Getty Tom Brady took in the Star Wars attraction at Disney World last month.
Anything can happen during the NFL’s offseason, even another team beckoning Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady to join another side — sort of.
“The dark side calls to you. You must make a choice. Will you join us,” Star Wars villain Kylo Ren asked Brady when visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World on April 5.
“No thanks, I’m already on a winning team,” Brady responded while holding a lightsaber.
“A bold answer. Not wise, but bold,” Ren warned.
“No thanks, I’m already on a winning team.”
@TomBrady had the perfect response to Kylo Ren 😂
(via @DisneyParks)
The video has gone viral since April 6 with more than a million viewers. Brady brought his family to the theme park, becoming the latest Super Bowl champion to go to Disney World — a tradition that started in 1987 with former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms according to Newsweek’s Dan Cancian.
Brady and Rob Gronkowski said they will go to Disney World upon winning Super Bowl LV. Gronkowski went on Feb. 9 and likewise enjoyed and had fun with the Star Wars attractions.
“This was not the welcoming party I expected,” Gronkowski said, reacting to the army of Star Wars Stormtroopers.
Gronkowski apparently won’t be joining the dark side either.
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The Next One
Brady and Gronkowski alike say their favorite Super Bowl ring is the “next one” as they did on the Bucs’ YouTube show Tommy and Gronky last season.
The Bucs quarterback also revealed that he likes that trip to Disney World, which he’s done four previous times among his seven Super Bowl wins per the Orlando Sentinel’s Dewayne Bevil. “I honestly just keep playing for the free trips to Disney World,” he joked on Twitter.
However, Brady admitted he’s not big on rides when talking with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan.
“I’m horrible on the rides. My head is spinning,” Brady said. “My daughter did not want me to go with her — ‘I just want to be with my friends.'”
Under Contract
Brady and Gronkowski, who both arrived in Tampa last year, will team up together for another season in 2021.
The Bucs gave Brady a one-year extension to his original two-year, $50 million contract with the team. His extension’s three voidable years helped the Bucs’ salary cap.
Gronkowski signed a one-year contract for “up to $10 million” after playing out his original contract that began with the New England Patriots. The Bucs acquired Gronkowski in a trade with the Patriots last year.
Brady and Gronkowski returning helped the Bucs become the first Super Bowl-winning team since 1977 according to Buccaneers.com’s Carmen Vitali. The Oakland Raiders did that in 1977 but didn’t repeat as Super Bowl champions. No defending champion since the NFL instituted the salary cap in 1994 has returned all starters until the Bucs.
Force on the Field
Amid Brady’s storied career, he’s never had a longer-term main pass catcher than Gronkowski.
They played nine seasons together in New England before reuniting in Tampa. Brady and Gronkowski have connected for 97 regular season touchdowns through 2020.
The duo has a climb to catch the all-time quarterback-receiver duo of Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, however. Manning and Harrison connected 114 times, which would require a monster season in 2021 by Brady and Gronkowski to match or surpass.
Brady and Gronkowski already own the playoff record with 14 touchdowns.