🚨BREAKING: Tom Brady Did Not Mention Patriots Fans In His Retirement Announcement🚨

Tom Brady, Noted Hater of Patriots Fans Everywhere

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Tom Brady announced his retirement from the NFL earlier this morning with a couple lengthy Instagram and Twitter posts thanking several people who helped to make him what he is today. In the hours since the announcement, some fans/amateur sleuths have noticed that he made an interesting omission from giving thanks to the organization he spent most of his career playing for: The New England Patriots and their fans.

The Ringer's Bill Simmons (whose podcast I actually really enjoy), a lifelong Boston sports fan who clearly has no bias or favoritism in any direction whatsoever when it comes to this situation, was quickly on top of Brady's obviously deliberate attempt to twist the knife in the hearts of Boston sports fans: easily the least-spoiled group of fans in the country for the past two decades.

Some argue that the fact that Brady has profusely thanked the organization and fans in the past (particularly in the year immediately following his departure from the franchise) is enough recognition for the accomplishments of the people he relied on so much that he immediately won another Super Bowl the instant he left them. Other, more cynical Patriots fans are less convinced.

Twitter User lguggee, a crucial contributor to no less than all of Brady's Super Bowl wins in New England, summed up what undoubtedly a plurality of the inhabitants of Boston are thinking right now:

Harsh, but fair criticism. Reading the tweet in a Boston accent brings out an even deeper level of emotional resonance as well.

Brady's posts and Patriots' fans responses to them (which I can't share because none of their replies would be coherent in any way if I censored the vulgarities out) raise an important sports history question:

Is winning a franchise and its fans six Super Bowls over the course of twenty years enough to be given the benefit of the doubt when you don't make your retirement announcement primarily about what those people did for you?

I can see arguments being made both ways.