WASHINGTON — Well Buccaneers fans, you have spotty cell phone service to thank for bringing Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski to Tampa Bay. Well, at least that was the joke in T-Mobile's Super Bowl ad that didn't wind up airing during the Super Bowl.
The ad was "BANNED from the big game," according to T-Mobile Chief marketing Officer Matt Staneff. The company says they were told the Brady-Gronk ad couldn't air during the Super Bowl because of a protected rights deal with the official telco sponsor, Verizon. So instead, T-Mobile ran two other commercials it produced including one that makes light of how Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton got together.
The Brady-Gronk commercial is set one year ago with Brady in Boston calling a retired Gronkowski in Florida, asking whether it's time for him to hang up the cleats and call it a career.
“I got one word for you: retirement,” Gronkowski tells Brady. “If you retire now, you’re gonna be walking on soft sand in a week. Just come to Florida and feel the wind in your hair. Retirement is like winning another one. Maybe I’ll even join you.”
But T-Mobile's ad jokes that because of a spotty cell phone network, Brady heard a different message from his former teammate.
“If you retire now...you’re soft and weak...Just come to Florida and win another one. Maybe I’ll even join you,” is what Brady heard Gronkowski say.
"Just go win another one, like it's that easy Gronk. Maybe it is," Brady remarks, before the ad jumps forward to a press conference where the six-time Super Bowl champion announces his goal is to "win one more and Gronk's coming with me."
But the big move is news to Gronkowski, who we see sitting on the couch enjoying his retirement.
"I'm retired from retiring?" Gronk asks. "Mom! Where's my football pants?"
Brady and Gronkowski won three Super Bowls together as teammates on the New England Patriots, before Gronkowski's short-lived retirement. Now they're reunited in Tampa Bay and looking to win another championship when they face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
