Brady Takes Heat For Using Kipling Poem In Tribute Tweet to Teammates

jonathanturley

9 years ago

It takes a lot to get me to support Tom Brady and the Patriots as a lifelong Bears fan. However, there is a bizarre controversy after Brady posted a picture of his Super Bowl winning team with a quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s 1898 poem If on Instagram and Twitter. That unleashed an outcry from some who denounced the poem as written by a racist. Other said that, given Brady’s support of Donald Trump, the use of the poem was alarming. Perhaps the critics should also consider another quote from Kipling: “I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.”

Kipling wrote during the heyday of the British Empire and reflected the values and pride of that period. He wrote favorably about the British colonies and coined the infamous phrase “white man’s burden.” Yahoo writer Daniel Roberts tied Brady’s use of Kipling to his support for Trump by tweeting: “Considering all the vitriol over Brady’s friendship w/ Trump, mayyybe Rudyard Kipling (“The White Man’s Burden) not the best poet to quote.” In fairness to Roberts, I think he was making a humorous aside and not necessarily endorsing the move against writers and figures deemed to be symbols of a racist era.

Other followed suit with criticism of the use of the classic poem. Others noted that he did not credit Kipling though it is clear that he is quoting from a poem. As I have discussed before, there is a growing opposition to reading the words for authors who reflected racist values or imagery prevalent in their times. I believe such work needs to be considered in the context of their time. I see no reason why Brady should not quote the poem which seems quite apropos for his message of overcoming opposition and criticism. Here is the poem:

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

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