URI Professor Says Tom Brady’s Popularity Tied to Rise in White Supremacy in New Book

URI Professor Says Tom Brady’s Popularity Tied to Rise in White Supremacy in New Book

A University of Rhode Island professor is saying that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's popularity is tied to "white supremacist ideas" in a new book. 

URI Professor Kyle Kusz recently took a look at Brady's role in sports and culture in the chapter “Making American White Men Great Again: Tom Brady, Donald Trump, and the Allure of White Male Omnipotence in Post-Obama America,” in the soon to be released “The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport.”

“Understanding the pattern of cultural meanings articulated to Tom Brady’s body and performances of white masculinity in the past five years, must be situated and understood within the context of the white conservative backlash to the Obama presidency that set the stage for Trump’s unexpected win,” writes Kusz.

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Kusz, whose work at URI as a faculty member in the Gender and Women’s Studies program “focuses on stories produced in American sports media,” looks at Brady’s relationship with Trump — and his off-field relationships. 

“That Brady consistently invites white majority groups to go on these Kentucky Derby ‘boys only’ excursions is noteworthy given the fact that he plays in a sport where 67& of the players are African-American,” writes Kusz.

Kusz then points to Brady’s representation beyond the athletic field — into advertisements and entertainment — and writes the following. 

“Brady’s stature as an idealized American national body is rationalized through both white supremacist ideas embedded in these portrayals….Brady’s performance of white masculinity is constitutive of, and constituted by, a set of ideas, affects, and exclusions that remarkably similar to those that fuel Trump’s project to ‘make America great again.'”

Latest for Brady -- and Trump Politics

When Trump campaigned in Rhode Island in 2016, he said that the media should "leave Brady alone," regarding his four-game suspension. 

On the eve of election day, Trump told reporters that got a call from Brady, letting him know he had voted for him.

In 2019, actor Daniel Radcliffe, best known for his role as playing Harry Potter, said he was rooting for the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl — and that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady should “stop winning” and “take his MAGA hat out of his locker.”

This story was first published 9/27/19 4:40 PM