Tom Brady's roast made him seem like a real person for once, not just a football robot

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Goooood morning, folks. Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thank you so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you.

Did anyone get a chance to check out Tom Brady’s roast? Who knew that he could actually be legitimately funny?

Sure, we’ve heard him pop the occasional joke in the locker room before. But that’s a completely different thing than standing up and delivering jokes about himself and others in front of an audience of thousands. That roast was actually good.

READ MORE: The best of the Tom Brady roast

For once, Tom Brady seemed like an actual person. We know the book on him. He spent so many years in the NFL playing under Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots. The team was quite literally not allowed to be fun. Personality was something that was frowned upon with very few exceptions.

So, for most of us who didn’t live in New England, Brady has usually been nothing but a boogeyman. He was hump you either don’t want your team to come across or hope that it can get over. This roast made the boogeyman seem pretty human for once!

It was funny! Brady was in his bag. His best joke may have been this dig at Kanye West at the expense of Kim Kardashian. There was also this hilarious Deflategate confession that I am absolutely taking as a confession.

Plus, he took some pretty bad ones on the chin. There were lots of Gisele Bünchden jokes (probably too many for my taste). This Crypto joke really hit home for me. That’s good stuff, man. That’s really good stuff.

Whatever, though. This isn’t really about the jokes as much as it’s about as human as I’ve ever seen Brady be. Let me be clear, I am not a fan of this man. At all. But for one night, he was cool. And that’s something I’d never thought I’d say.

Good on you, Brady. Good on you. Still don’t like you tho.

The champs are out

Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

There will be a new Stanley Cup champion this year, folks. The Las Vegas Golden Knights are officially eliminated from the NHL playoffs.

That’s not really that shocking considering that the Dallas Stars were the better team coming into the series. But after the Golden Knights grabbed a 2-0 series lead on Dallas? It definitely felt like the cards were in Vegas’ favor (yes, that’s a pun).

The rest of the NHL is probably thrilled. Everyone hated the way Vegas went about getting Mark Stone back from long-term injured reserve. They’d snagged big targets at the trade deadline because they were able to temporarily remove his salary from their books while he was on LTIR.

Our Mary Clarke wrote about that here:

“Why is that significant? Because the Golden Knights were able to put Stone on Long-Term Injured Reserve, meaning they could clear his $9.5 million cap hit off the books so they could go after big trade targets at the March 8 deadline, with Vegas netting Tomas Hertl, Anthony Mantha, and Noah Hanifin when all was said and done.”

That definitely didn’t feel right. Maybe it wasn’t. But none of it matters now. Vegas is out. And with that, I leave you this tweet from the Stanley Cup trophy.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas… except for me.

Thank you for all the memories, @GoldenKnights.

— The Stanley Cup (@StanleyCup) May 6, 2024

That’s the good stuff.

Let’s never do that again, NBA.

Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Is it just me or is a 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time tipoff for a Game 7 kind of wild? The Cavaliers and Magic should feel disrespected.

I mean, look. One in the afternoon isn’t necessarily the worst time on a Sunday. But wouldn’t, say, 3 p.m. be better? Especially for a nationally televised game with one of its teams playing on ABC for the first time since 2012. That’s ridiculous.

Not only did this series have to fight through the attention being hogged online by Kendrick Lamar and Drake, but it also had to fight through afternoon pancake naps on a non-NFL Sunday.

That didn’t feel right. At all. The game was good and exciting. Donovan Mitchell went off to save the Cavaliers’ season. But it just felt…weird to be watching such a crucial game at such a weird time.

Can we not do that again, NBA? Thanks.

Quick hits: Nikola Jokic’s biggest test yet … Ranking the 8 NBA playoff teams left … and more

— Here’s Robert Zeglinksi with Nikola Jokic’s take on what is the biggest test of his reign yet.

— Prince Grimes ranks the eight playoff teams left and the Celtics are not No. 1

— Tom Brady didn’t seem happy about this joke at his roast. Sheesh. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.

— Could J.J. Watt come back to the Texans? It’s possible. Here’s Robert again with more.

— The Kentucky Derby set a record for money wagered this year. Here’s Ben Fawkes with more.

— Anthony Edwards completely shifted the odds on the Wolves-Nuggets series with one game. Prince has more on that.

That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. We appreciate you. Tap in again tomorrow! See you then. Peace.

-Sykes