Getty Tom Brady holds his daughter, Vivian, during the Buccaneers boat parade on Feb. 10.
Tom Brady finally opened up about tossing the Lombardi Trophy during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers victory boat parade on Feb. 10, which drew the ire of the late trophy maker’s daughter, Lorraine Groh.
Brady posted an Instagram story on Feb. 19 about the trophy toss per NBC Sports Boston’s Nick Goss. The Bucs quarterback called it the “riskiest pass I threw all season.”
Brady’s angle of his Lombardi Trophy toss is WILD. 😱
(🎥: @TomBrady)
His Instagram story showed an eight-bit version of himself from the parade tossing the trophy from his boat. The background featured the title “Champa Bay” and “Go Bucs” along with the current logo and the old “Bucco Bruce” logo. He made his interest in the old Bucs creamsicle uniforms known early on.
Bucs tight end Cameron Brate caught the pass amid teammates on the boat behind Brady’s. Brate said it “was the best catch of my life” and that he “would’ve had to retire” if he dropped it per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.
#Bucs QB Tom Brady threw the Lombardi Trophy from his boat to Cameron Brate on another boat. “That was the best catch of my life,” Brate said. “Unbelievable. That was THE best catch of my life. If I had dropped that? I think I would’ve had to retire.”
Head coach Bruce Arians liked the moment per WDAE via The Athletic’s Greg Auman. “I thought it was fantastic,” Arians told WDAE. “Hell of a catch by Cam.”
“I thought it was fantastic,” Bruce Arians said on @953WDAE when asked about Tom Brady’s boat-to-boat Lombardi Trophy toss in the boat parade. “Hell of a catch by Cam.”
The video of Brady tossing the Lombardi Trophy to Brate went viral. It stood out among the multiple moments that went viral for the Bucs’ boat parade.
Tampa celebrated the franchise’s second Super Bowl on the water due to the pandemic. The Bucs beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7 as Brady won his seventh Lombardi Trophy and fifth Super Bowl MVP.
Apology Waiting
Grohs went to the airwaves days later to voice how it left her sleepless seeing the trophy tossed in the air. Her father, Greg Grohs, was the master silversmith with Tiffany & Co., which made every Lombardi Trophy since the first Super Bowl in 1967.
“I personally would like an apology, not just to me and my family and the other silversmiths, but to the fans … [and] other team players,” Grohs said according to Fox 4’s Leslie DelasBour. “It has everything to do with disrespecting a highly coveted trophy that a lot of work goes into by the silversmiths and all the other team players.”
Brady made no mention of the apology request in his Feb. 19 Instagram story, the latest of his social media activity since Groh’s Feb. 12 complaint. His posts included sounding off on critics’ past comments, and what he should do for the next five months. None of his posts on Instagram or Twitter have acknowledged Groh’s request.
Brady has apologized for incidents in the past, though, such as texting Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyraan Mathieu an apology over their altercation in the Super Bowl per ESPN’s Jenna Laine.
Lighten Up?
Bucs general manager Jason Licht acknowledged Groh’s apology request but not with a textbook customer service response. Groh admitted that she isn’t an avid football fan.
Licht went with a GIF quote “Lighten up Francis” from the movie “Stripes” on Twitter to respond to Groh.
The Bucs general manager has moved on since to begin work on keeping as much of the 2020 Bucs Super Bowl team together as possible, which he spoke of wanting to do at the boat parade.
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