There is no doubt about how Tom Brady feels about himself and his past football career, because he will tell you. This weekend, during the Kentucky Derby programming, Brady was tasked with telling the story of racehorse Secretariat, the ninth winner of the Triple Crown, with the fastest time in all three races. However, the narrative took a weird turn into a full-on comparison of GOATs.
“I want to tell you a story about fate,” Brady started in the video. “It takes place in 1969. Two horse breeders have an agreement. They’ll flip a coin. The winner will get the first choice of two foals or baby horses. The loser will get their choice the next year.
“A woman named Penny, funny enough, is one of the owners. And she loses the coin toss. And a year later in 1970, only one foal was born. And that’s how she ends up with a young horse by the name of Secretariat.”
Two GOATs, One Horse, One Human
With this year marking the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s legendary Kentucky Derby and his Triple Crown run, the Brady monologue was supposed to celebrate the horse’s legendary career. Instead, leading up to Sunday’s race, it evolved into Tom Brady delivering a comparative message that likened him to Secretariat. Whether NBC Sports decided to write the narrative or not, Brady delivered it to the dislike of many on social media.
“Now I want to tell you another story about fate,” Brady continued. “It takes place about 30 years later,” Brady said. “A kid you might recognize is sitting on the bench in New England, backing up one of the best quarterbacks in the league. But then that QB gets hurt, and the kid gets his shot to go in.
“Now maybe Secretariat would have become Secretariat even if he had a different owner, a different trainer, a different jockey. And maybe I would have found my way into a lineup even if my good buddy Drew Bledsoe didn’t get hurt that day on the field. But I do know the way it worked out for both of us felt a lot like fate.”
Fans took to Twitter to tell Brady how they felt about his comparison to Secretariat.
“This was supposed to be a tribute to/about Secretariat why ruin it with sticking Brady in it ???” Twitter user @cantankerousol1 posted.
“Shame on NBC for making this piece about Tom Brady in ANY WAY! If you’re going to salute a horse make your piece about THE HORSE!!!” Twitter user @AlienBujak posted.
Brady Loves Brady
A year after Brady was selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft, Patriots starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured in the second game of the 2001 season, and Brady was chosen to fill the position. By the following season, he was a Super Bowl champion, winning Super Bowl XXXVI 20-17 over the then-St. Louis Rams.
Brady would go on to win six total championships for the Pats and one final one as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he retired after last season. Brady is the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in three separate decades, and many believed he would return for another crack at a championship.
He famously unretired to come back for the 2022 season, to the detriment of his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
If no one loves Kanye as much as Kanye loves Kanye, then Tom Brady has just entered the Kanye West school of verbal self-gratification most uncannily; through the lens of one of the world’s most famous racehorses.
