Meet The Dishwasher That Sends Tom Brady A Weekly NFL Scouting Report
Ann Arbor, Michigan, dishwasher Jay Flannelly, an FOB (friend of Brady), emails the New England Patriots superstar quarterback a scouting report on the opposing team every week during the NFL season.
Tom Brady won’t be playing in today’s Super Bowl 50, but he will be present at the big game to represent his team otherwise.
Flannelly became close friends with TB12 when they both were at the University of Michigan while Brady was often riding the bench for the Wolverines football squad and Flannelly, nicknamed the Beav (after the title character in the iconic TV sitcom Leave it to Beaver), was a student assistant on the team.
In an upset, the visiting Patriots lost the AFC Championship Game to the Denver Broncos by a score of 20-18 on January 24. Otherwise, Brady would be leading his team, which won the championship last year, into Super Bowl 50 this afternoon/evening against the Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
For most of the season, it looked like the Patriots Deflategate revenge tour would lead to an undefeated campaign before New England wound up finishing the 2015 regular season with a 12-4 win-loss record, which cost them home field advantage against Denver in the playoffs, with disastrous consequences for the Pats organization and fans.
Favored over the Broncos by about five points in SB 50 by the oddsmakers and the pick of most of the so-called experts in sports media, Carolina would probably have been similarly favored against the Patriots, too.
Had the Pats stayed alive for Super Bowl Sunday as the AFC entrant, however, the dishwasher would have certainly provided Brady with key information and strategy about the opponent.
Sports Illustrated revealed the strong bond between the dishwasher and the future Hall of Famer.
“And so now Flannelly, a native New Englander, watches video of the Patriots’ upcoming opponent—the All-22 version, or coach’s cut—every week. Then he sends Brady a scouting report. The dish-washer tells the four-time Super Bowl champion which cornerback is vulnerable to double-moves, what kind of blitzes the coordinator prefers, or how a team’s defensive front is usually aligned. He advises Brady that the defense’s ‘concepts are pretty consistent’ and that a hobbling defensive player ‘is not right and can be handled’… Flannelly is not dumb. He knows his football. He also knows Brady would be just fine without his scouting report … Still, Flannelly keeps watching video and sending these scouting reports, for one basic reason: ‘If I didn’t send it to him, he would get mad.’ “
The Beav also helped in the recruitment of Jim Harbaugh to Michigan by facilitating a telephone conversation between Tom Brady and the former 49ers head coach.
Despite all his stardom on the professional level, Brady — a three-time Super Bowl MVP to go with his four rings — apparently has never forgotten that he was a college benchwarmer at times, and then a lowly sixth round draft choice by the Patriots in the 2000 NFL Draft, a memory that apparently serves as a constant motivator to improve all aspects of his game.
“Three of the four remaining starting quarterbacks in the NFL playoffs were No. 1 overall picks in the NFL draft. The other — Tom Brady — has a friend who washes dishes in Ann Arbor, Mich., remind him he was the No. 199 pick,” NESN explained.
“Tom Brady is the most self-motivated, self-driven person that I have ever met in my life,” Flannelly recently disclosed on the Dennis & Callahan plus Minihane radio show on Boston station WEEI, the same station and program where Brady appears via phone every week during the NFL season, and where he created a controversy over his support of Donald Trump, at least on a friendship level.
Originally from Andover, Massachusetts, Flannelly, who washes dishes at three different Ann Arbor restaurants and likes the freedom of that vocation rather than holding down a desk job, told Dennis & Callahan that he started out giving Brady a scouting report about his new teammates right after he was drafted, and it continued from there.
In the WEEI interview, Jay Flannelly added that a career change may be on the horizon because of the notoriety he’s now receiving as a volunteer scout for Tom Brady. “Things are always active and happening… I’ve been getting contact from people that I would never imagine, and…we’ll see.”
“Needless to say, Brady’s almost certainly the only quarterback in the NFL getting scouting reports from a dishwasher, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it?,” CBS Sports quipped.
[Photo by Chris Carlson/AP]
