About

Tom Brady Smiling refers to a photo and GIF of NFL quarterback Tom Brady looking over his shoulder and smiling while seated in an official-looking room in an unknown building. The picture and clips of the moment have been used online as a reaction image and GIF since 2022, typically describing joy and also moments of recognition between friends in a public place.

Origin

The image and footage originate from a March 31st, 2022, press conference held by the Tampa Bay Buccanneers, Tom Brady's football team at the time.^[1] The press conference was for the announcement of head coach Bruce Arians' retirement, which some speculated Brady had something to do with. The retirement of Arians came after Brady's return to the team for the 2022-2023 season, 40 days after Brady had initially announced he would retire.

The then recently unretired Brady was seated in the front row of the press conference where the team's photographer shot footage of him smiling. Sports broadcaster and X / Twitter user @Sara_Walsh posted footage of Brady at the press event on March 31st, 2022, earning over 3,300 likes in the course of two years.^[5]

Spread

Following the image's original posting in the spring of 2022, it was often used as a reaction image in online communities talking about football. An early and prominent post discussing Arians' retirement (mimicking the original context of the image) was made by sports radio commentator Damon Amendolara, who called it "the most diabolical moment in NFL history" in an April 12th, 2022, X post (seen below) that received over 6,300 likes in just under two years.^[2]

The reaction video and GIF saw additional viral spread on TikTok and Twitter responding to situations that were not related to the NFL. For example, on March 28th, 2023, TikToker @brandyepp77 posted a version (seen below, left), which earned over 3,600 likes and almost 63,000 views in a year.^[3]

Many also assumed that the image and video came from a courtroom, including TikToker @zachaholic_, whose post on October 8th, 2023, on TikTok (seen below, right) featuring Brady earned over 1,100 likes and nearly 15,000 views in the three months.^[4]

Various Examples

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External References