During his tenure with the New England Patriots, backup quarterback Matt Cassel found himself involved in a prank rivalry with Tom Brady that unfolded behind the scenes of one of the NFL’s most disciplined organizations.
What began as a minor annoyance eventually developed into a series of retaliatory acts, culminating in an unusual ultimatum from Brady that has since become one of the most frequently retold stories from the Patriots‘ locker room.
The incident originated with Cassel‘s habit of forcefully pushing open the door to the quarterback meeting room, something Brady warned could cause an accident.
Cassel did not adjust the habit, prompting Brady to brace his foot behind the door during Cassel‘s next entrance, sending Cassel‘s lunch flying. That moment triggered a sequence of escalating pranks.
Cassel responded by dumping protein powder inside Brady‘s sneakers and applying muscle balm to his underwear. Additional small exchanges followed until Brady threw a protein shake at Cassel.
In retaliation, Cassel emptied a trash can onto Brady’s car. It was after this act that Brady delivered the ultimatum that Cassel later recounted on the Centered On Buffalo Podcast.
“I dumped a trash can on his (Brady’s) car, and he had a nice car. I had a piece, I don’t even know what I was driving at the time,” Cassel said.
“Well, the next day I show up, and he starts saying, ‘Dude, you better say I’m sorry and call me Daddy Longshanks’ or something like that. And I was like, ‘Daddy Longshanks? I’m not calling you anything.’ He’s like, ‘Dude, you got until the beginning of practice.'”
The escalation and Brady’s response
Cassel chose not to comply, and Brady followed through. According to Cassel, all four tires were removed from his car; three were placed directly in front of his locker, and the fourth was hidden somewhere in the facility.
Cassel was forced to secure rides to and from practice for more than a week. Only then did he concede: “He’s got my three tyres sitting in front of my locker; he hid the final one. He made me get a ride to work for the next week and a half. And I was like, ‘Bro, okay. Daddy Longshanks. You won. You got me.'”
Cassel later summarized the episode with a straightforward lesson: “You don’t mess with people that have more money than you, and particularly, you don’t mess with Tom.”
Although this exchange effectively ended the direct back-and-forth between the two quarterbacks, it did not signal the end of pranking in the Patriots’ environment.
Former offensive tackle Matt Light, widely regarded as the team’s most prolific prankster, later filled Brady‘s car with packing peanuts and attempted to shift the blame onto Cassel.
Cassel recalled Light’s role clearly: “Light’s the ultimate prankster… They filled his entire car up with those foam peanuts to the brim, and they tried to blame it on me. And Brady looks at me, I’m telling you, he goes, ‘Dude, I’m going to kill you.'”
The ongoing disruptions eventually drew the attention of head coach Bill Belichick, who intervened to halt the escalating behavior.
Despite this, Cassel has repeatedly stated that this episode remains the defining anecdote when discussing his years alongside Brady.
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