Gallagher: Brady’s Expos tweet nothing but good for Montreal
Tom Brady sent this image out on April Fool’s Day. Photo: Twitter
April 4, 2021
By Danny Gallagher
Canadian Baseball Network
Celebritism is fleeting. It can be daunting.
When you are a public figure, you are in the eye of the storm. The public has an insatiable appetite to know what that person is doing.
In his heyday, Michael Jordan was the beast of the NBA. Even in retirement, he's a name personified in the annals of greatness. Everyone in the world probably knows the name. Even if someone isn’t a basketball fan, they very likely have heard of him. He transcended the sport.
Likewise Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali.
Tom Brady is the same. He’s been the face of the NFL for many years. Even if you are not an NFL fan, you know who Brady is. His endurance and popularity transcends the sport.
If you have been watching Brady since he came into the league eons ago, you saw him in person or on television. You most certainly weren't going to the washroom when he came up behind the centre to take the snap and hand it off to a running back or stayed in the pocket to throw to a receiver.
He has been the epitome of greatness. He’s special. Seven Super Bowl championships. A man, who draws love and hate both. There are many who despise him because he's successful, he's handsome, he has beautiful, white teeth, he’s a physical marvel at 43 and he's married to a beautiful model.
He’s in a one of a kind league. He has it all.
Like him or not, Brady sure shocked a lot of people when he steered the also-ran Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first NFL championship in February after his long tenure with the New England Patriots. Those Brady haters have been moaning and groaning ever since.
Brady was a 1995 Montreal Expos draft pick and catching prospect so I have been curious about him for years. The next best thing to not getting an interview with him has been chatting with his father Tom Sr. on the phone or by text on occasion.
When Brady Jr. decided to tweet on April 1 in reference to the Expos, he raised eyebrows from his 1.8-million followers, including Expos fans or non-Expos fans. So if you don’t know what Brady tweeted in his April Fool’s Day prank, here goes:
In an image Brady photoshopped (seen above), he’s seen smiling at a camera, standing on the Expos ingrained logo on the ground behind home plate in a tuxedo and bow tie, wearing an Expos cap with the familiar rim of the Olympic Stadium roof in the background as fictitious teams stand on the baselines while the national anthems are being played. On the Jumbotron, the message reads Welcome Mr. Brady!
At last glance, the tweet had attracted close to 64,000 likes, almost 8,000 retweets and about 2,300 comments.
You could look at Brady’s tweet two ways. Some people who dislike Brady would perceive his tweet to be of poor taste. On the other hand, some looked at it as a big salute to the fallen franchise of 36 seasons.
I’m one of those, who saw him giving a nod to the Expos. He’s mightily aware of the passion and enthusiasm people in Montreal have for the return of the Expos. His joke was meant to give Expos fans a thumbs-up.
This is a publicity stunt for sure on Brady’s part. You could see some of his ego dripping in the part about “first player/coach/owner in MLB history.’’ Brady clearly cherishes the time he took BP with the Expos at Candlestick Park on June 9, 1995.
Decades ago, somebody told me as a general comment when it came to sports figures, sports teams and sports events that “Any publicity is better than no publicity.’’ Meaning that even if the publicity is negative, it’s still publicity.
In the case of Brady, his tweet gives Montreal some extra publicity and puts the city in the spotlight with the folks at Major League Baseball. His celebritism works.
Danny Gallagher is a former Expos beat writer and author of seven books about the franchise. His new Expos book just released is called Never Forgotten.