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Tom Brady Takes Dig at Aaron Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau Ahead of ‘The Match’ Return

“The Match” is back on July 6. And that means it’s time for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady to start trolling Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and 2020 U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau.

In the next installment of “The Match,” Brady and 2021 PGA champ Phil Mickelson will face off against Rodgers and DeChambeau. The fundraising competition airs on TNT at 5 p.m. Previous editions of “The Match” have featured Mickelson, Charles Barkley, Tiger Woods, Stephen Curry and Peyton Manning.

In Brady’s latest dig at Rodgers and DeChambeau, Brady took to Instagram. He captioned the promotional picture for the event: “Two champions vs a scientist and a jeopardy host.” Of course, Brady and Mickelson are the champions. DeChambeau has done lots of tinkering with his golf game to earn the “scientist” nickname. Rodgers, of course, guest-hosted “Jeopardy!” last month in the wake of legendary host Alex Trebek’s death.

Brady also took the trash talk to Twitter, tweeting a picture of DeChambeau and Brooks Kopeka from this past weekend’s PGA Championship. Brady added the caption, “Bryson, happy to be here/Aaron realizing he has to spend the whole day with Bryson.”

But DeChambeau quickly fired back with a tweet of his own. He replied to Brady that “once @AaronRodgers12 and I take down you and @PhilMickelson, you will feel just as deflated as those balls were in the AFC Championship game.”

DeChambeau Fires Back at Tom Brady With Deflategate Reference

DeChambeau’s comeback was a reference to the Deflategate scandal of 2014. After that scandal broke, Brady was suspended. And his team at the time, the New England Patriots, was fined $1 million. They were found to have conspired to deflate footballs used in the team’s AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts had voiced concerns after their regular-season game against the Patriots about potentially under-inflated footballs. Colts safety Mike Adams saved two footballs he intercepted from Brady and gave them to the Colts’ equipment manager, feeling something was off about them. So the Colts had made the NFL aware of their concerns heading into the AFC Championship game, which the Patriots then won, 45-7.

Before every game, each team supplies 12 brand new Wilson Official NFL footballs. Referees check them before the game. And while the refs don’t weigh the footballs, they do check the pounds per square inch. The footballs stay with the refs until 10 minutes before kickoff.

The footballs supplied by the Patriots were reportedly under-inflated by two pounds per square inch. An NFL investigation later found that Tom Brady was aware of the deflations.

If Brady was bothered by DeChambeau’s comeback, he’s not letting on. But what happens on the field is clearly fair game here, as Brady himself signaled when he took a shot at Rodgers for Green Bay’s decision to kick a field goal instead of going for a touchdown in last year’s NFC Championship.

“@b_dechambeau better get used to laying up because we know @AaronRodgers12 isn’t going for it,” Brady tweeted Wednesday.

As for Rodgers, he appears more focused on his recent “Jeopardy!” stint than on trash-talking the competition. But as “The Match” gets closer, that may yet change.