Mayhem In Munich
June 6th, 2022
The Beatles, really?
The headline reads like the title of a Three Stooges short where Curly Howard wreaks havoc on a Bavarian biergarten while Moe Howard is busy poking people in the eyes and Larry Fine grimaces before being slapped by Moe.
But no, it is not a Three Stooges episode. Apparently, when the Bucs travel to Munich to play the Seahawks in November, the mere fact Tom Brady will step on German soil will turn the nation upside down and he will be the biggest thing to hit Deutschland since the Eighth Air Force.
That’s the word from Daylight-Savings-Time-scared, crossword-puzzle-puzzled, Elon-Musk-peeved, Barstool-Sports-triggered, almond-milk-sipping, hot-dog-eating-contest-protesting, mock-draft-scowling, L.L.-Bean-wearing, tennis fans’ advocate, Second Amendment abolitionist, Mike-Florio-arguing, parrot-insensitive, chewing-with-his-mouth-open, soup-gulping, California-train-romancing, anti-football proliferation, outhouse-admiring, airline-napping, steerage-flying, Yogi Berra-worshiping, urinal-picture-taking, video-game-playing, Taylor-Swift-listening, pickpocket-thwarting, Bucs-uniform-frowning, Allie LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, craft-beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball-box-score-reading, NPR-honk, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training, Budweiser-tolerant, baseball-scorecard-keeping, pasta-feasting, vomit-dodging scrooge, Kay-Adams-following, Coors-Light-souring, pineapple-upside-down-cake-eating social activist and NFL insider Peter King of NBC Sports fame.
King must have been staying up well past his bedtime to reach for the following analogy: Brady’s arrival in Munich will have the same impact in Bavaria that the ancient band “The Beatles” had when they first appeared in — where else? — New York.
It seems for media types over 60 who hail from New York like King, The Beatles are like manna from heaven and they coo and heavy pant and speak in hushed tones whenever someone mentions the band. (For those who don’t know, it was a grossly overrated top-40, flower power band that broke up around 1970. For a certain sect of the populace, The Beatles were considered some form of musical epiphany. Whatever.)
Joe is pretty confident folks under 30 couldn’t even name a Beatles song — and good for you!
Anyway, King thinks Brady being chosen for the first Germany game proves Brady is one of the heaviest of hitters in the NFL. King typed a column today naming the 22 most influencial people in the NFL and Brady came in at No. 3.
3. Tom Brady, Tampa Bay quarterback
Behold the power of Brady:
• FOX will pay him $375 million for 10 years as a broadcaster and ambassador when he retires, per Andrew Marchand. Including this season, per Over The Cap, Brady’s total football earnings will be $317 million in 23 seasons. Life is weird.
• The NFL chose the Bucs to play the first league game ever in Germany this year, leading one NFL wag to tell me: “Brady in Germany will be like the Beatles coming to New York City.” An exaggeration of that half-century-old event, but I do expect some mayhem in Munich when Brady and the Bucs play Seattle on Nov. 13.
• When Brady retired last winter, the Bucs were the 15th-most-likely team to win the Super Bowl, per Vegas odds. When he un-retired, the Bucs moved to second.
• Brady’s “Man in the Arena” doc won the Sports Emmy in May for Outstanding Documentary Series.
• He is not washed. Brady did benefit from a 17th regular-season game last season, of course, but at 44, he led the NFL (by 302 yards) with 5,316 passing yards, his career best.
What does he do for an encore, at 45? The number of eyes on him to answer that question is why he’s such a significant person in the NFL in 2022.
First off, who gives a flip Brady’s Hollywood production company won an award? Whoop-tee-do. Will King gloss Devin White if one of his Drew Brees-fronted restaurant franchises gets an award for clean bathrooms?
That’s more important to Bucs fans than Brady’s Hollywood production company winning a lame award.
Joe was not shocked the Bucs got the Munich game because of Brady. How better to market the NFL to a new international region than with an international superstar?
Will Brady have mobs of locals running through the streets of Munich in November? Let’s calm down. He’s not David Hasselhoff.
Now, in the immortal words of the late great Sam Kinison, King can go “listen to the GD Beatles albums. Ow. Ooooowwwww!“
(FYI, the Three Stooges actually have a very historic though indirect connection to Germany.)
June 6th, 2022 at 9:28 am
The Beatles have sold more than 257 million albums.
Joe: “Overrated”, while David Lee Roth’s “Diamond Dave” album is playing in the background.
June 6th, 2022 at 9:32 am
A person that likes Van Hagar throwing shade at The Beatles is hilarious.
June 6th, 2022 at 9:33 am
Come on, Joe, you know the intent of King’s passage:
The definition of “wag” is someone who is a joker. In other words, the person who King is quoting is exaggerating the impact Brady will have in Germany. All King is saying is that he predicts some effect, which is possible if a number of Germans take to American football on a similar level as they take to soccer. While I’m skeptical (as always), I have noticed German fans on US sports sites practicing their English (which is better than my Deutsch) while enjoying our sports.
June 6th, 2022 at 9:35 am
I don’t know if the Beatles were overrated per se, but I was always a Stones guy, myself.
June 6th, 2022 at 9:43 am
Joe is just jealous that The Beatles ruled the ’60s, while Van Halen will always be in the shadow of Led Zeppelin…
June 6th, 2022 at 9:45 am
I loved it when the BBC lampooned The Beatles with a fake band called The Rutles, the product of a mockumentary. In the 1960s, there was uproar when John Lennon proclaimed that The Beatles were more popular than God. In The Rutles, the fake Lennon sneered, “Well how many albums has God sold?”.
Great band, incredibly gifted, but too self-important for their own good.
June 6th, 2022 at 10:12 am
Lennon was right and that quote of his has been taken way, way, way out of context. Lennon said that meaning more people bought their records or went to their concerts or heard them on radio across the globe than ever heard Jesus speak.
June 6th, 2022 at 11:28 am
First Joe has heard of that. Joe was always of the impression “WAG” was “wives and girlfriends.”
June 6th, 2022 at 11:30 am
Frank Sinatra, Elvis Pressley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson. Those are the people/groups that had the biggest cultural impacts in the US and world in the 20th Century. You can argue about other singers/groups that produced better music, but it doesn’t matter. It’s what these artists contributed to the pop culture in our society. And their popularity is reflected in the huge number of records and albums sold during their reigns.
June 6th, 2022 at 11:46 am
Wag means a wave of the finger…giving attention to. Sheesh…where is education these days?
June 6th, 2022 at 11:54 am
I thought WAG was “Wild A$$ Guess”
June 6th, 2022 at 12:01 pm
Per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
wag noun
1 : wit, joker
I lament the state of education these days.
June 6th, 2022 at 12:06 pm
I’m pretty sure it was a joke, but on a message board, it is tough to distinguish. I’ve read some crazy verbiage, like “an escape goat” vs. scapegoat.
June 6th, 2022 at 12:15 pm
Passing irregardless of you’re opinion, I ain’t not egregiousing with you
June 6th, 2022 at 12:39 pm
The Beatles stink, just another boy band.
June 6th, 2022 at 12:47 pm
GOB was much more of a fan of George Harrison’s solo stuff. They were all incredible songs writers. Give me Elvis and the Stones over the fab four any day.
June 6th, 2022 at 12:52 pm
BTW, the beetles couldn’t hold Brian Wilson’s jock
June 6th, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Never ever heard the word used that way. As a verb, yes. As an acronym, yes. Never as a noun.
Seems a British term. Obviously, Joe has never been to Great Britian.
June 6th, 2022 at 1:35 pm
Sam Kinison was the best!
June 6th, 2022 at 2:27 pm
Wag really isn’t even used much anymore.
June 6th, 2022 at 2:54 pm
I swear, the word “Tomfoolery” was invented specifically for King. The beetles are just meh, but they have a couple of good songs. Those islands produced a much better band in Pink Floyd and their 1987 concert in Tampa stadium was epic.
June 6th, 2022 at 3:07 pm
The Beatles were anything but a “flower power” band Joe. They term wasn’t around until the late ’60s. McCartney and Lennon met and starting playing together in ’57. They were known as The Beatles from ’60 onward.
Talk about Arians changing the culture at One Buc– The Beatles (four kids, essentially) had an immeasurable impact on the world, of course the US included.
Whether you love them like me or think it’s fashionable to be in the “they’re overrated” crowd, the whole story of their beginnings and eventual unbelievable success and influence on the world is fascinating– and actually still ongoing.
McCartney will be freaking 80 years old (80!) in twelve days and is still selling out concerts on his current tour. Makes me wonder if Brady will be able to still throw a perfect spiral when he’s 80…
June 6th, 2022 at 3:21 pm
The Beatles are, in fact, the greatest band to ever exist.
But at this point, using Beatlemania as a reference point is outdated. It sounds like when people referenced Frank Sinatra or Johnny Carson when I was growing up.
Peter King once complained in an article about how all the bars in Indianapolis played 80s music and not Iggy Azaelia. He’s just a painfully wrong person
June 6th, 2022 at 3:57 pm
Some of ya’ll are insanely musically illiterate, and it shows.
For shame.
June 6th, 2022 at 4:01 pm
Is it just me or would the Germany game be a perfect opportunity to allow our beloved Buccaneers to wear their Creamsicles? NFL should wave the extra helmet rule for playing in Germany and it gives us an opportunity to see Brady in creamsicle.
June 6th, 2022 at 4:07 pm
I’m not British, but certainly have heard the word “wag” used before.
tickrdr Says:
June 3rd, 2016 at 11:13 am
———————————————————————–
Another thing I learned enroute to looking up other things.
I am a stats nerd, but sometimes they don’t tell the whole story.
Four TDs in six games sounds pretty good……… but
1st TD against Tennessee down 21 to nothing.
2nd TD against Tennessee down 42 to 7, ended by the victory dance to the end zone.
3rd TD against Chicago on a Hail Mary pass with one second left in the fourth quarter, and down by 12 points.
4th TD against St. Louis with 2:24 left in the fourth quarter, when down by 15 points.
Some wags might say those would count as “garbage time” scores for ASJ, and by extension for JW3 as well, but not me.
tickrdr
June 6th, 2022 at 4:13 pm
I was shocked when Joe claimed that no one under 30 could name a Beatles song.
So, I asked my nuclear tech,aged 23, and lo and behold she could not name a single one! FWIW, she also didn’t know where Idaho was on the map of the US, and couldn’t name three countries in South America. Unfortunately, I have to agree with Passing Thru about the state of education in the US today.
tickrdr
June 6th, 2022 at 4:29 pm
I agree Joe. I’m definitely not a Beatles fan. Deep Purple for me.
As for as anti-gun Peter King, I just bought a semiautomatic shotgun in his “honor”. I’m thinking I might name it Peter. Or King?
June 6th, 2022 at 6:43 pm
Good idea! 👏
June 7th, 2022 at 9:08 am
The Beatles transcended show business. Ed Sullivan, who had the most watched variety show in America from the late 50’s to the early 70’s, personally witnessed BeatleMania while traveling through Britain and brought them over for their debut.
As much as I like The Who and Zep, never again will 60,000,000 Americans turn on their TV sets on a Sunday night to see a Pop/rock band.
Jimmy Page of Les Zep can go out clubbing in London and not be mobbed. If Paul or John tried to go out on public in the 60’s they had to run for their.
The Beatles weren’t just great singer/songwriters, they were the biggest celebrities in the world in their day. Only Muhammad Ali came close to their game.
Tom Brady is great but would people in the Phillipines, India or Australia consider him as big as the Beatles. No way, they were the biggest music phenom ever.
June 7th, 2022 at 10:03 am
Joe Says:
“Eddie Van Halen credited Jimmy Page with inspiring him to develop his signature guitar style.”
Of course Eddie VH was influenced by Jimmy Page as all rock guitarists are – and Van Halen did cover a # of Zeppelin songs in the early days of the band.
BUT – the single guitarist that influenced EVH the most was for sure Eric Clapton. Eddie has said this many times in interviews and explained how during his early formative guitar years he spent hours and hours and hours breaking down and emulating Clapton’s solos and guitar style….
Just sayin
And The Who wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as Led Zeppelin if you are talking about the greatest rock band ever….