Tom Brady spent 23 years watching wide receivers throw tantrums. He finally came up with the perfect name for it.
Brady stopped by the New Heights Podcast with Travis and Jason Kelce this week and unloaded on the constant unhappiness cycle among NFL receivers. He called it the “Real Housewives of the NFL.”
“I swear to God, it’s just deja vu. I’ve been seeing the same stuff since 2000 when I came into the league,” Brady said. “It’s like the ‘Real Housewives of the NFL.'”
Coming from the guy who threw to Randy Moss, Antonio Brown, Julian Edelman, Brandin Cooks, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, Brady has receipts.
He used the recent A.J. Brown trade from the Eagles to the Patriots as his example. Brown had been open about wanting a bigger role in the passing game. Philadelphia was never going to be that team.
“A.J. wanted to be involved,” Brady said. “I covered a lot of those Eagles games. That passing offense isn’t what that team’s known for. So now he’s actually going to a team where they are more known for their passing offense. So there will be maybe a little more satisfaction from him from that standpoint.”
Brady’s diagnosis of receiver frustration is smart. He said receivers spend a lot of the game standing around waiting for the ball. Their day is defined by targets. One game they get 11, the next game they get three, and the emotional roller coaster wears them out.
The Kelce brothers, both former tight ends, had to have been nodding along the whole time. Tight ends and running backs almost never demand trades. Wide receivers do. Constantly.
Brady is not wrong. Look at the last five years. Deebo Samuel wanted out. DK Metcalf wanted out. Aiyuk wants out. Terry McLaurin has been in and out of trade rumors. Davante Adams had multiple stops. Every offseason a top-15 receiver goes public with unhappiness. Every single one.
Brady’s advice was about perspective. Receivers should trust that their production evens out over a full season. Coaches try to preach the same thing and rarely get through. The pattern keeps repeating.
A.J. Brown is now a Patriot and gets to be the No. 1 target in a passing offense. Presumably he will be happy for a few months. Then somebody in the league will get frustrated, threaten a trade, and go public with it, and the Real Housewives of the NFL will roll out another season.
Brady just gave the show its title. It should stick.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
