Tom Brady’s story will be coming to a bookstore and movie theater near you, Deadline reports.
Both the book and film will focus on the New England Patriots quarterback’s career and his run to a fifth Super Bowl victory and will also chronicle Deflategate and its aftermath, Deadline reports.
Tom Brady has had plenty to celebrate in his career, and his story will be the subject of both a book and a movie, Deadline reported Wednesday. EPA
The project will pair writers Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, who were nominated for an Oscar for “The Fighter,” author Casey Sherman and Boston journalist Dave Wedge, according to Deadline.
Sherman and Wedge were co-authors of “Boston Strong,” which was used as the basis for “Patriots Day,” for which Tamasy and Johnson were executive producers.
Deadline reports the writers have sources with the team who will provide insight as to what went on behind the scenes during Super Bowl LI, as the Patriots launched a furious comeback to post a 34-28 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Brady isn’t the only member of the Patriots whose story will be heading to the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter said cornerback Malcolm Butler’s story will be turned into a movie entitled “The Secondary,” which will chronicle his rise from working in a fast-food restaurant to having two Super Bowl rings.
Chad Kelly was not among 330 prospects invited to the NFL combine in a list released Wednesday, but the agents for the former Ole Miss Rebels quarterback said the NFL has not provided a reason for why Kelly’s invitation was rescinded and that Kelly might still travel to Indianapolis later this month.
“We have an official invite to come to the combine, we got a flight booked,” one of Kelly’s representatives, Vance McAllister, told “The Tim Graham Show” on 1270 The Fan in Buffalo on Wednesday. “He has a jersey number there waiting on him, and until we get a written disinvite or whatever you want to call it from the league, we’ll be in Indy. We’ll show up and they’ll have to tell Chad ‘no’ then because they’re obviously not wiling to put it in writing to tell Chad ‘no’ now.”
Kelly’s representatives, McAllister and Duray Oubre, said the NFL combine sent Kelly an invite Jan. 6 and arranged travel for him. The agents received a call from combine director Jeff Foster last Thursday informing Kelly that the NFL rescinded his invitation.
“The only response that we’ve been able to get in voicemails from [NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent] is that he will not discuss the details of it,” McAllister said.
Pitt quarterback Nathan Peterman continued to shine during Senior Bowl practices on Wednesday. How did other top NFL draft prospects perform? Todd McShay runs down the list.
Boston College safety John Johnson stood out during Senior Bowl practices on Wednesday. Here’s who else helped their draft stock.
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This is the second year the NFL will not permit players in which a background check has revealed “either a felony or misdemeanor conviction” for domestic violence, sexual assault or weapons charges, or if a player refuses a background check.
Kelly was charged with resisting arrest, menacing and several other counts following an altercation outside a Buffalo nightclub in Dec. 2014. He later agreed to 50 hours of community service as part of the noncriminal charges, which Kelly’s agents said is not equal to a criminal or misdemeanor conviction.
“It seems like this is one of those cases where the NFL and Troy Vincent have decided again to not gather all the facts and make a decision, shoot from the hip, and we cannot get a clarification as to why,” McAllister said. “Chad is being singled out and being made example of, for what? It definitely ain’t domestic abuse and it definitely ain’t violent crime.”
Kelly’s agents said his uncle, Hall of Fame and former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, reached out Wednesday to the NFL to seek answers about his nephew’s status for the combine.
“We don’t know this for sure, but it could be marketing strategy,” Oubre said. “The NFL is a billion-dollar brand. We’ve become more concerned with making sure that we have the proper dressing in relation to producing a good [product] or advertising a good [product]. If they feel like a player like Chad Kelly will be there, and they don’t want certain things to be told or be heard or discussed because for whatever reason they feel like that doesn’t add to the brand of the NFL, then they could take preventative measure against him and discriminate against him.”
Covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine and Philly.com from 2008 to 2015.
Covered the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL for BaltimoreSun.com from 2006 to 2008.
The Seattle Seahawks signed kicker Blair Walsh to a one-year deal last week, and the details of his contract make it clear that Walsh will have to perform well to earn his spot on the 53-man roster.
The deal can net Walsh up to $1.1 million, but it contains no guaranteed money. Walsh is set to receive $800,000 in base salary in 2017 and can earn an additional $300,000 in bonuses.
The first bonus is for $150,000 and kicks in if Walsh is on the 53-man roster for the first game of the season.
Additionally, Walsh can earn $9,375 for each game he is on the 53-man roster.
This is a low-risk deal for the Seahawks. Steven Hauschka is scheduled to be a free agent, and the Walsh signing suggests that Seattle is preparing for Hauschka to sign elsewhere. But it does not mean that the Seahawks are sold on Walsh being their kicker in 2017.
They will almost certainly bring in a rookie kicker to compete with him in the spring. And if a rookie performs well, he will be a less expensive option than Walsh.
The Seahawks don’t want to go into next season with a question mark at kicker, but Hauschka will likely want to be paid like a top-10 player at his position, and that could mean a salary of at least $3 million per year. They’ll save money and cap space by going with Walsh or a rookie instead.
Walsh made the Pro Bowl in 2012 but struggled when the Minnesota Vikings played outdoors. In the wild-card round of the 2015 playoffs, he missed a potential game-winning field goal from 27 yards out against the Seahawks and was never able to bounce back last season. The Vikings released Walsh after he struggled through nine games.
The Seahawks will see if Walsh can find his footing this spring and summer. If he does, Walsh will be well-positioned to earn his money in 2017.
Two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jordy Nelson is here to tell you there’s a reason NFL players need a mental break as much as a physical one after a grueling season.
For as impressive as the Green Bay Packers veteran wide receiver’s comeback season was in 2016 — he caught 97 passes for 1,257 yards and an NFL-best 14 touchdowns after missing all of 2015 with a torn right ACL — there were times during the year when Nelson was ready to call it quits altogether.
“If you ask my wife [Emily], I’ve told her five different things this past year,” Nelson said Tuesday morning during an appearance on ESPN Wisconsin’s Wilde & Tausch. “From, ‘Don’t ever let me play again this year,’ to ‘Don’t ever let me play after this year,’ to ‘OK, I can play another five years.’
“I fully understand why people tell you after the season to take some time off and think about it and let the body heal, because in the middle of it all, you have all sorts of things going through your head.”
Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson caught 97 passes for 1,257 yards this past season. Jim Matthews/USA TODAY NETWORK
Now, don’t turn this into the annual Brett Favre will-he-or-won’t-he retirement melodrama. Nelson, who turns 32 in May and was named the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year at the NFL Honors event on Feb. 4, enjoyed his comeback way too much to hang ’em up now. He played through painful broken ribs in the team’s season-ending NFC Championship Game loss to Atlanta and said the team’s eight-game winning streak late in the year allowed him to get “to the point where I was really able to enjoy football again.”
But Nelson does recognize he’s closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning, and he contemplates his football mortality more now than he did when he entered the league as a second-round draft pick out of Kansas State in 2008.
Nelson, who is one of only eight players who remain with the Packers from the Super Bowl XLV-winning team of 2010, said he, his wife and the couple’s two sons are also very happy living in Green Bay year-round.
“I have two years left on my deal,” Nelson said of the four-year, $39.05 million extension he signed before the 2014 season, which included an $11.5 million signing bonus. “It’d be great to finish that out and then see where the body is at, to be honest with you.
“I’m going to take it year-by-year, because it’s 100 percent on how the body feels. We love it up here, my son loves his school, everything’s been perfect. As long as the body can handle it and [the Packers] want me, I’ll play. But as soon as one or the other gives in, then I’ll be more than willing to walk away and move back on the farm and kind of disappear from earth.”
