Nick Brady was minding his own business and watching the Vikings try to will themselves to another tense victory Sunday when a string of events thrust him into an unwitting spotlight.
First, Vikings running back Aaron Jones dropped a potential go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter with the Vikings trailing 19-13. Then, after showing the replay of the drop, Fox cut to a slow-motion replay of Brady’s reaction in the stands: an exasperated look that could only be describe as “yikes.”
Next thing he knows, his phone is buzzing like crazy. And a reporter (me) is trying to get ahold of him because those who have lived long enough on the Internet know this: Brady had just become a meme.
“I was just in the moment at the game, you know, and I was like, what is going on?” Brady said Monday. “I look and I have 70-something text messages. Snapchats flowing in. I’ve got Facebook Messenger requests. I’m hearing from people that I went to college with that I haven’t talked to in probably like nine, 10 years. And then the first one I open up is that clip you just showed, and I’m like, oh, boy.”
To be clear, Brady does not mind this at all. He smiled almost constantly throughout our entire conversation, which you can watch here:
In the course of trying to find out who he was, I encountered several people on social media who essentially said the same thing: His expression perfectly matched the mood of an entire fan base.
I’m guessing everyone can have a lot more fun with it now that the Vikings eventually won 23-22, with Jones redeeming himself after that drop and two fumbles (one lost) with the game-winning TD catch.
One fan was even polite enough to ask me to ask Brady if it was OK to use the short clip as a meme (not that it would stop anyone else).
