On 12/12, it’s Tom Brady Day, a day to celebrate the legendary quarterback and his famous number 12 jersey.
As part of the celebration, Topps is releasing a special card as part of the Bowman Draft, envisioning Brady not as the quarterback of the New England Patriots (and Tampa Bay Buccaneers), but as a baseball player on the Montreal Expos, who drafted him in 1995 before he chose football at University of Michigan.
Brady and the company also released a video envisioning the alternate reality, including a joke about Brady’s losses to the “Giants” — referring to San Francisco’s MLB team in the alternate world. It was a clever reference to Brady’s real-life losses to the New York Giants – Brady and the Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl twice, at the end of the 2007 and 2011 seasons.
It then was only fitting for former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning to get in on the bit.
In a video posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), Manning wore a San Francisco Giants hat and jersey, a tongue-in-cheek joke-within-a-joke.
“Hey Tom, I hear it’s Brady Day, and it seems like people are sharing their favorite moments from your career. So, I wanted to add my thoughts,” Manning said.
Manning jokingly called Brady “a Montreal legend” as he outlined the future hall-of-famer’s résume: a 23-year career with seven Super Bowl titles (“World Championships,” to keep up the MLB parallels) and three NFL MVP awards.
But Manning had to get one more dig in: “Personally, my favorite moments were those Giants championships,” Manning said, flashing two San Francisco Championship rings — an obvious reference to his own Super Bowl rings.
In Super Bowl XLII, Manning and the Giants beat Brady’s Patriots 17-14; in Super Bowl XLVI, New York won 21-17. Both were underdog wins, as New England had dominated throughout both seasons. Manning won Super Bowl MVP in both of those games.
The San Francisco Giants have won the World Series eight times, most recently in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
“You’ve got a special place in the hearts of all of us from San Francisco,” Manning said to finish the video, with wry smile.
Manning retired in early 2020. Brady, who is four years older than Manning, initially announced his retirement in 2022, before returning for another season and then retiring “for good” in February of 2023.
