Tom Terrific? Not so fast.
Boomer Esiason doesn’t think there’s anything “terrific” about Tom Brady’s reported attempt to trademark the “Tom Terrific” nickname long held by Major League Baseball legend Tom Seaver and sometimes used nowadays to describe the New England Patriots quarterback.
Esiason, a former Pro Bowl quarterback now working as an NFL analyst and radio/TV personality, grew up a New York Mets fan idolizing Seaver, who earned the label for his dazzling mound work in the Big Apple. To say Esiason is disappointed in Brady would be an understatement.
“I love Tom Seaver. You know that. I’ve been advocating for a Seaver statue forever, since Citi Field opened,” Esiason said Monday on WFAN’s “Boomer and Gio” radio show. “Craig Carton, my former partner, gave me a beautiful Tom Seaver statue for my birthday that my man Marc Mellon did for me. It’s beautiful, and it sits on my desk, and I have a reminder of Tom Terrific and who he was when he was at the top of his game for the New York Mets. And now, lo and behold, comes the greatest quarterback of all time trying to trademark the name ‘Tom Terrific.’
“When you’ve got so much goddamned money, you can do whatever you want, and this is now what Tom Brady wants to take: ‘Tom Terrific’ as his nickname. Maybe in New England they call him that, I guess. But you know what? We’ve been calling Tom Seaver ‘Tom Terrific’ forever, for as long as I can remember, for 50 years. That’s who ‘Tom Terrific’ has always been.”
Esiason isn’t alone in his displeasure, as many Mets fans have taken to social media in recent days to speak out against Brady’s reported trademark request. The Mets’ official Twitter account even tweeted about the situation.
Seaver, who spent 12 seasons with the Mets (1967-77, 1983), is one of the best pitchers in MLB history, racking up 311 wins, 12 All-Star Game selections, three Cy Young Awards and a World Series title over the course of his 20-year pitching career. There’s no denying he was the “Tom Terrific” well before Brady arrived in New England, won six Super Bowl titles (and counting) and solidified himself as arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history.
“I am disgusted, and I’m really surprised, and I’m really, I don’t know, it just feels sleazy to me, you know?,” Esiason said.
“There are very few things that I get wrapped up in. I got wrapped up in this,” he added. “There’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do is talk about it and hopefully shame him into not going after it and recognizing a true great of another sport that had the name and was given the name well before he ever was given the name.
“The Met fan in me is just basically really perturbed by it. It just annoys me because it takes me back to my childhood, and I don’t like people messing with my childhood.”
Is Esiason overreacting? Maybe. Maybe not. But nobody likes to have their childhood messed with.
