World Cup half-time show and Trump disaster recap, and another deep dive into why Tom Brady is yet again crashing out online and in real life

testing testing testing to it Madeline is this thing on is this thing on how do you think it sounds I think we're gonna find out soon I do too I'm very excited about it very excited okay okay hi Charlotte good day Madeline Hill we're back with another episode of the sports gossip show presented by eBay live smooth jazz jazz little elevator music for you on this fine Tuesday do you want to do it again no no no this is this is the show baby um keep the cough in the track keep the cough in the show we are in um a new space you might have noticed it looks beautiful looks great look at our sign she got framed she is here and she is framed I if you're if you're listening to this if this is an audio only experience for you we recommend going to YouTube and checking it out and also liking subscribing rating and reviewing yes however if you're listening and you can't see it we framed um the the poster uh that I drew what feels like 10 years ago now um in gold in gold well of course because what we talk about is serious stuff sports gossip is no funny business no no it should be treated the same way that Matisse paintings and Picasso paintings are treated at the Met thank you thank you for putting that so beautifully it this is also museum glass yes because this is this is a relic of history well you know what else when you go to the frame place shout out to Casey Arts in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn absolutely unbelievable craftsmanship not sponsored not sponsored no but happily would be oh god if we could be sponsored by a local frame store dream dream anyway when you go in they have something for you framed and half of it is museum glass and half of it is not museum glass and you see the difference to the point where you're like why would I not get museum well exactly it's like it's an upsell but it's not you don't feel like you're getting scammed with the upsell like it feels like an appropriate upsell oh no there's value there oh there's value to be had value to be had um but just want to shout out Tim for all of the hard work he put into putting together the studio Tim you know who you are Tim at the athletic thank you so much we're very grateful looks great um yeah so here we are yes and uh we have a jam-packed episode today we have a quick little update about Jimothy gotta talk about it um of course the world cup is now over we will talk about the results of Sunday's match between Spain and Argentina the first halftime show Trump's appearance and more um and we have a bit of a deep dive into a common figure on the sports gossip show Mr. Tom Brady because he has been making some more curious choices um including maybe getting in a fake fight or beef with WWE star Logan Paul so a lot going on there and we have some new data we have new data um for those who may have remembered we did an entire deep dive on Tom Brady's Instagram and we have some new data to share with everyone we have some new data we also you know we keep close close track close tabs of and on this man and when we see other people start talking about him and his online antics we think well guess there's some updates to be made and we've made them so stay tuned for a comprehensive timeline of Tom Brady's recent bizarre actions yes but first Jimothy Jimothy Jimothy for those who do not know Jimothy is a raccoon in the Seattle area who has something called short spine syndrome which means his spine is short spoiler alert um and he scampers around he I love him I love him he's become a celebrity the Mariners um I think he's become a celebrity did a tribute to Jimothy and then won their game so you know and and and the Mariners also last year the team where a fan hired an Etsy witch and then they almost made it to the World Series didn't fully so you know I don't know that maybe she's the most powerful witch maybe they need a slightly more powerful one next time but I I appreciate that this baseball team knows that you need help from the special and the supernatural and said Jimothy you're our guy well here's what I'll say maybe the Etsy witch walked so Jimothy could run and maybe Jimothy is what the people need to win the World Series maybe it's what the Mariners need you know that's a really great and he does run he scampers he scampers and he's running all the way he's running all the way to home plate in game seven of the World Series I hope you know here's something that I've been thinking about what is a raccoon yes right so he doesn't know he's famous no do you think in some cosmic way though he can feel the number of people who love him based on the videos from the internet like like also like his life hasn't changed do you think he feels that oh I think so I think so because at least at the bare minimum more people are looking at him you know most people you see a raccoon and you're kind of like well there he is and maybe you're like checking him out for a second but I feel like he's like why are those humans staring at me longer than normal I hope his I hope it hasn't made his life worse I also want to note and now this is something this is apologies to Jimothy he is out in the daytime which for raccoons famously isn't good I'm not good I just want to make sure Jimothy doesn't have rabies I hope he does I think he's okay he doesn't look I mean like he's he does he seems okay he seems fine I really I can't stop watching Jimothy videos anytime a new angle drops I've watched it I've seen all I've seen every fan cam edit of Mr. Jimothy and there's a sea shanty song yes uh about him yes go check it out I'm not gonna sing it you want to but you won't I want to but I won't yeah uh okay and that also you know years ago when I was on Twitter uh I had a thing that was called is it sports where something that wasn't sports um could feel like sports and be sports and yeah and I haven't said this for many years now but I would like to say Jimothy is sports he is sports he is sports and that's the final word yeah thank you so much you know what else is sports what the world cup oh my god the world cup after five weeks of some unbelievable matches has come to a close how do you feel I've I'm feeling like a little bit of a of a comedown because as we've said before on this show we went from the Knicks unbelievable championship winning run in the playoffs to then right into the world cup which was a nice transition and now I'm like what do I do with my time even though yes we have like WNBA all-star and then more WNBA and then football season but I'm like what I feel like I'm an emotional company yeah same and you know what it is it's not so I I think you know there is something to be said for the postseason of any sport for the heightened stakes of that and then the world cup which there are heightened stakes of that it's basically like just a instead of a full season you just get the postseason which is also an interesting business true now that you say it out loud but so yes of course we're watching WNBA games we're also going to have a WNBA deep dive um after the world cup just sort of a mid I mean after the all-star break just sort of a mid-season check-in um but but the heightened thing of like there's a championship in a matter of weeks and being able to base your life around that I don't fully know what to do with myself no I don't know either I don't know having a game a knockout game or like you know I know well it just felt like there were so many games on constantly that you had something to do every night all the time I saw someone be like I haven't been this outside in so long because you can go be with the people I think the people yearn for a third space and sports are a great way to bring people together yes yes I think so too I also uh last night started uh we're on episode three of the gold oh yes we're almost done with that yeah incredible show it's on PBS it's a masterpiece theater and you know I oh I just remembered what I was thinking about this morning and that is that I might never be able to afford a home but at least I can watch masterpiece theater like the generations before us and you know what that's the real win I don't know detune but I know what you know what I mean well I know they revamped it yeah um anyways world cup final spoiler for those who don't know would it be amazing if someone's listening to this right now and has no idea who won the world cup final the men's world you know I bet there are people out there who don't know well I think yeah generally I don't think they're doing it on purpose as like a can't wait to watch this later no that's like those people who were like living off the grid and didn't know covid happened what you read about this no there yeah some people they were like living in the woods and then they came back and they're like oh yeah we're in lockdown and they're like what what is that why could you imagine in the wood they were just yeah I don't have the full story I don't I don't know what exactly they were gone for a while wasn't there a woman who went into a cave for like what 300 days that sounds like my nightmare yeah she it was some sensory deprivation thing for 300 days and it was covid or something I don't know no that sounds awful I saw a tiktok of someone uh and they were showing how thin the cave was that you're going to be crawling through and you had to make sure you made it through this little test like online you know not in the cave I was like I don't need to be in a small space in a cave I don't think caves want us there I think that's I don't think they want us there it's a really good point the earth doesn't want you in it no so just you and that's our show and there you go and thanks for watching um yeah anyways so spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't watched or knows the results of match between Spain and Argentina but Spain won wow wow in Messi's probably last world cup he didn't go out a champion no and he was crying after and you know I felt for him but he's won everything he's yeah and this Spanish team was really a delight they had the 19 year old Lamine Yamal love him they also had Pau Kubarsi who won best young player uh they Lamine's younger brother um Kane he's three Lamine is 19 he turned 19 during the tournament and watching Lamine and his young brother celebrate and have the crowd embrace them so much and this Spanish team has also been very progressive and sort of stood up for human rights Palestinian rights um LGBTQ plus rights which has not always been the case for a team from Spain and so it was it it felt really nice um to watch that work out for them and we'll get into some some of the more you know it's the world cup it's the most political thing ever we'll get into that in a second I do think it's nice because it felt like in some ways a timeline reset having Spain win I like that it just I don't know why it just kind of felt like that it felt like an energetic reset having Spain win yeah can't explain it but that's just how I feel no need then why would we try it's like you just responded like when someone says something and you're like I have nothing to say back to that and you just go yeah all right well you know this this podcast is all about yes and sometimes it's about okay okay you just go okay anyways okay so no but I agree no I think I didn't have anything to add because it was such a perfect statement not because there was nothing Spain winning was perfect what wasn't perfect what was interesting was the world cup's first ever halftime show and for context I want the people to know that soccer purists were very upset about this because soccer is a very serious sport and it is about you know the rules state there is a break between halves that must not exceed 15 minutes I don't know if this one exceeded it seemed like maybe it did by a little bit yeah um and also you know this is coming on the heels of having the hydration breaks which is halfway through each half they basically have an ad break which is stupid soccer there's something really nice about the quote relentless pressure yeah um and yet it was America and the world cup was in America and what does America do big stuff so they had a big halftime show big stuff I mean I think when I first heard they were doing a halftime show I wasn't surprised I don't know about you were you surprised no no but I want to know the logistics of who thought it was a good idea to do the halftime show and who oversaw it was it thief like the FIFA organization did they hire like a marketing agency to consult on it I mean I I agree with you I think it was a good idea to do the halftime show and I think it was a good idea I agree I have so many questions because it wasn't necessarily bad I think interesting yeah just move on I think interesting is probably the best word for it yes because they had let's see who was Madonna uh Justin Bieber Shakira BTS plus Burnaboy uh a Staten Island elementary school chorus PS 22 um the Coldplay was there but as background singers but whatever the Muppets yeah and they had a lot of people who were like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know the New York Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo uh Dudamel we saw him conduct at uh I was gonna say Shakespeare in the Park but it was the Philharmonic in the Park one of the most fabulous events let me just say in New York City absolutely the free Philharmonic performances in the summer I was so sad we couldn't go this year due to scheduling issues was it because of the Knicks yes it was because of the Knicks it was good yes it was it was we were working working due to conflict scheduling conflicts aka the Knicks due to scheduling uh we were working we were working which in hindsight it worked out fine because we got to see OG I think it was the Wednesday game if I remember game four the Wednesday game can you believe I knew which day of the week it was pretty sure it was Wednesday game four game four sicko in the head um that was a tippet I thought you were just throwing something oh no that was OG's tippet no I agree it wasn't necessarily that it was actually overhand I think so sorry I did it wrong who's to say no way of knowing no way of knowing um I do think that it wasn't necessarily bad performances it just was tonally a little bit all over the place because we had Justin Bieber doing acoustic and he was introduced by Ted Lasso Mr. Jason Sudeikis um coming out and then Shakira is doing pop dance BTS is doing more poppy Chris Martin and Coldplay are just in the background like they're not even in focus in the shot which you know here's what I'll say I appreciate like the kids are the the star of it and you know it's very sweet but it is funny to see someone that famous just kind of quite literally not even be in focus in the broadcast of a global sporting event where they're doing a halftime show yes I think that was the best part I think the fact that Coldplay was in the background was the best part actually no sorry I lied the Muppets were the best part I just I have a spiritual connection um to the Muppets and they had the band they had Janice who's the female guitarist or bassist forgive me I don't know which Animal was on the drums um and I think that they had more screen time than Madonna oh I know I think they did and there was no no no one told us the Muppets were going to be there not that I recall no but there they were there they were they just showed up and you know what they put on a performance of a lifetime and they were great I will say wish they had included Dr. Teeth the band leader who wears a top hat he wasn't there wait he might have been but I didn't see him oh maybe he was out of focus with Chris Martin oh that would be incredible um so yeah no I I think overall the performances were fine it was just strange given the context of soccer I can understand though from FIFA's perspective that they want to reach even more fans and because the World Cup final and the World Cup in general was in North America obviously they're trying to reach maybe people who don't necessarily consume that much soccer content and they're like oh this is a way and we'll get more people to watch this match if we have these this random hodgepodge of performers I think you said this during the halftime show but if you're gonna do that you gotta play the hits yes everybody sang a song I didn't know except for Justin Bieber who sang Hallelujah which I only know because it's a meme but also tonally um it didn't make sense I mean Justin Bieber can sing Madonna needed to play Like a Prayer or Vogue or Hung Up or Hung Up oh I love that incredible song um Justin Bieber I don't know Hallelujah was fine I mean kind of a downer baby yeah like there's so many other options uh I will say you know what actually the Philharmonic is the only the only group of that halftime show who understood the assignment because they played Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes which is the anthem of arena and they just did that and it's like yes that's all we wanted from you just play the hits all we wanted that or Mozart's Requiem yes which would have been pretty that'd be dramatic yeah the lights were all oh but it was in the middle of the day right so they couldn't have done that oh never mind um maybe they need also you know what I'm realizing maybe they also needed music that would work during the daytime when it was light do you know what I'm saying yeah I know I hear you like it you know what I'm saying but I do think that I do think that um like a prayer works in the daytime yeah okay okay that's fair I also think that all respect to Jason Sudeikis he seems like a lovely guy I think he's very funny yes I think that there is something a little humiliating about a celebrity making them do a character he introduced Justin Bieber in a southern accent because that's his Ted Lasso character it's like just let him you can put the costume on let him be Jason Sudeikis you know I don't know I also that was actually the one part I didn't really enjoy because I was like I don't because I felt like it took you out of the performances like it's all been musical performances and then Ted Lasso's just speaking right do you know what I'm saying yeah or it should have been that should have been the first thing yes should have been the first it should have been Ted Lasso introducing Madonna yes yes also the soccer players Ronaldo and Ronaldinho were in the car standing there not dancing I think that they didn't know what they were doing there I think you're right didn't didn't know and again you know who planned this who planned this who planned this who planned it but you know what I'll say sometimes you don't know what to do with your hands or your body or your body they just kind of were like this and they were smiling and you know what I get it yeah I get it um okay let's talk about some of the celebrities and athletes who were there okay there were a lot of famous people there Timothee Chalamet brought out the the ball I missed that or one of the balls I don't know it's the the ceremony you know it'd be hilarious when I played soccer as a kid you had just it was like 20 balls and a mesh yeah oh yeah he should have done that he should have come out with just like yes with the Marty Supreme stash I would love that I would love that again just missed opportunities missed opportunity Tom Cruise was there Jay-Z and Beyonce Jon Hamm uh athletes obviously uh Nick's star Jalen Brunson there with his wife Allie Brunson Carlos Alcaraz tennis star was there Dwayne Spanish very happy very happy for him Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union who else was there uh Rob Gronkowski and his girlfriend Camille Kostick Lindsey Vonn Ilya Malinin remember him I didn't see him I only saw it from a people article oh which thank you for your service thank you people um if you know you know uh Winnie Harlow was there who was engaged to Kyle Kuzma the basketball player I don't think they got married yet no uh Victor Wimbenyama was there being very tall uh Drake was there and I think we need to stop inviting Drake to well also Drake keeps I mean he has the curse the betting curse is he in Argentina I think he he placed a bet on Argentina winning and lost he's got to hang up his cleats I don't know what's going on there I just don't want Drake Anywhere near anything. No. He kind of brings bad vibes. Sorry, Drake. You have some hits. Sketchy. Sketchy. Sha'Carri Richardson, the sprinter. She's been going through some stuff, too. We got, let's see, Tyrese Halliburton of the Pacers and Jade Jones. Tyrese Halliburton had had this, he had an autoimmune reaction to something. Yes. He's on all those steroids. And he looked like he was maybe doing a little better. Yeah. So I hope that he's, he had shingles. Yeah, with shingles. That is awful. Jackson Dart, quarterback for the Giants. That seemed funny to me for some reason. He was just like big old Jackson Dart at the stadium he plays in for a worldwide event. Unbelievable. He, of course, was there. I'm not surprised. The one celebrity that wasn't surprising to see there, but how they handled it on the broadcast was a little shocking, was Matt Damon, star of The Odyssey. We also have, I don't know if you can see in the shot, but we do have a copy of The Odyssey. It's a picture book version. I don't know where this came from. Not sponsored by Christopher Nolan. No. No, no, no. No, but it's just here. You know, I haven't looked at it. Let's open in the book. Yeah, well, you know, I, oh, it's like a children's version. Oh, wow. This is font that I can read. Isn't that traveling into the disaster with a nice little picture? This is, this font size is for me, for my eyes. I'll bring this home and read this. I'm, I'm, I haven't really made it through the Emily Wilson translation, if I'm being honest. Okay. Anyways, what was I saying? Oh, wait, you know, this is going to bother me. Oh, sorry. You have to fix that. You got to fix the book cover on the cover or, okay. I had to fix the cover. Thank you. It was bothering me. Sorry, yeah. Anyways, star of the Odyssey, Matt Damon, was at the match with his wife, and the broadcasters go, and there's Brad Pitt, which Matt Damon, handsome man, Brad Pitt, handsome man, questionable things going on in his life, too. You can look those up. But Matt Damon, I don't think, looks anything like Brad Pitt. They're not the same man. Not the same man. And so I pointed at the broadcast, and I go, oh, my God, they need, like, if I, I could, I knew who everyone is. And I said that. I go, I know who everyone is. Put me up there. I would know who every celebrity is right as the broadcast shows a man. And Madeline looks at the screen and goes, oh, I don't know who that is. And we're not going to say who it was. Don't say who it was. No. It was someone whose name. We'll protect the innocent. I should know. So that was funny. That was great. Just funny little timing. That was great. So the match happened pretty boring. Yeah. Pretty boring match until the 106th minute when Ferran Torres scored the one goal that anybody scored. Argentina didn't have any shots on goal, I don't think, in the first, in regular time. And then only at the end almost had a few chances. Of course, another guest in attendance was President Donald Trump, who is friends with everyone at FIFA. Yeah. I think he loves FIFA. I think, yeah, friend of FIFA. I think you know what's interesting? Well, I was about to say FIFA feels like the most Trump-friendly sports giant organization, but that's not true. No, most of them. Most of them are. But I know what you mean. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Well, because Gianni Infantino, the head guy at FIFA, made a first-ever FIFA Peace Prize, we talked about this a couple weeks ago, and gave it to Trump when Trump won the Nobel Peace Prize, which is levels of insanity that are hard to wrap your head around, but that's the world we live in. Yeah. And so Trump comes sort of waddling out with Gianni, and he's handing out medals, and he was standing next to the Mexican president, Claudia Scheinbaum, and Trump invited her, I believe. Oh. And this was the first time they'd been together since the World Cup draw in December, and Trump had been saying things. They have not, I mean, you know, Trump's awful to everybody, but so everybody puts on a happy face, and they stand next to each other. He was also there with Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, and they're standing next to each other, and apparently at the World Cup final, Trump told Gianni that he was going to win, and he told the prime minister of Canada, who's had these horrible, horrible wildfires burning in Ontario, and some of the smoke came into the U.S. last week, and so he told Carney that the smoke was poisoning our air, and said, if we can help them, we'll help them, but maybe they should pay damages or something. Instead of being like, hey, what resources can we give you to help you with the natural disaster that our country has played an active part in creating due to climate change, he was just like, you should pay us, which is not surprising, but just- Not surprising. Also, worth noting, Trump has mocked Spain repeatedly in the past couple months for not spending what he has deemed enough of its budget on military stuff, and for not letting American forces use Spanish bases to bomb Iran, which is a war that nobody wants. Okay. And then he stood there and handed out medals to the Spanish players. Yeah, a lot of them didn't seem too pleased to be there getting their medal from Trump. No. Which I understand. Borja Iglesias, who's been very outspoken about- About LGBTQ plus rights and Palestinian rights. He didn't look Trump in the eye when he shook hands. And Madeline, he said something I'd like to read to you. What? He said before the match, he said, about being asked if he would shake hands with Trump, he said, I like people who fight for progress and for fundamental values to be upheld, and I think Trump struggles with that. But he also, he said, I don't want to go to prison, so I'll shake his hand, essentially. And then he said, I don't think this is the time to create controversy. People know perfectly well what I think. I would love to do many things. But the reality is that even if people think I am all powerful, I don't have that much power to tackle certain things, which is a very, very good example of a player who seems very prominent and powerful letting the public know, hey, I am a cog in this machine the way you are. So what you think would be a huge moment of me not shaking Donald Trump's hand wouldn't actually move the needle in any way, would only get me in trouble and just serves to show how much power people still don't have. Yeah. No, I think there's a lot. There's a lot of truth in that. And I think what he said is very honest. And I think what I also appreciate, since we talk a lot about PR in the show, is this was a very candid response to get from a professional athlete that we talked about that we're like, oh, maybe the European soccer stars, because they've been very candid. We were talking about that a couple of weeks ago, I think, that maybe their media training is like you can be a little bit more honest and it's fine. Whereas I feel like if an American player was asked the same question, I don't think they would have we would have gotten the same response, even if they felt the same way about these issues. And felt the same way about Trump. I totally agree. And it kind of makes me think maybe there's something to be said for the cultural climate, which I don't know in other European countries like in America, you know, an athlete says something and they just get dragged and trolled on the Internet and death threats to their family. I wonder if that's a different experience for athletes. I wonder if some of that is so. But yeah, that's a good point. That would be a good deep dive to do. Add that to the list. Anyway, it was Trump wouldn't leave the stage. Oh, my God. After Spain took their picture. And Infantino was trying to, like, drag him off and he wouldn't leave. I hope someone photoshopped him out of some. I mean, I think they took photos without him. They took photos without him. Some people are saying they photoshopped him out. I don't think they did. I think that those pictures people are showing were after he eventually did leave. Yeah, I think so, too. I think so, too. Spain was like, no, thanks. No. So that's the World Cup. We've so enjoyed covering it. I hope everyone has enjoyed our coverage of the World Cup. We are very excited for the Women's World Cup next year. Oh, can't wait. They got the real one. Cannot wait for that. Very excited. Yes, that'll be great. That'll be great. All right. Now on to the main event of today's episode. We need to give an update and do a bit of a deep dive on what is going on with Tom Brady because he has been in the news lately. And I think a lot of people have questions about some of his behavior. A lot of people have questions. Before we get into that behavior, we would like to give a little recap. We did an episode back. I think it was February or January about Tom Brady's Instagram. I have covered Tom Brady's social media for over 10 years and sort of followed and tracked his behavior going from the Patriots when he couldn't really be an individual to watching him start to be an individual when he was on the Patriots to watching him leave the Patriots and start to try to develop this online persona. Madeline. Yeah, I did my master's thesis at Oxford all about how celebrities use Instagram. And so we used that theoretical framework and applied it to Tom Brady's Instagram. post-divorce from Giselle because we suspected that he was potentially processing and grieving not only retiring from football, but also the biggest relationship of his life ending, processing that in real time on his Instagram account. And this was spurred on because this was during the time when Tom Brady and Alex Earle, the influencer, were linked. She was 25. He's in his late 40s, which honestly feels like the most disrespectful thing I could ever say about Tom Brady. Like it's true. Late 40s. Sorry, that was unnecessary. Sorry. Anyway, but people, he was posting these selfies from his couch where people were like, he's crashing out online. It felt like what you post when you want someone to message you or DM you because they're not texting you back. Yeah. And it never works. So that was sort of our jumping off point of being like, he's going through it. Right. Since 2026, I mean, since January of 2026. Yeah. Things have gotten worse. And I would say that just a warning to everybody, this is a situation that is going to keep getting worse before it gets better. Yeah. And we're in the thick of it. Yeah, because I think one of the things we have realized now that we didn't, that we kind of touched on in that first episode, which I highly recommend everyone go watch or listen to, is that his actions on social media have now spilled into his business dealings, his public persona, the way he's showing up in the public eye in ways that, yes, he was doing. some of these things before, but it feels like It feels like it's snowballed in the past six or so months. Yeah, it feels like the guardrails are off. Yeah. He's a train rolling down the tracks. Express and XCELA straight to Boston. No brakes straight to Boston. No stops, not even DC. We haven't talked about it. Have we talked about this? The new trains? Yeah. No. Well, also, what's going on with Amtrak? Amtrak, we had kind of a moment on social media. We were going back and forth a little bit. We're here. We didn't get your drop of your tracksuit you dropped. We didn't get it. So I just would like to see what's going on there. Yeah, I think that we would love to start a dialogue. An open conversation. An open conversation with Amtrak. We love trains. We talk about trains more than we talk about anything. Yes. Is that true? On this show? No. I think we actually have really not talked about transportation that much. Well, because we haven't been on a train together. No, that's true. We haven't taken a train to Philadelphia for no reason. No. Never. Never forget. Never forget. We'll tell that story sometime. Oh, never forget. The people need to know. The lore. People need to know that we didn't know why we were going to Philadelphia. We took a train, a midnight train to nowhere. He's leaving. That was one of the funniest things. We were both like, why are we here? We got on the train and looked at each other and said, why are we on this train? Why are we here? Why are we going to an Eagles game? Yeah, no shade. We had a great time. No, no, no. No, we really had a great time. We had a great time. Still just unclear. It was unclear why we were there. But we had a great time. But we went. Anyways, so we're bringing all this up because what spurred more discussion in the broader sports media landscape and I think just fans of Tom Brady on the internet was that there was a stunt at Fanatics Fest involving Tom Brady and Logan Paul. Yes. Fanatics Fest is this major event that the company, Fanatics, puts on every year. Michael Rubin is the CEO of Fanatics. And Fanatics basically has a monopoly on sports merchandise in the United States right now. We are going to do a deep dive on Fanatics on Michael Rubin. It's a fascinating story. Also just emblematic of a lot of things that are wrong with our country. You might remember when Fanatics took over the uniforms for MLB and the pants were see-through. You could see players. There's private parts for lack of a better term. Underwear line. Some of them. No, like it was bad. There were some photos they had to take off of the media day. It was not good. Yeah. And so Tom Brady is very close with Michael Rubin. Yeah. And this is a follow the money situation, Madeline. This is a follow the money situation. They are often, outside of Tom Brady attending Fanatics Fest and promoting Fanatics Fest a lot, which we will talk about, they are photographed a lot at non-Fanatics Fest. Also, Tom Brady regularly attends Michael Rubin's White Party, which he usually hosts on July 4th. But I believe this year he did it before because of Taylor Swift's wedding, which is also kind of funny. Which Tom Brady also attended. He also said it didn't have to do with Taylor Swift's wedding, even though that's what you say when you know that everyone's going to choose a different event over yours. Right. Because you meant nothing would have been funnier than if Michael Rubin's at his party and he's just alone. And there's just like an ice sculpture melting with vodka coming out of it. And no one's there except like people who work at Fanatics. Him and the crowd. And the Kardashians. Unbelievable. So they hang out a lot. This is a follow the money situation in more ways than one because Michael Rubin donated to the mayoral campaign of Josh Kraft, who is the son of Patriots owner Bob Kraft. He was running against the progressive mayor, Michelle Wu of Boston. She won handily. I think Josh Kraft actually dropped out. Michael Rubin donated a million dollars to that. Obviously, Tom Brady is very close with the Kraft family. So basically, Tom Brady gets up on stage at Fanatics Fest and has this sort of back and forth with Logan Paul, who's the YouTuber who has now become a WWE guy who's just everywhere. He's too many places. Yeah. And slapped Logan Paul. And then Karl-Anthony Towns, for some reason, is a part of this mess. He sort of intervened. Yeah. He kind of steps in to kind of break it up. The first second when I saw it, people online were like immediately like, oh, my God, Tom Brady slapped Logan Paul. I'm like, you realize this is a publicity stunt. Tom Brady is not pulling a Will Smith and slapping another public figure in public. No. That's maybe he's done it in private. I don't think so. But maybe he has. Tom Brady is many things. But he doesn't go rogue. He's not dumb. He's not dumb. He's not dumb. So I immediately was like, this is a publicity stunt, clearly for something with the WWE. Was that not your first reaction to? Absolutely. Partly because, and we talked about this several months. There was a flag football game sponsored by Fanatics that was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia. Yeah. That they had to move because of the Iran war, which is the bleakest sentence I've ever said in my life. So bleak. They did it in L.A. Nobody went. But that's when Logan Paul and Tom Brady started chirping at each other. And Logan Paul was like, we're better athletes than you are. And Tom Brady was like, no, you're not. It was the dumbest thing ever. This all was a reboot of that, especially because Tom Brady's entrance at Fanatics Fest, he put in these contacts. So it looked like his eyes were dead. And he did the Undertaker, the famous wrestler, he did his entrance from a coffin sitting up, which is WWE code. This whole thing is just professional wrestling. Yeah. And I think that was after the slap. That was after? I think so. Which is also, you're like, OK, cool. This was all planned. Like, you understand the logistics of production. I don't think that they just got a coffin last minute afterwards and were like, oh, you want some? It's like, no, this was all planned in advance. Months in advance, probably. You know what I was about to say? What? I was about to say, this is the lamest. This is the lamest possible thing. But now that I think about it, Madeline. What? This is two grown men. They're putting on a play for their parents. Is this whimsy? It's whimsy. Is this actually beautiful? Yes. Well, here's what I will say. I agree with you. Because as I've said to you, what I suspect is going on is that Tom Brady, for the bulk of his, I'm not even calling it his peak years, but his late teens and into his 20s, was spent focusing on football. He was focusing on football. And so he did not get an opportunity to be whimsical and be a little freaky. No, he didn't. Because he was in the public eye. There was a lot of pressure. He was playing college football. Then he obviously went pro. But we know how that all that story went. So he really didn't have an opportunity to have a little fun. And maybe this is Tom Brady's way of just having a little bit of fun, even though what he's not thinking about is how this is going to be perceived. And my question. My question to you is, which we'll get into his Instagram presence in a second. But let's say he hadn't been posting like he's been posting post-divorce. Let's say it just was like sponsored stuff and like a couple photos of his kids and his parents on birthdays or whatever. Right. Would you feel any differently about the actions he's been taking outside of social media? Um, no, I don't think I would feel differently because I think that Tom Brady publicly is an inherently corny person. And there is nothing he can do to make that not be true. And part of it is you want him to just lean into he is a very earnest guy. And when you watch him try to be sort of tough guy or funny or doing what the kids are doing or trying to be cool, you're like, just be the earnest guy that you are. Don't don't. It feels like an act because I think it is an act. Yes. And so part of the issue here is, yes, also, you know, I joke that it's whimsy. It's also. It's gross because there's so much money at stake here. And we'll get to what the WWE this is. This all is a follow the money situation. But I also think to your point about him being doing things that maybe he couldn't do when he was playing. It's also a very different ecosystem now from from the one that current quarterbacks are. Yes, that's true. We've seen Joe Burrow at all of these parties with actors. He's done all of this spawn con. He's gone to he he's sort of doing what Tom Brady's doing, minus the stupid stunt. Tom didn't get to do that, especially with the Patriots, who are a very buttoned up organization. No, that's true. That's true. So it feels a little regressive in some ways also. But but the WWE and the money of it all and the decisions he's making, it's like this guy needs cash. What's up? Right. Let's talk about the WWE. OK. Because it seems that he may already have some ties to WWE. Yeah, because in May, Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, who are two top executives for a company called TKO, which is the holding company that owns WWE, they said they each wanted to buy less than 10 percent in the in the Raiders. Brady owns a 5 percent stake in the Raiders. So it seems like maybe they want a similar deal that Brady has. Brady also sat down for an interview with the WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes. And they basically spent most of the interview. The interview talking or the first part of it talking about how Brady maybe wants to get involved. Yeah. He said in the interview, quote, I feel like I'm retired from football, have an opportunity to go out there and still showcase that I'm a little bit of an athlete. Madeline, he wants to get in the ring. He wants to get in the ring. He wants to get in the ring where it happens. What can he let go of? Football. Being a professional athlete. He and and that is only seen more and more again in his interim presence, which we'll get to. But he can't let go. He can't. - You can't let it go. - He also can't stop doing this thing it's like just stop trying so hard which is he was asked if he wanted to be a face or a heel and that's short for a baby face or a heel and a heel in wrestling is a villain a face is the good guy and basically it's very simple in wrestling you have good guys and bad guys they're basically like which you want to be he said i it's such an easy choice i'm a bad guy i've always been a bad guy i feel like when our teams did really well i would always go into these stadiums and i would feel that obviously at home it was great when you go on the road and you've had some success in the NFL they don't like you it's an incredible feeling when you work that entire day to basically try to send the crowd home early this man is driven by spite and I believe that but I don't know that he it's like the villain role that he plays part of it it that feels like an act I don't see him as a villain I don't at all and I think maybe he thinks he is but I have never once perceived Tom Brady honestly playing football or in retirement as a villain I I get like oh yeah when they're playing teams they don't want him to win because he's so good but he's not like oh the bad boy he's the villain he's just it's like saying Fernando Mendoza is a villain yes that's I'm like he's just a nice guy he seems just locked into football and loves football more than anything and therein lies the problem of Tom Brady's whole social media strategy right now is he is doing things that don't inherently feel and and I'm we're not talking about whether he's a good person or a bad person his public persona he is not a guy that you look at and think well that's a tough mother bleep that out you know what I mean no it's not you just and and and he is going against type to the point where people are now like dude what is what are you doing with your legacy and part of it is that fanatics and WWE in April announced an expanded partnership where fanatics is now going to handle all the on-site merch sales for the WWE so then you're like okay Tom Brady which I think now this will be a good time to talk about social media presence Tom Brady not only has a very close relationship with Michael Rubin and fanatics but is also clearly trying to forge a new relationship with WWE and he's sort of in the middle of like the Michael Rubin on the WWE I mean on the fanatic side and then the WWE side it's like oh this is a perfect pairing we have our guy who can help bring in hopefully new audiences to WWE um so related to his Instagram presence so I did a quick coding scheme we talked about this again you can go look at how we did that um in our deep dive of Tom Brady's Instagram presence but I did a quick one of the posts that he shared on Instagram since January up until basically today Tuesday when we started recording and what stood out to me number one is that the type of posts that he like the subject matter that was most frequent that he shared since January is content that either had to do with fanatics fest or fanatics flag football event that was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia that they held in Los Angeles in March that was number one number two tied was any content that had quite literally Tom Brady with a football in it this could be any context just it could be at like a press thing or him at home shoot shooting the ball just throwing the ball tossing the old pigskin tossing the old pigskin so those were the top two also high up on the list um was content that featured his children which we've talked about heavily fitness um and a few shirtless instances he not as many as last time he's only had three out of the last 48 Instagram posts he shared since January so not as high but still some shirtless thirst traps in there um but I think what is the most interesting is he clearly is making a strategic choice to align himself deeper and deeper with the Michael Rubin fanatics land because of the 48 posts he shared since January 15 have some something to do with fanatics fest or the football that is such a large percentage that's a lot of a famous person's especially of one of the greatest the greatest football player of all times social media platform you're basically it's like a billboard for fanatics no it's you're renting out space yes yes like this is the highway every billboards of fanatics right thing right 30 percent 30 31.25 percent that's so crazy and I think with the WWE stuff we're going to start getting more of that now yeah and I do think that the logical conclusion of this is that he is going to wrestle Logan Paul at SummerSlam in Minnesota on August 1st well and I also think in addition to you saying that um the WWE owners are looking to take a stake in the Raiders right is that what you said the owner the owners of the company that own I feel like also Tom Brady is going to invest into WWE yeah yeah they're going to like expand to Europe or something yeah Middle East or wherever because we've seen this move from him before he invested uh Tom Brady bought a 50 percent stake in a Boston-based company called Card Vault which then at when Tom Brady bought it or bought half maybe slightly more than half of it changed its name to Card Vault by Tom Brady yes those are now popping up everywhere at an alarming speed yeah Card Vault as of recording this has 16 locations that's a lot that's a lot they only had had some stores in Boston before this yeah now they are in New Jersey Austin Dallas Kansas City East Hampton Las Vegas uh Soho San Francisco Sacramento St. Louis so they're everywhere and he's really been doing legwork he's been going to these stores he has been trying to make this happen um and once again there is a link here to Josh Kraft to Bob Kraft's son um one of the owners of the I mean Bob Kraft owner of the Patriots one of his sons yes so he uh the man that is the creator and co-founder of Card Vault by Tom Brady is a man named Scott Hegelman and Scott Hegelman he worked for a long time um according to his bio he drew from a career spanning media experiential commerce and brand architecture oh what does that mean those are words that all mean something what it means is it seems that he worked in a combination of music advertising music management okay across the world or across a couple different industries before I get into the Kraft connection um he is a Grammy voter oh fun fact Scott is because he ran some companies in the music industry um and then what also was interesting that I discovered about Scott is in the 90s he was in a hardcore punk band with his brother oh my goodness found that from an interview from the Eastie Times oh well so he is from East Boston yeah um which if you're from Boston I don't know the Eastie Times what an incredible unbelievable name um name and I do think I think about these guys who've just like done like work quote work like had quote companies yes done like like pushed paper around for decades and now they just have money yeah I'm like what did you do right you done and maybe he's done more than I'm giving him credit for but there we also should do a deep dive into Card Vault because there are a couple reddit posts that insinuate um some behavior that people in the card collecting world think is very sketchy so we'll look at that later we can't do it all in one show but um he also founded a company with Josh Kraft or like a yes it's something called Mass Forward it's called Mass Forward and according to Scott's own bio that I'm assuming he wrote or someone wrote for him it is apparently a Massachusetts-based media platform and foundation focused on elevating Massachusetts businesses innovators and community-driven initiatives through storytelling and strategic growth that I'm sorry what does that mean that doesn't mean anything doesn't mean anything that's the most word salad that's the romaine that's the cyclospora romaine lettuce word salad of corporate speak what does that mean Scott I don't know there are parasites in that pair I don't know I don't know but I feel like Tom Brady read that and was like yeah well so he and Jeff so the Hegelman and Jeff Kraft the Card Vault guy and Josh Kraft founded that and then Hegelman also donated to Josh Kraft's mayoral campaign so it almost feels like is the Kraft family advising Tom Brady on what businesses to get involved in it feels like that because because Card Vault to your point started in Boston and and Scott's from Boston yes and fanatics Michael Rubin's donating to the Kraft mayoral campaign it's like somebody somebody is Tom Brady's ear who's like go all in on these businesses that most people view as somewhat sketchy right yeah yeah it's very strange it's unclear um who is advising him in these decisions and we know but it does feel like it's a craft I I think part of this yeah we we know his team and they've been very considered and pretty smart up until it feels like last year which maybe at that point Tom Brady started going rogue who knows I think it's worth running through a couple of the other things that he's done um Tom Brady was also he was at the world cup with his son people said it was Benny but it was Jack it was Jack Moynihan sorry it was his son with correct the record sorry wasn't Benny it was Jack um and he was sitting next to Jack who was on his um right side Logan Paul approaches him from the right side so poor Jack is in the middle of this whole thing and they flip each other off and it's this video that WWE itself the official account posts and I just feel like don't do that to your kids and I'm not going to do that to your kids I'm not going to speak for Jack I don't know how he feels about it his he didn't seem like thrilled in the video but again you know people's faces you never know you never know but there was an element of this where I'm like Tom because then because Tom was posting that and then he posted a picture of him with his kids at the world cup match it was like this completely persona shift it was a completely different guy it was just how much he loved his kids and going to the world cup yeah yeah i'm like you can't do both of those at the same time you can't have have your cake and eat it too no and i think the wwe example is what is i think woken up other people to what's been going on but there have been some other strange things he's done recently including he was in a pizza hut ad around the super bowl even though he's famously talking about how he like didn't he say like he doesn't believe in soda or oh yeah his diet more about this well 10 years ago it went viral like he didn't eat nightshades he only had avocado ice cream which i think is since he's been like that was a little bit overblown but he's healthy he's healthy yes so he did a pizza which like okay get that bag fine sure i also listen pizza if you're listening i i'll eat your pizza i like it i eat it occasionally yeah i mean really domino's if you're listening well that's charlotte knows i have a deep connection to domino's i can only do brands that really speak no no domino's the thin crust which no one likes except me it's crazy i think crust um anyways he also became an investor in gopuff which is that delivery company in 2024 and they announced back then that he signed a multi-year partnership with them uh which included collaborating with them on product development content creation and more as gopuff uh quote expand more doing a lot of gopuff quote looks to build brand awareness and deliver unique customer experiences i kind of feel like did scott's team write gopuff's announcement gopuff card ball and fanatics all of the same copyright i mean honestly maybe um but the more interesting thing with that partnership is not like yeah great you invested in that company is very successful so i'm sure he's made some money is that they just announced recently that he is partnering with them on a coconut water called good nut which you're like okay here's what's going on there when that happened everybody on the internet was like oh my god tom brady someone did him dirty he did it's like he knows exactly what he's doing yes he did this on purpose this is what he's doing this is part of his thing now guys he wants to troll you but he's not very good at it no so he is a company so he has a drink coconut water called good nut he knows exactly what that sounds like and he has these goat gummies yes which unfortunately are delicious i've never tried them they're very good i did it for research oh well that's great you know what i think about though is in the same way that tom brady to your point can't like he's he's fooling no one or maybe he's fooling some people but he's he's it's like me being like when i was in high school i tried to skip school and i told the librarian who of course i was friends with because of course i was um that i wanted her to write me up so i could try see what it was like to have in-school suspension to leave campus to go get lunch off campus and she was like you can just leave just leave it's fine you're type a goody two-shoes and it's fine and did you know i didn't do that about yourself in that well yes i was just like oh i no one whatever if i i'm not bad i'm not rebellious and you felt that i felt it but it's that's i think it's like this is what tom tom brady is doing that tom brady is trying to get in-school suspension so right and it's not quite working and he's not it's not his persona no it's not his persona it doesn't work i got suspended for two weeks my yeah but that's my senior fall that's because but that but that fits your exactly your mo it was right and it was right and also my whole senior class showed up with free charlotte armbands and they didn't suspend that's a different story but you know it's like you know who you are yes and you either are it or you're not and if you're not it comes off as disingenuous exactly and that's what's happening and that's what's going on here yeah he he's also done a bunch of stuff with ninja kitchen he also dunked gronk who is the guy that he used to throw the ball to the most on the patriots into a dunk tank full of raisin canes chicken sauce it looked it was i wanted to throw up also at fanatics fest yeah yeah so raisin canes is in on this whole thing i mean it really you know what it is it is like a late-staged capitalism social media algorithm brand waking nightmare yes and tom brady is in it and all these people agree because all these people on the internet are like tom stop it yeah you were cool you were the best football player of all time you don't need to be doing this he was also involved in crypto right yeah because i think that there is definitely a happy medium like people were comparing that michael jordan wouldn't do this you know but it's like okay michael jordan is like very mysterious and is only recently now doing stuff with nascar as he he owns that team and he's being a little bit more public in that sense and i think that's an extreme end of being the goat in your respective sport and wanting to still have some air of mystery around you but what tom brady is doing it couldn't be further from that yes you there is no mystery of what's going on here there's no mystery in what he's putting out there online there's no mystery in the actions that he's taking let's bring back a little bit of mystery tom gotta bring back just a little bit you know who's a goat who i think actually has a pretty good balance who is serena williams i think she's a pretty good balance i mean aside from her her comeback which you know is a different just you know social media publicly but i the more the deeper we get into these algorithms the deeper we get into ai garbage the deeper we get into these obvious stunts that are fooling no one everybody is so sick of it i think the coolest thing you can do is be less online yes be less online and that applies to anybody yes like of course we have to be online for our jobs but we're also not that you don't know that much about us right no no no which is by design yeah yeah i mean it feels like tom brady as you said and we are not famous no no it does feel like in some ways that tom brady is a human manifestation of ai slop right now and i don't want that for him but that's what i'm saying it's kind of what it feels like and someone's got a gif because i don't think it's working i don't think it's working it's just painful to watch someone make decisions that you know from a branding pr perspective even as a lay person are not the right ones yeah and to watch someone go against their nature to try to do something that they think they're supposed to do and try to make money in this way that they think is cool that there there are undoubtedly other ways that tom brady can make money we don't know what's going on financially we don't know if he needs these things more than we think he does you could be a behind the scenes guy a little bit more yeah um and it's sad because he's kind of still someone that even though despite everything because of those moments where he lets himself be earnest there is a glimmer of where you kind of want to be able to root for him or you want him to because you can see the capacity for behaving a different way you just want him to do it yeah it's just frustrating it almost feels like one of the main turning points for him in being more public in ways that are outside of his comfort zone or how he has typically been perceived in the public in the past is when he became an analyst on fox sports because i feel like that gave him some new level of confidence because he was on every sunday he's on air way more than he ever has been before maybe in his mind he was like oh i like being in front of the camera i like doing these things it's live i mean you're not on air when you're doing finax but you kind of are you're on air online to everyone's phone filming you doing all these performance it's a performance and i do wonder if because i feel like there was a shift when they got divorced as we talked about but then i also feel like there was a turning point when he started doing analysis during games so that is genius because having worked at fox sports they gassed their talent up more than any network that has ever existed they also surround their talent with yes men they don't say no to their to the people who are paid appropriately they say no to the people who don't matter but to the people that they deem important they they create an environment where everything is enabled and no one says should we think about this for a second and they make you feel not me this was not my experience there but for the people that they treat this way they make you feel not me this was not my experience there but for the people that they treat this way they make me feel not me this was not my experience there but for the people that they treat this way they make ♪