From NFL Legend, to NFL Owner, to… WWE Superstar? Tom Brady Slaps Controversial YouTuber

Love him or (sports) hate him, it’s impossible to deny that former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has had one of the most illustrious and accomplished careers in sports.

The seven-time Super Bowl winner has gone from being a lowly 6th round draft pick (the modern draft only features seven rounds), to bona fide NFL legend after leading both the Patriots and Bucs to the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Had his career ended there, it would be noteworthy enough.

But in his retirement, Brady has expanded to all sorts of ventures, from being a Fox NFL announcer (the reviews are mixed) to being a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Alas, it appears that Brady has reached the point of his career arc where, as Harvey Dent puts it, “You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

And Brady’s latest venture appears to be vilifying him to fans — even among some of his most diehard supporters.

To wit, Tom Brady was at Fanatics Fest (a convention-type event where fans can meet various athletes) in New York City over the weekend. During the event’s festivities on Saturday, Brady had a brush with controversial WWE star Logan Paul.

(Paul, for the unaware, was a YouTuber — and still is now as a podcaster — who rose in infamy in December 2017 after he appeared to film a dead body in Japan’s Aokigahara forest, a spot known as a place where people commit suicide.)

Brady and Paul had some sort of a “confrontation” on the stage, while New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns was also on stage… leading Brady to slap Paul across the side of his head.

You can judge the slap for yourself below:

Round 100 of this never ending beef at Fanatics Fest 😭 pic.twitter.com/w7N6WwHnCz

— Fanatics (@Fanatics) July 17, 2026

Brady and Paul continued this “feud” into Sunday, when both men just happened to be at the World Cup finals. While there was no physicality at the World Cup, the two were filmed exchanging unpleasantries and middle fingers.

This has all predictably led to a TMZ report that claimed Brady is, in fact, in talks with WWE to eventually “find himself staring down his WWE Superstar rival in the ring, mano a mano.”

Perhaps less predictably, this latest career project from Brady appears to be ruffling the feathers of some of his most ardent supporters.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, for instance, is a known homer for Boston sports teams. It’s part of Portnoy’s schtick. And as part of that, there are few athletes he has universally praised quite like the former New England quarterback.

But this latest venture? It’s a bit much, even for the very outspoken Portnoy:

What has happened with Tom Brady post retirement is one of the great downfalls of an icon pic.twitter.com/IaTlwbZGcH

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 20, 2026

(Of note, Portnoy is an outspoken critic of Paul.)

“This, to me, is one of the great downfalls of an icon, of Tom Brady,” Portnoy said. “The way he is acting post-retirement… it’s a legacy that is being lame-ified.”

Portnoy then compared Brady to other all-time great athletes, like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, whom the Barstool founder argued didn’t need to lower themselves to these sorts of publicity stunts after they retired.

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