College Professor: Tom Brady Popularity Due To ‘White Supremacy’

Apparently, New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady’s popularity has nothing to do with his six Super Bowl rings and his 14 Pro Bowl picks; it has everything to do with a resurgence of white supremacy, according to University of Rhode Island (URI) professor Kyle Kusz.

According to Campus Reform,  English professor Kusz dedicated a whole chapter to Tom Brady’s whiteness in his recent book, “The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport,” in which he alleged that the quarterback gained popularity due to  the “latest wave of white rage and white supremacy” that developed during the Obama presidency, culminating in the election of President Trump. At one point, Kusz even goes so far to claim that a 2015 Under Armour commercial featuring Brady would have been straight out of a Leni Reifenstahl propaganda film. Campus Reform provided further details of this bizarre theory:

The professor’s work analyzes Brady in two ways: his representation in the media and his “relationship with Trump,” seeking to determine what these factors can “tell us about the specific ways that white masculinity is being re-coded and re-centered in post-Obama American culture.”

Kusz zeroes in on “the complex racial, gender, and class meanings that have been articulated with Brady’s body and his performances of white masculinity in the context of a backlash against the Obama presidency” and of “Trumpism,” which he claims is also rooted in both race and gender.

In addition to Brady’s representation as the epitome of “omnipotent, white masculinity” in his various media appearances, advertisements, and movie cameos, Kusz also focuses on Brady’s public image as it relates to what he calls “American myths of meritocracy and individualism,” which he says are “commonly used in sporting adverts.”

Among other media appearances, he specifically cites Brady’s appearance in a 2015 Under Armour commercial, which he claims “would not seem out of place in Leni Reifenstahl’s infamous Nazi propaganda film, “Triumph des willens,’” because of its military references and red and black colors.

Speaking with Campus Reform, Kusz said that the Under Armour commercial is what triggered his investigation into Brady’s relationship with whiteness. He also felt particularly triggered by a Beautyrest mattress commercial that framed the football star from a low camera angle to give him an imposing presence.

“I decided to research Trump and Brady’s public performances of their white masculinities and how they connect with broader debates about race and gender politics after a student in one of my classes brought the UnderArmour commercial to my attention and it piqued my interest,” Kusz said. “In each of these sites, Brady is figured as an unconflicted and unapologetic embodiment of upper-class white exceptionality and manly omnipotence.”

Kusz also told Campus Reform that he became fascinated by the supposed idolatry of Brady upon his moving to New England.

“After moving here for work I became fascinated by the idolatry given to Brady, especially after Trump began to name-drop and use white sportsmen as surrogates during his 2016 campaign,” he said.

Kusz later cites Brady’s attendance at the almost exclusively white Kentucky Derby, noting that his guests often reflect his racial makeup, which Kusz finds repugnant due to the fact that Brady “plays in a sport where 67% of the players are African-American.”

“It is a vision of Brady as a wealthy, white man who unapologetically enjoys, and has even made a habit out of, spending time with other wealthy white men who treasure time ‘with the boys’ over all others,” said Kusz.