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2:30 p.m. — 11-minute read

TOM BRADY RETIRES AMID CONTROVERSY OVER NFL DIVERSITY

Tampa Bay, Fla.

After 22 seasons and seven Super Bowl rings, Tom Brady has officially announced his retirement from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and from professional football in general.

The 44-year-old gridiron legend, who led his former team, the New England Patriots, to six Super Bowl victories and his more recent team, Tampa Bay, to a Super Bowl win last year, released a message to his fans and teammates. “I have loved my NFL career,” the most successful quarterback in the history of the sport wrote, “and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.”

The outpouring from fans and former teammates was immediate. Messages were posted across social media testifying to Brady’s skill and dedication, and to his relentless pursuit of football excellence. Even Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, stung by Brady’s defection to the Bucs in recent years, released a heartfelt and emotional testimony.

Within hours of the announcement, though, NFL fans and observers began to raise uneasy questions about the possible replacements for the plum role of “Tampa Bay Bucs QB.” While that post has traditionally been held by a cisgendered male-identifying white athlete, a rising chorus of voices — both inside and outside the Tampa Bay organization — has called on the team’s management and the NFL to look beyond the traditional group of candidates.

“This is a chance for everyone to do better,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd of protesters who gathered in Tampa to advocate diversity. “This is a moment for the NFL to say to marginalized groups who are not represented on the nation’s gridirons that, yes, you are welcome, too.”

Biden administration spokesperson Jen Psaki declined to say whether President Biden had contacted anyone in the Glazer family — which owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and its ancillary businesses — but she added that the president’s commitment to “diversity and inclusion is well known, and everyone here in the White House would applaud the appointment of a Black female to serve as quarterback.”

Some of the names that have been suggested by diversity activists are familiar to sports fans. Serena Williams has signaled her interest in assuming the role, as has WNBA powerhouse Nneka Ogwumike. Both of these athletes have the speed and the accuracy to compete on the field.

“Serena’s got the footwork,” said one NFL recruiter who asked for anonymity. “And Nneka knows how to work the pocket. But if you’re asking me if either one of those gals could replace a professional QB, I’m like . . . not going to answer that until you stop recording and put away your pen and stuff.”

Though she is not a Black woman, some have floated the name of Tony-nominated and Oscar-winning actress Linda Hunt, perhaps best known to audiences as Henrietta “Hetty” Lange, the operations manager at the NCIS office on CBS television’s hit crime-adventure series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Hunt is four feet nine, which would make her the shortest, and at 76 the oldest, quarterback currently serving in the NFL. The appointment of Hunt, who was diagnosed as a child with hypopituitary dwarfism, to Brady’s former perch would send a powerful message of hope to the differently abled over-65 population, which has traditionally been overlooked by coaches and managers in professional football. Hunt is also part of the LGBTQ community, so for many critics of the NFL and its past indifference to issues of equity and inclusion, her stepping into the QB uniform would be an important and groundbreaking event.

“She’s not Black, but she is very short and old and also a lesbian, so, you know, you gotta balance these things,” an unnamed protester told a reporter outside the gates of the Raymond James Stadium. “But my preference would be an Angela Hill type,” he added, referring to the popular mixed-martial-arts athlete and UFC competitor. “I think it’s time.”

Sources within the sports departments of the CBS and Fox networks have suggested that the current favorite among executives is rap and hip-hop star Lizzo, the singer behind such hits as “Truth Hurts” and “Lingerie.” Internationally known and extremely popular with younger viewers, Lizzo is 33 years old — over a decade younger than Tom Brady — and at 300 pounds, she has the ability to withstand a pass rush by a seasoned NFL defense, though perhaps not the agility to execute a quarterback scramble.

Calls for a more diverse choice for the position of quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have met with opposition from conservatives, Republicans, and some football fans. It’s a physical job, they say, and a potentially dangerous one.

“We should be willing to change the rules of the game,” declared Dr. Jaye Hanneaka-Jones, a critic of the NFL and a professor of Sports Diversity and Reparations at Harvard University’s law school. “The game as it is played favors, overwhelmingly, a certain physical type of cis-het male. This is an opportunity to challenge and subvert that notion. What’s the real job here? It’s leadership, right? That’s what the quarterback does, as far as I understand it. So who better to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers than Congressperson Maxine Waters, who has — ”

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