A Boston Globe photographer on Friday was "not allowed to cover" Patriots QB Tom Brady's Best Buddies football game at Harvard Stadium, according to Ryan Hannable of Boston-based WEEI-FM. Many "assumed it was connected to the Globe publishing a piece in April where it revealed Best Buddies has given Brady's charitable fund" $3.25M over the years. But on Saturday, Best Buddies apologized and said that Brady had "nothing to do" with the photographer being turned away. Best Buddies Senior Manager of Sponsor Development & Communications Nicole Maddox said, "I'm sorry that it happened. It's unfortunate that it happened." She added, "It's 100 percent not related (to the prior Globe story)" (WEEI.com, 6/3). In a separate piece, Hannable wrote in the hours after the incident, Brady was being "blamed by some for playing a role." But this "could not have been more wrong and really was an insult to Brady." But the incident put Best Buddies "back into a light they didn't want to be in." The story about donations to Brady's charitable fund "seemed to have gone away and wasn't much of a talking point," but after what happened Friday, it is "once again a story" (WEEI.com, 6/4).
NOT A GOOD LOOK: In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy wrote a "thoroughly researched report on the relationship between a local star athlete and his favorite nonprofit charity does not constitute a 'hit job.'" Best Buddies did itself "no favors by escorting a Globe photographer to his car when he shows up to cover Friday's Brady Best Buddies event." Shaughnessy: "No credential? Please." A credential has "never been requested because Best Buddies annually inundates every media outlet seeking coverage for the event." There is "no indication Brady was aware of this Nixonian maneuver." Nevertheless, it was "hostile and petty and put a bad light on a good guy and a great charity" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/4).
