Tom Brady walking into the wrong house certainly sounds like a funny story, but for people of color, it’s not a laughing matter. Illustration : Eric Barrow

Tom Brady is already lost in Tampa.



According to TMZ on April 7, the six-time Super Bowl champ was supposed to visit the home of Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Instead, Brady walked into the home next door, which was open, and came eye-to-eye with the stunned homeowner.


Brady never knocked. And he never rang the doorbell.

“I’m sitting here, and I see this big shadow come up to my front door ... and I hear my doorknob turning ... and I’m like, What the hell? Like, who’s coming in my house?” homeowner David Kramer told TMZ. “I literally was just sitting here, and I watch this tall guy walk in my house.”


Brady was there to pick up material from Leftwich and was intending to abide by social distancing regulations. Leftwich had been expecting him, which might explain why he didn’t knock first.

“I’m like holy fucking shit! Tom Brady is in my fucking house!” Kramer told TMZ.

Had Leftwich been looking for Brady’s house and made a similar mistake, he very well could have been shot and possibly killed.

Why? Because Byron Leftwich is black.

You want history?

On Sept. 10, 2018, Dallas cop Amber Guyger intruded resident Botham Jean’s apartment shooting and killing him, later claiming she thought it was her apartment and that the man sitting on the couch eating chocolate chip ice cream, Jean, had broken in.


Or, Atatiana Jefferson, who was shot and killed on October 12th, by the police through a back window of her Fort Worth home after a neighbor asked the police for “a non-emergency wellness visit.”

Or, Omarion Banks, a 19-year-old black Atlanta teen that was killed last March, while on FaceTime with his girlfriend, after knocking on the wrong apartment door.


Or 14-year-old black teen Brennan Walker, who was shot at after approaching a house while looking for help after missing his school bus.

And then there was Jonathan A. Ferrell, a football star at FAMU, whom police shot 10 times and killed. A woman called the the cops on Ferrell when he knocked on her door after hitting a tree with his car.


These are just five of many incidents that have occurred while “living black.”

If Tom Brady had been a black NFL player or coach, it wouldn’t be all jokes and smiles.


Kramer, Brady’s neighbor, says the door was unlocked because he’s in the process of selling the home. He has people coming to view the property often, but he wasn’t expecting company at that time.

Brady casually dropped two duffel bags he’d been carrying, Kramer said, before he noticed the homeowner.


“And he goes, ‘How’s it going, man?’” Kramer said. “And sarcastically I’m like, ‘I don’t know. You tell me, dude.’ Like, who are you? And then he looked at me with the most confused face. I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life.”

“He just goes, ‘Am I in the wrong house?!’

“I said, ‘I think so. But who are you looking for? Where are you supposed to be?’ And he said, ‘Is this Byron’s house?’”


Brady immediately apologized before bolting out the door.

Kramer said he froze for several seconds, trying to comprehend what had just happened before rushing back outside — like many of us would do — to see if he could snag a picture, but Brady was already gone.


It’s been a rough start in Tampa for Brady, but it could have been a lot worse.

Had he been black, he could have been killed.