Matt Cassel reveals how ‘rich’ Tom Brady took it too far in prank war - “I lost the war”
Matt Cassel spent most of his NFL career as a backup quarterback for seven different teams. Initially, he was with the New England Patriots, which is also the team he was with the longest. He was selected in the 2005 NFL draft to serve as a backup for Tom Brady and spent the first four years of his career with the franchise.
While Cassel learned plenty of things on the football field from one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, he also learned a valuable lesson off the pitch. He once recalled a hilarious prank war he had with Tom Brady, which may not have ended the way he hoped it would.
Here's what Matt Cassel had to say about it:
"It all started because I had a habit of coming into the quarterback room and opening the door aggresively, and Tom was always worried that I was going to come in and hit him. One day he decided that he was going to put his foot up against the door when I was walking in. So when I did open the door with a huge platter of food, the food went up everywhere and all over myself.
"I was like, 'OK, I'm going to get you back.' So I went in and I filled up his Air Force Ones with a protein shake. I thought that would be a good idea. So that was a bad decision on my part. That resulted in him dumping a full protein shake all over my head.
"So then I decided to dump a trash can on his car. When I came in the next morning, I felt like I had the upper hand, until we got on the practiuce field and he said, 'Look, you can either apologize, or start calling me Captain Longshanks' ... I was like, ' Nope, not going to do it.' I just thought they were threats, but really didn't have any weight behind it.
"Little did I know, it really did hold a lot of weight ... right in front of my locker, three huge tires are stacked up ... I go out to the parking lot and my car is on blocks. At that point, I knew I had lost the war. The morale of the story is, I think, don't mess with people that have more money than you."
While Tom Brady is the biggest winner in NFL history on the football field with seven Super Bowl rings, he also wins in many other areas. This time he won an epic prank war with his backup Matt Cassel.
Matt Cassel's biggest success with the Patriots
Playing behind Tom Brady as a backup offers little opportunity to ever get on the football field during a real game. Matt Cassel got his first chance to be a starting quarterback in his fourth year with the New England Patriots. Tom Brady suffered a season-ending injury in the first game of the 2008 NFL season, forcing Cassel to take over the job.
Matt Cassel made the most of his opportunity, helping the Patriots achieve a solid 11-5 record during the regular season. He likely exceeded his expectations, completing 63% of his passes and throwing 21 touchdowns. He played well enough to earn a new contract with the Kansas City Chiefs during the following offseason to take over as their next starting quarterback.