Memo to the unhinged: Tom Brady owes no apology for backing Trump

Tom Brady owes America an apology for probably voting for the candidate who won the 2016 presidential election.

That’s what several sports journalists and professors are demanding this week of the three-time Super Bowl MVP and four-time champion. This kind of rhetoric has never preceded the 50 Super Bowls prior to this one of any of the thousands of players fortunate enough to make it to sports’ biggest stage.

{mosads}But this is 2017, the year many adults have seemingly lost their minds. For more proof, just check out these headlines:

Yahoo! Sports: For Tom Brady, there’s no avoiding Donald Trump during Super Bowl week

USA Today: Tom Brady has some explaining to do on Donald Trump

Deadspin: I’m Fed Up With Tom Brady

Huffington Post: Tom Brady’s Politics Are More Un-American Than Colin Kaepernick’s Have Ever Been

SB Nation: The Patriots have a Trump problem

Newsweek: PATRIOTS’ FANS THROW A FLAG ON BRADY, BELICHICK’S SUPPORT FOR DONALD TRUMP

You get the idea. Of course, Brady never publicly endorsed Trump. Never campaign with him once. But he was caught with a “Make America Great Hat” in his locker more than 18 months ago, which among some of the elite is considered treason. In a related story, Trump received nearly 63 million votes and beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College by a decided 304-227 tally.

So using the logic of all of these pundits and journalists attacking Brady, every last one of the people who voted for the Republican need to apologize to the country.

“Tom Brady no longer gets a pass on his friendship with Donald Trump,” wrote Nancy Armour, a veteran sportswriter with USA Today. “Not after this weekend, when the country boiled over in rage and indignation at Trump’s decision to turn America’s back on refugees.”

What Armour and almost every other media member fail to acknowledge while painting this narrative that everyone in the country is horrified by Trump’s immigration order is that the order appears to have this thing called “public support.”

A Rasmussen poll released Monday shows that 57 percent of those polled favor a temporary halt on refugees from the seven listed countries. Just 33 percent opposed it, while another 10 percent are undecided.

The Rasmussen poll also showed that a majority of respondents support a short-term pause on issuing visas to residents of the seven countries listed (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen).

All told, fifty-six percent support the temporary ban until the U.S. government upgrades its ability to screen for likely terrorists. Less than 1-in-3, or 32 percent oppose it, while 11 percent are undecided.

So what’s Brady and the other almost-63 million apologizing for again? 

The columnist conceded that she doesn’t know if Brady is aligned with Trump’s perspective or policies, but says he should “disavow” him regardless.

“Brady might not agree with Trump’s views or his policies … but in refusing to publicly disavow Trump’s actions, Brady is giving tacit endorsement to both Trump and the chaos he has created,” she argued.

Armour concluded her column by stating that any harsh treatment Brady receives from the press this week is ultimately a situation he created.

“Regardless of whether he was duped into being a prop or is genuinely friends with Trump, Brady inserted himself into the national firestorm. He can’t be surprised that people want to know more. And now expect more,” she writes.

Tom Brady – or anyone else who voted for Trump – should not be subject to this kind of public shaming or outright bullying.

But like Trump, he’s the most polarized person in his line of work. You love Trump, you love him a lot. You hate Trump, ditto. You love Brady, you love him a lot. You hate him, it runs deep. 

And by the way, to all these reporters demanding that Brady disavow Trump, does that mean Boston’s Ben Affleck and Matt Damon – no fans of anything Republican – need to disavow Brady, who they’ve both cheered for and openly adored in the past — because of Brady’s connection to Trump? How does this process work exactly?

Just asking… 

Nothing in this country is safe from partisan, even unhinged, political vitriol.

Even the best unofficial holiday we have: The Super Bowl.

A great game is coming up between two outstanding gunslinger quarterbacks in the Falcons’ Matt Ryan and Brady, arguably the greatest of all-time.

That’s the damn story.

But with a myopic media that needs to connect Trump to anything and everything, some with bylines and microphones just can’t let it go.

Joe Concha is a media reporter for The Hill.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.