Last week, the New England Patriots honored former quarterback Tom Brady with a ceremony celebrating his induction to the team's Hall of Fame after helping the Patriots win six Super Bowls during his 20 seasons with them.
While most of the night was spent listening to players talk about Brady's greatness both on and off the field, the night also included segments with comedian Bill Burr who delivered some jokes to warm the crowd up and also took some shots at Brady and celebrities in some photos through the years.
Except one joke that Burr wanted to tell at the expense of Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, who was in attendance, was not something that the Patriots wanted the comedian to say.
“I was gonna be like, ‘Peyton I always loved you. Because you know what? I always related to you more than I related to Tom Brady, because like you, I am also not the best quarterback in my family,” Burr said in a recent episode of his "Monday Morning Podcast" (transcribed by MassLive).
Instead of just letting him tell the joke, the Patriots pulled off a move that Burr was impressed by.
“So this is such a baller move,” Burr said. “They didn’t argue with us on it. I just went up there and I had my little jokes on my cards. That slide, the one they were like, ‘Ah, we don’t know about this,’ and I thought, ‘I think it’s all right.’ They just took this slide out. I was like, ‘That’s (expletive) brilliant,’”
It's interesting that the Patriots were so against such a harmless joke, especially considering Manning is one of the funniest athletes that we know of. His acting skills and comedic timing are incredible. He probably would've loved the joke if it was allowed to be delivered.