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There is a part of me that says I should avoid all this "Tom Terrific" controversy. After all, I could not be more biased on the subject. But I can honestly say that I have NO bias against Tom Brady and that I easily concede that he is great, fabulous, amazing and awesome.
I am not an enemy of the Patriots. In fact, I love and admire Bill Belichick and the dynasty he built with Brady.
But I had four childhood heroes, real heroes, who grew up in New York: Joe Namath, Willis Reed, Brad Park and Tom Seaver.
During a remarkable 16-month period, Namath and the Jets, Seaver and Mets, and Reed and Knicks produced world championships. The Jets' Super Bowl III win could be the biggest surprise in NFL history. The Mets de Miracle had won 73 games in 1968. They were nine and a half games behind the Chicago Cubs on August 9 and had 100 wins, winning eight wins in the National League of the East. The Knicks had the best record of the NBA in 1969-70, but when Reed fell in the fifth game of the final (there was no capital in NBA marketing at that time), they did had no chance to beat the Lakers and Wilt Chamberlain – but they did it.
I remember very well these championship moments. I can still name the whole list of Mets; all the Knicks list and almost all the Jets starters. Want to try me on Randy Rasmussen, Bill Hosket or Al Weis?
I've always been a fan of the underdogs, so it was not surprising that I became a fan of the Mets in 1962, when I discovered baseball. I still remember the first time I tried to read a newspaper soon after my father took me to Polo Grounds for the first time (yeah, the Polo Grounds) to watch the Mets go sweep in a double file by the Cubs. I watched the rankings. The Yankees, of course, were in first place in the American League. Dishes? They were between 15 and 48 years old and you can imagine where that put them in the National League.
I became addicted. One of the first books I remember reading was "Wait a minute now, Casey!" It was the hysterical chronicle of Maury Allen of the first three seasons of the Mets under Casey Stengel. They have won 40, 51 and 53 games in each of these seasons. Many years later, I met Allen and I was delighted that it was as fun and fun as I imagined reading the book. .
Casey had to retire in 1965 and the Mets remained horrible. And then, in 1967, Seaver arrived. And everything seemed different. The team was always pretty awful, but that was not the case. In fact, he was great. Whenever he launched, the Mets had a chance to win. He was open and bright and had a beautiful young lady.
He was, in all respects, Tom Terrific. The media gave him his nickname early and he never left it. Check out his Wikipedia page: Tom Terrific is in the first sentence.
He has won 16 games and made the star team as a rookie. In 1968, he won 16 more games, winning 61 and 73 games.
And then came '69. The Mets had hired Gil Hodges as a director the previous year and had one of the best pitching personalities in history: Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, Nolan Ryan and Jim McAndrew. Ryan was only a part-time starter due to injuries and military engagements.
Seaver was 25-7 years old, the Cy Young Award and later the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year – at age 25. He won 311 games and got 425 votes out of 430 in 1992, his only year at the Hall-of- The ballot, the highest percentage of votes ever received at the time. Of the five voters who did not vote for him, three sent blank ballots in protest that Pete Rose would not be registered; one was recovering from a cardiac operation and did not realize that Seaver was on the ballot; and the fifth policy was never to vote for anyone for the first time on the ballot.
But I come here today to not declare Seaver more formidable than Brady, nor to vex her in any way. I come here to ask the following question: when was Brady dubbed Tom Terrific?
My answer would be close to never. For years, he has marketed various products under the name of TB12. Tom Terrific? I have no recollection – no – of having heard it called. Maybe in Boston, some call it like that. I have never heard anyone at a national broadcast say, "And here's Tom Terrific and the crime Patriots."
The application of the brand "Tom Terrific" by Brady is a marketing initiative. With his various sponsors, he wants to market "Tom Terrific" products. I do not doubt they will sell. But they would also sell as "Brilliant Brady" or "Tom the Magnificent" or "Beautiful Brady". OK, maybe this one has to be reserved for his wife.
We all know that Brady has to earn more money than Dan Snyder has to make himself more enemies. He is rich and he is the breadwinner at home. I'm not saying that Brady is not great – he's beyond awesome. I maintain that he does not need to do it.
Seaver is 74 years old and dying of dementia. In March, his family announced he was retiring completely from public life and could not participate in the Mets Miracle's 50th anniversary celebrations this summer.
Dementia is always beyond sadness. I saw it closely. Just thinking of Tom Seaver in this state makes me feel sick.
The Mets filed a claim with the US Patent Office, asking it to reject Brady's deposit. In my opinion, they have no legal basis to stop it. Seaver never thought of using the "Tom Terrific" brand. He never came to the obligation to do it.
Here's what I want: I suppose – and this is nothing else – that Brady did not know that there was another great athlete who was regularly called "Tom Terrific". He knows now. And he knows that Seaver's family, his countless fans and almost everyone who has come into contact with Seaver do not want that to happen.
I would like Brady to call a press conference and announce the withdrawal of the request. His marketing team will find another way to sell products under the umbrella of Tom Brady.
It would be a class gesture and it would probably force many people trying to make Brady the devil to rethink their position on him, if only a little bit. They will despise him when he lines up under the center, which is good.
But they should admit that he did well to understand that "Tom Terrific" meant a lot more for Seaver and for fans of Mets than to earn a few extra dollars, unnecessarily.
The question is not whether Brady has the right to do so; The question is whether Brady will do what is right.
I hope he's doing it. But if he does not, there is one thing I know for sure: for me and for a whole generation of baseball fans, there will always be only one Tom Terrific.
John Feinstein's most recent book is "The Prodigy", a novel about a 17-year-old man who has a chance to win the Masters who has to fight agents, equipment reps. and his own father who wants to turn it into an ATM machine even during the tournament. His latest non-fiction book is "Quarterback – Inside The Most Important Position in Professional Sport". John's website is JFeinsteinbooks.com.
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