A former teammate of Tom Brady’s imploring football players to tone it down on the sideline was never going to fly with football fans, as Rob Gronkowski learned this week.
Speaking on Kay Adams’ show, the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end decided to take issue with the sideline behavior from the 0-1 Kansas City Chiefs.
‘What I was surprised about is when things aren’t going [the Chiefs’] way, when they start struggling a little bit, they start yelling at each other,’ Gronkowski told Adams. ‘The blame game starts going on, you can see it on the sidelines… And that’s not a good situation.
‘You want to come together when you’re down, when things aren’t going your way… so to see them starting to point fingers is not a good sign.’
To her credit, Adams seized on what fans later called Gronkowski’s ‘hypocrisy’ to ask if Brady ever behaved that way on the sidelines.
Gronkowski offered a quick response, but it’s anyone’s guess if he heard or understood Adams’ question because his answer centered around one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
Some fans were quick to point out that Gronkowski’s former teammate, Brady, liked to yell
Tom Brad shouts at teammates before a 2014 game against the Miami Dolphins
Patrick Mahomes has a word with teammates on the sideline during a 2022 game in Baltimore
‘Well here we go, okay?’ Gronkowski began. ‘Remember Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas? And Buster Douglas finally beat the crap out of Mike Tyson and made Mike Tyson not invincible anymore? Well this is kind of the same situation.’
It’s still unclear how the sideline behavior of two different football teams is similar to Douglas’ famed 1990 upset of Tyson in Tokyo.
Of course, Brady was notorious for hollering at teammates both on the sideline and in the huddle, as fans were quick to remember.
‘He made sure not to answer did it ever happen in NE,’ one fan wrote on X. ‘Sir she asked you a question.’
Others took issue with Gronkowski’s characterization of the Chiefs’ sideline, with a few suggesting the retired tight end was ‘jealous.’
‘Tell me you havent (sic) watched the Chiefs in the last few years without telling me you havent (sic) watched the Chiefs,’ another fan added.
Many others called Brady out by name: ‘Tom Brady literally screamed at teammates on the sideline on multiple occasions.’
Karras is seen in front of Brady during a 2019 game against the Jets in East Rutherford
Curiously, some of Brady’s ex-teammates remember this confrontations somewhat fondly.
Current Cincinnati Bengals center and ex-Brady teammate Ted Karras recently recalled one incident during a podcast with Julian Edelman, one of the quarterback’s all-time favorite targets.
‘Tom was a big stickler of: Your center can’t be wet,’ the 32-year-old lineman told Edelman on a recent episode of Games with Names .
Edelman, a former wide receiver with the Patriots and long-time friend of Brady’s, instantly recalled the quarterback’s ‘huge’ pet peeve about sweaty centers.
The issue, as you can imagine, involves the quarterback’s grip on the football. If his hands are being covered in sweat every time he puts his hands ‘under center,’ his passes are going to suffer. As a result, Brady was one of many quarterbacks to insist his center tuck a towel into the backside of his uniform.
And it wasn’t a friendly suggestion. Brady was rather specific about how he wanted his centers to prepare his towel along their rear ends.
‘Tom takes all the centers to the side,’ Karras began. ‘If you’re gonna play center at any point, even just an undrafted guy, he’ll teach you how to fold it and put it into you’re a**.’
Ted Karras revealed that Brady once powdered his back side after calling him a sweaty pig
Brady made his point in other ways too.
‘I was on Tom’s team, and apparently too wet for him – this is an embarrassing moment – he literally pulls me off to the sidelines and screams in my face that I’m a sweaty pig and then pulls my pants down and powders my ass with baby powder in front of everyone,’ Karras recalled of one training camp interaction.
‘I was kind of embarrassed,’ Karras continued. ‘All the fans were looking. There were like 15,000 people at Gillette Stadium. But I would also just do whatever he said.’
Edelman quickly agreed: ‘We all did.’
These days, Karras is snapping to Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. And regardless of the Cincinnati signal caller’s preferences, Karras said he still follows Brady’s instructions when it comes to towel usage.
‘I still do the towel to this day, you can see me,’ he said.
Karras is a third-generation NFL player and the grandnephew of Alex Karras, the legendary Detroit Lions defensive tackle who went on to star in Blazing Saddles as ‘Mongo’ and in the hit series ‘Webster’ as George Papadopolis.
