant Sunday, she was reduced to a piece of property that should be passed around like a bowl of Halloween candy for … a piece of memorabilia.”
Oh That’s No. 600?…My Bad
Mike Evans is one of the 80 plus players who have caught TD balls from Tom Terrific, but he had no idea that he caught the 600th ball.
That’s not something Brady would be focused on coming into a game and he certainly wouldn’t want any of the coaches or players reminding him of such accolades. Brady stays in the moment better than anyone to ever do it and that’s part of the genius that has allowed him to play for two decades at such a high level.
Evans tossed the ball into the stands to a fan named Byron Kennedy, who later returned it after being coaxed by a Bucs official. The cameras followed the interaction during the retrieving of Brady’s TD ball, but Romo’s comment threw a damper on what should have been an historical, feel-good moment.
Since joining CBS football as a commentator and being lauded by executives, Romo has ascended to the highest-paid color commentator in the game. He makes more than he did as the star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.
Romo’s $17M per-year bag to talk football is one of the greatest comeups in broadcasting history. For that kind of bag, the fans were probably expecting to hear some insight from Romo about Brady, a guy he has matched QB skills against on several occasions.
Maybe the praise has gone to his head. Why would Romo even comment on the next man’s wife during a live broadcast? Is he still one of those dinosaurs that believe women don’t watch football broadcasts? The fact that he thought every man listening to the broadcast would support his chauvinism is also kind of shocking.
Not sure if Romo was in his right state of mind. It was definitely a poor choice of words. It wasn’t surely that funny to social media who lambasted Romo for his archaic humor.
So is anyone going to talk about how inappropriate it was that Romo thought Brady should give that fan a “day with Gisele”? @nfl @tonyromo Women are not items for trade.
— #HereWeGo (@412Strong) October 25, 2021
@giseleofficial is not @TomBrady’s property to “pimp” out by the way – this was a disgusting comment and I am waiting patiently for @tonyromo’s apology statement
— AngD ❤️ (@ThatGirlAngD44) October 25, 2021
unlikely to become a column, but the number of people saying the Bucs fan who gave the 600TD ball back should get a night with Gisele (incl Romo): gross. y'all literally pimp out your wives/SOs for memorabilia? really?
— shalise manza young (@shalisemyoung) October 25, 2021
Most of the reactions to Romo’s poorly thought-out quip were against it. But adding an even sadder dimension to the ordeal was the way that some male Twitter commenters didn’t see anything wrong with Romo’s comment:
Kennedy didn’t get a date with Bündchen, but he was rewarded well for returning the ball, as shown in the below Tweet.
CBS suits probably won’t make a big deal about it, but Romo might want to stay away from mentioning the wife’s or family of current players in any of his jokes.
