Moments from The Match: What’s happening in the showdown pitting Tom Brady/Aaron Rodgers vs. Patrick Mahomes/Josh Allen

06/01/2022

ESPN staff writer
Joined ESPN in 2011
Graduated from Central Michigan

In another edition of The Match, football fans will merge with golf fans Wednesday in Las Vegas to see NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers put aside their personal competition with each other to team up against Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.

The 12-hole exhibition (6:30 p.m. ET on TNT) will be a team event and, for the first time, will not feature any professional golfers. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka have all participated in the past. But the pros will be on their couches with the rest of us to watch these big-time quarterbacks go head-to-head at Wynn Las Vegas.

Here are some of the bigger takeaways from The Match and some moments that stood out:

Josh Allen trolls Brady

Tom Brady has jokingly asked Twitter to remove his picture from the 2000 NFL draft where he is standing shirtless with long shorts on. Allen decided to troll Brady with the picture by handing him a golf ball with the picture printed on the side of the ball. Allen said he’s going to use the ball in the match.

Charles Barkley gets in on the action

Before the round, TV reporter Amanda Renner asked Aaron Rodgers what the wager would have to be to let Charles Barkley cut off Rodgers’ man bun. Rodgers asked if Barkley will give him some money after the round and grow his hair out if they win instead.

“You know I don’t like man buns, but you wear it well,” Barkley said. “I have to give you credit. In fairness, it’s only because you’re a great quarterback. If you were just like a plumber or something, it wouldn’t work. You are Aaron Rodgers, so you can get away with stuff.”

Rodgers said if Barkley beats him in a round at Tahoe on the 18th green, Rodgers will let him chop off his man bun. If Rodgers wins, Barkley will donate $25,000 to Rodgers’ favorite charity.

The trash talk started early

In a media availability, Rodgers explained that he and Brady came into the NFL when trash talk was actual trash talk. That now, football players are friendly and the trash talk has gone downhill.

“When we started [in the NFL], definitely when [Brady] started and when I started playing, there was actual, real trash talk. Like, guys trash-talked each other and there was a lot of good s— talk, and we knew who they were around the league,” Rodgers said. “And now, it’s more buddy-buddy, you know, social media following each other, memes, this emoji s—, and it’s not the same. So, when you talk about Kermit the Frog (Mahomes, per memes) and Josh [Allen] trying to s—-talk me and Tom, a couple old-school, grizzled vets … c’mon.”

If the early evidence is a sign of how this match will go, it looks like we’ll be in for a treat.

Brady started the chirping early on social media when he posted an edited picture, which was originally a shirtless Brady watching his son hit a golf ball. The edited version had Allen’s head on Brady’s son’s head.

Allen and Mahomes dug in on Brady and his joke-writing ability, saying he has a team of writers that takes care of his script for him. Allen said once Brady gets off script, he won’t be able to come back and hang with the younger guys throughout the entire event.

Mahomes played off of that joke on social media, retweeting an ad from Brady, saying he needs to talk to the writers of the joke.

Koepka even got in on the fun, taking a shot at DeChambeau, because why not? Koepka and DeChambeau have had their own feud, which played out in what was supposed to be a 12-hole exhibition of their own, going one-on-one against each other.

Koepka ended up beating DeChambeau in nine holes, so he tweeted good luck to everyone in this match, while also reminding anyone who forgot he needed only nine to beat his nemesis.

Brady is 0-2 in the event, so if the trash talk persists from his team, he will need to hope the play backs it up and gets him in the win column against the younger quarterbacks. Allen reminded Brady in the media availability that Father Time is undefeated.

Source: Read Full Article