Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs once placed superstar teammate Tom Brady in the “seen” zone by accidentally failing to reply to Brady's direct message on Instagram. The 22-year-old recently recounted how this incident went down as Wirfs admitted how scared he was once he realized his mistake.
Being the class act that he is, Brady sent a message to Wirfs via Instagram the moment the Buccaneers drafted him last spring. Wirfs was a bit overwhelmed during that evening, which led to the former Iowa State standout missing Brady's DM:
Article Continues Below“The very first thing was he messaged me on Instagram,” Wirfs said Thursday, via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “I didn’t open it for like nine hours because it was draft night and so I had a ton of messages and I didn’t see it until the next day. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I was scared.”
Wirfs also shared the unforgettable experience he had during draft night, which included the realization that it wouldn't be long before he took the field alongside one of the greatest ever in Brady:
“It was a lot of emotions that night, just because, it’s Tom Brady, you know? BA on the phone call was like, ‘Are you ready to protect Tom?’ I was like, ‘Not right now,'” Wirfs recalled with a laugh. “It was just a lot being thrown on me, just those couple words, I was like, ‘Wow.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll get ready as fast as I can.’ But it was still exciting. Exciting, emotional — it was just awesome. There was a lot going on that night.”
With so much that has happened this season, draft night now feels like a lifetime away. For his part, Wirfs will need to be at his very best come Sunday, as he hopes to help the Buccaneers lift the Vince Lombardi trophy when they take on the defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, in Super Bowl LV.