Bill Burr has no patience for New Englanders who don't love Tom Brady anymore
BOSTON -- Bill Burr is a funny person. He's also a Boston sports fan, which is no joke. And the Canton native does not believe any New Englanders should be down on Tom Brady now that he's gone on to a new life in Tampa Bay.
"Tom Brady can do no wrong," Burr said Tuesday morning. "And you know it."
Burr was doing some publicity for his upcoming show at Fenway Park, appearing on both sports talk radio stations in back-to-back appearances. In both, Tom Brady was the main topic of conversation.
On 98.5 The Sports Hub, Burr couldn't believe what he was hearing from Toucher & Rich about Tom Brady.
"Wait a minute. You guys are trashing Tom Brady? He's insufferable? Dude, we played in a high school football stadium before that guy came around," Burr said. "There's always one of you guys around. That's half the Boston sports writing staff my whole life. The stuff that they would write about the team, I was like, 'Are you rooting for these guys?' All they do is try to rip the locker room apart."
Fred Toucher -- who grew up in Detroit as a Jets fan, and thus was not really the target of Burr's message -- took issue with Tom Brady's clothing line. Bill Burr took issue with Fred Toucher taking issue with Tom Brady's clothing line.
"What was it about the Tom Brady clothing line that just got you this upset? Was it the color scheme, was it the advertising, was it what it stood for?" Burr asked the host.
Burr did admit that such a take on Brady's fashion line would work on the national level.
"ESPN acting like [DeflateGate] was actually real and not something that the owner of the other team came up with. ESPN's the worst," Burr said. "They are -- you know what? They would listen to you talking about Tom Brady's clothing line. They would be all over that. 'Toucher & Rich don't like Tom's new polo line!'"
Burr rejected the idea that he's "Captain Positive," instead insisting that Brady simply did more than enough to essentially earn a lifetime pass in New England.
"I can get past your clothing line if you win us six Super Bowls," Burr said. "Call me wishy-washy, but yes, I can do that."
Over on WEEI, Burr was asked right off the bat about Brady appearing in a pump-up video for the Tampa Bay Lightning crowd at Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night, and whether he takes issue with Brady going Full Tampa.
"No. Because we were nothing before him and [Robert] Kraft came in, ya know, and we played in that little dumpy stadium," Burr said. "He took us to nine Super Bowls, we won six. And then what I loved was people going like, 'Oh, it was the system. He's a system quarterback.' And then he won without Belichick, so that shut everybody up.
"And I'm not gonna get into this whole thing where like, somebody leaves, and you loved him, so now you're gonna trash him, and then he's never gonna wanna come back to Boston again," Burr continued. "We have, as a sports community, a bad habit of doing that. There's a lot of legends in the past that don't come back there anymore."
Burr didn't quite understand why anyone would think Brady doing the video for the Lightning would be considered a big deal by anybody.
"Yeah, the guy's from California. He's an upstanding member of the community, and now he's in Tampa. So what's he gonna do, go down there and be a jerk? No," he said. "He's gonna be what he always is. He's a winner, trying to help them out."
Burr then turned his attention on Jermaine Wiggins, an East Boston native who played with Brady and won the Snow Bowl and that first Super Bowl with the Patriots in 2001. Wiggins tried to appeal to Burr by saying they're both "Massholes" before Burr cut him off.
"No I'm not. Stop lumping me in to you to make your point try to make sense. You're being a big baby about it, all right?" Burr said. "Athletes do not belong to you. Just enjoy them while they're here, and thank them for their service. Just like the troops."
Burr rejected any notion that Brady was ever anything more than an athlete winning games for the Patriots -- "He's from California! He was never a Masshole!" -- and basically made fun of Wiggins for his feelings on Tom Brady.
"That makes it even worse, the fact that he was actually in the NFL, and the way they treat human beings in that league, the fact that you're upset that he went out to go get some tax-free money down in Florida. Why can't you just be happy for him?" Burr asked, while directing Wiggins' ire to the Patriots' front office instead of Brady. "Oh, man, dude. You gotta let that go. You gotta figure out what that's really about. 'I'll never let it go. I'm gonna die on this hill. That's what I learned growing up: You get angry, you hold on to the anger, it keeps you warm in the winter. I don't need a defroster; I just stick my thoughts inside the car and the whole windshield clears off.'"
Burr did conclude with his genuine belief that Boston sports fans shouldn't bash athletes once they're gone.
"I think sports towns in general, they get upset when their heroes leave," Burr said. "But I think Boston has a way of doing it where the person then never wants to come back."
Burr hopes that doesn't happen with Tom Brady. He made it rather clear on Tuesday morning.
