Buccaneers All-Pro OT Tristan Wirfs Says He Doesn’t Have Tom Brady’s Phone Number

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive tackle
Tristan Wirfs said Tuesday he still doesn’t have quarterback Tom Brady’s phone number.

Wirfs, a 2021 first-team All-Pro
selection, said, “I don’t think I’m there yet.”

The 23-year-old University of Iowa
product previously explained his first interaction with the Hall of
Fame quarterback came after the Bucs drafted him in the first
round in 2020. Brady reached out on Instagram, and it took
a while for the lineman to respond.

“The very first thing was he messaged
me on Instagram,” Wirfs told reporters last year. “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.”

It’s unclear if he’s asked Brady for
his number or is waiting for the seven-time Super Bowl
champion to provide it.

Regardless, it’s hard to imagine Wirfs
could have done more within his first two NFL seasons to earn the
44-year-old signal-caller’s digits.

He’s played all 33 regular-season
games and played at a high level, including a start in the team’s Super Bowl LV win. He earned a strong 84.6 overall
grade from Pro Football Focus in 2021 and earned his first Pro Bowl
appearance.

Brady, who rejoined Tampa’s
active roster after a brief six-week retirement, often holds throwing
sessions with skill-position players in the offseason, but
those workouts don’t tend to feature linemen.

While both Brady and Wirfs have enjoyed
plenty of success without sharing phone numbers, it wouldn’t be a
surprise if the quarterback passes it along through a teammate just to bring the story to an
end.