Opinion: Football Star Should Be Ashamed of Charity-Donated Car

The $97,000 Audi that the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady received from a nonprofit group serving disabled people raises questions about the role of celebrity spokesmen for charities, writes a Boston Globe columnist.

Joanna Weiss, the newspaper columnist, wrote that the football star, who last week signed a $72-million contract extension, should feel “some well-deserved shame” for accepting the car owned by the charity Best Buddies and provided by Audi, one of its corporate backers.

Mr. Brady has appeared for several years at Best Buddies events and serves as honorary chairman of an Audi-sponsored bike race that benefits the charity.

“The honorable thing [for Brady] would have been to say, ‘Thanks, Audi and Best Buddies, but I’ll buy my own car. Take that $97,000 you’re writing off and use it for the charity, instead,’” Ms. Weiss wrote.

The car was the third Mr. Brady has accepted from Best Buddies, according to the Boston Herald, which initially reported the deal following an accident Thursday in which Mr. Brady’s Audi was hit by another vehicle at a Boston intersection.

(Free registration is required to read the Globe article.)