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There are not many lessons a six-time Super Bowl champ and three-time league MVP needs, but New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady recently got one off the field. Brady is not a fan favorite in New York City and his latest move isn’t changing any New York sports fan’s mind.
Brady’s TEB Capital Management company filed two applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May for commercial intent. One application covered collectible trading cards, sports trading cards, posters and printed photographs and T-shirts. The applications were made on “intent-to-use” basis, which basically means a company is making a product line with a nickname on it. The trademark was for the nickname “Tom Terrific”, which was the nickname for a famous New York Mets’ player, Tom Seaver. Usually, individuals trademark a name because they don’t want someone to take it because they love it so much, but in Brady’s situation it was completely the opposite.
“I didn’t want people associating me with that [nickname], because that was something I didn’t want to have happen. I don’t like the nickname. I don’t like when people probably give me many nice compliments, certainly that [one],” Brady said. “It wasn’t something I was trying to do out of any disrespect or ill manner or anything like that.”
Here is the response in full:
In the days of social media, of course Brady’s trademark news went trending worldwide, especially in the New York area. Former Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason told WEEI in Boston that he planned to “fight tooth and nail” until the application was withdrawn, according to the Washington Post. There were even politicians getting into the fire storm calling out Brady and questioning his reputation after the whole Deflategate scandal.
It also didn’t help that the 74-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher is battling dementia. Seaver announced a few months ago he would be making no more public appearances due to the illness, which saddened many Mets’ fans. The three-time Cy Young pitcher had a 311-205 record with a 2.86 ERA, 3,640 strikeouts and 61 shutouts for his career, 10 of those were with the Mets. You don’t have to be good at math to know that Tom Brady wasn’t even born yet when Tom was Terrific.
New Yorkers are still protesting Brady’s trademark application. We will see how much Tom really hates that nickname, because we know the hate for Brady in New York is only going to get greater with every passing day.