Tom Brady Is Texting With Ron DeSantis. Why Aren’t Conservatives Telling Him To Stick To Sports?

Tom Brady has always been circumspect about his politics. He put a MAGA hat in his locker during Donald Trump’s campaign for president but skipped the traditional post-Super Bowl White House appearance during both the Obama and Trump presidencies. He never kneeled when dozens of other NFL players protested police violence, but he stood with his teammates during a show of solidarity during the controversy over kneeling and said in interviews that he disagreed with Trump calling for players to be cut. For all we know, Brady has never cast a vote. But one thing we do know for sure is that the same conservatives who have routinely called for Black players (and commentators for that matter) to stick to sports have never, ever said the same thing of Brady, football’s golden boy of the past two decades, on the occasions that he’s said or done anything political.

That silence is as loud as ever after a new report that Brady is on a texting basis with Florida governor, election intimidator-in-chief and migrant trafficker Ron DeSantis, a detail that came out from via Tim Michaels, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, who was apparently on a clout chase with some of his boosters last week.

From the New York Times

“I took Governor DeSantis to the Packer game at Lambeau Field,” Mr. Michels told a gathering of the Lake Country Patriots, a far-right group, on Thursday at a brewery in Oconomowoc, Wis. The New York Times was denied entry to the publicly advertised event, but obtained a recording of Mr. Michels’s remarks.

…Mr. Michels continued: “I say, ‘Who are you texting with?’ He says, ‘I’m texting with Tom Brady.’ The governor of Florida gets to text with Tom Brady.”

Brady, like anyone else, has his right to text, support or vote for whomever he wants. If canoodling with DeSantis, a guy who’s made taxpayer-funded voter suppression, anti-LGBTQ legislation, and fake outrage over critical race theory hallmarks of his political career, is what makes Brady feel better in the midst of what could be his worst season in a hall-of-fame career, that’s his business.

But it was also LeBron James’ business when he chose to speak out about police brutality and other social issues, which didn’t stop Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and other stars on the right from telling him to “shut up and dribble”. If they really believe that sports and politics don’t mix, then Ingraham and her cohort should be lining up to tell Brady to keep his political friendships under wraps, or at the very least to tell Michaels to keep Brady’s name out of his mouth as he tries to win a campaign for governor.

That won’t happen though, because what the “stick to sports” crowd really means—that they fear Black athletes using their platforms to do social good, especially if that means taking the wealth they’ve earned from athletics and using it to help dismantle racism—doesn’t apply to Brady. As long as Brady, a white quarterback, plays footsie with politicians who advance racist and anti-democratic policies, that’s just fine.

But if he were to show up with a BLM t-shirt in his locker next week, I’m guessing the golden boy should expect a very different response.