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It’s usually a social media faux pas to leave someone on read. But when you’re talking about one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, it might be even worse to never even open the message.
That’s apparently how the first interaction between right tackle Tristan Wirfs and Tom Brady went down when the Bucs drafted the rookie in the spring.
“The very first thing was he messaged me on Instagram,” Wirfs said Thursday. “I didn’t open it for like nine hours because it was draft night and so I had a ton of messages and I didn’t see it until the next day. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I was scared.”
Brady apparently didn’t take much offense. But that wasn’t the first time Wirfs was a little overwhelmed at the prospect of playing with Brady when Bruce Arians brought it up on draft night.
“It was a lot of emotions that night, just because, it’s Tom Brady, you know? BA on the phone call was like, ‘Are you ready to protect Tom?’ I was like, ‘Not right now,’” Wirfs recalled with a laugh. “It was just a lot being thrown on me, just those couple words, I was like, ‘Wow.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll get ready as fast as I can.’ But it was still exciting. Exciting, emotional — it was just awesome. There was a lot going on that night.”
Wirfs is 22 years old, born Jan. 24, 1999 — just over three years before Brady would play in his first Super Bowl. So it makes sense that he was a little star struck when he finally encountered the quarterback in person at the start of training camp.
“The first time I met him was in the hallway at the facility. We were getting our physicals,” Wirfs said. “He was coming around the corner, I was coming around the other way. And I almost bumped into him and I did a double take. I was like, wait a minute — you’re Tom Brady. It was cool. I called my mom right after and told her I met him.”
Wirfs had an excellent rookie season and now he’ll finish it blocking for Brady in the quarterback’s 10th Super Bowl appearance.
