Father and Son With Make America Great Again Hat in Popeyes

Tom Brady was happy to talk politics until he wasn't.

The Make America Great Again hat in his locker, the brassy endorsement of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. But when those ties became inconvenient did Brady decide he wanted to "stick to sports," and that he preferred to be a beacon of positivity rather than delve into society's thorny ills.

How mighty white of him.

Brady's ability to enter and exit the debate at his choosing, to shield himself from accountability, is the height of white privilege. As this country grapples with the far reaches of systemic racism, look no further than Brady, for whom the expectations, and allowances granted, will always be different.

"Whiteness is the benefit of the dubiety," said David Leonard, author of "Playing While White: Privilege and Power on and off the Field." "When Tom Brady says, 'I was merely given the hat,' or 'He'due south simply a friend of mine,' or when he skips the White House and says, 'I had a different engagement,' he gets the benefit of the doubt. He gets to be an private.

"He reaps the benefits that nosotros every bit white Americans reap each and every day in unlike contexts."

It'southward been 5 years since a MAGA chapeau had prime placement in Brady's locker and he replied "I hope and so, that would be dandy" when asked if his quondam golfing buddy had what it took to exist president. But with Brady playing in his 10th Super Bowl on Dominicus, when his Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face up the Kansas City Chiefs, the topic was raised anew past Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, who said last week that no Black athlete would take gotten the pass Brady has.

"LeBron James tin can never say, a prominent Blackness athlete can never say, 'Minister Farrakhan is just my friend.' They'd try to cancel anybody with the just mere mention of Mister Farrakhan's name," Sharpe said on "Undisputed," the bear witness he co-hosts on FS1, referring to Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic and homophobic leader of the Nation of Islam.

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Sharpe is right.

In theory, it should not thing whether Brady supports Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or someone somewhere in between on the political spectrum. He has a right to his private views.

But it was Brady himself who chose to brand those private views public. If you recollect that MAGA hat just happened to wind upward in his locker – at camera level, non buried at the bottom beneath a pile of cleats and clothes – I have a case of TB12 supplements to sell you lot. Brady has carefully cultivated his image over his 21-twelvemonth career, whether it be his way or his social media posts, and he knew just what kind of reaction he would go.

Now, he might not accept thought it would matter, since Trump's candidacy at that betoken was still seen every bit something of a stunt. But Brady has had the gamble – several, in fact – to clarify or walk dorsum his comments and has chosen non to. At the Super Bowl in 2017, three days after Trump'southward Muslim ban took issue. On Howard Stern's testify concluding jump, when Trump was already outset to sow lies about the ballot.

And still once again this calendar week, less than a month subsequently a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that was incited by Trump.

Instead, Brady has been immune to divorce himself from it while Blackness athletes are fabricated to own their views in perpetuity.

There is no end in sight to Colin Kaepernick's blackballing, even though his protests to bring attention to police brutality of Black and dark-brown people have proven to exist an alarm we should non have ignored. WNBA players had one of their own owners turn on them because they had the audacity to say "Blackness Lives Affair" and amplify the stories of Black and brown women killed by police.

"I'm non certain how to respond to hypothetical questions like that," Brady said Monday when asked if he feels he'due south gotten a pass. "I promise everyone can – we're in this position, like I am, to try to be the best I tin be everyday as an athlete, as a player, equally a person in my customs for my team and so forth.

"So … yep. Non certain what else."

Even Brady's aversion to talking about politics or current events is itself a form of privilege.

Like other white athletes, Brady is seen equally an individual in a way minority athletes never are. Because Megan Rapinoe is openly gay, she is always going to be asked to counterbalance in on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ customs. Black and brown athletes are expected to have – and share – their opinions and experiences about racial injustice and discrimination.

Patrick Mahomes was asked at last year's Super Bowl most being biracial. This year he'southward been asked virtually speaking out in the wake of George Floyd, the Blackness human being whose expiry at the knee of a white police officer sparked protests across the land.

However no i has asked Brady almost the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, even though almost all of those who attempted the violent overthrow of our government were white, merely equally he is, and were incited by the man Brady has described every bit his friend.

"Tom Brady is speaking up equally Tom Brady. He's not asked to speak for white America," said Leonard, who is also a professor of comparative ethnic studies and American studies and civilisation at Washington State.

"The follow-upward question of, 'I'g here but to play football,' is 'Well, who's afforded that luxury? Who's immune to see sports every bit this apolitical infinite of distraction, of pleasure, of fun?' " Leonard said. "Seeing sports and living sports as an uncontested space is the privilege of whiteness. It'southward the privilege of being a homo. It's the privilege of being a heterosexual athlete.

"That is a luxury that Black athletes and other marginalized and disempowered athletes have never been afforded, inside and outside of sports."

Information technology might seem petty to bring up Brady's moral cowardice now, when the 43-twelvemonth-old is accomplishing things unlikely to ever be seen once more in the NFL. But celebrating what he's done while turning a blind eye to what he has not is a privilege Brady does not deserve.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2021/02/02/super-bowl-2021-tom-brady-doesnt-deserve-pass-trump-support/4358829001/

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