Upon Art Monk’s induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008, the former Washington wide receiver and three-time Super Bowl champion got a standing ovation that lasted four minutes, four seconds.
It was the longest standing ovation in Pro Football Hall of Fame history and believed to be the longest for an NFL player.
Worcester resident Jeff Cammuso thinks former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady deserves even more when he returns to Gillette Stadium Oct. 3 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
With the help of his friend Meg Mulhern of Worcester, Cammuso has started a social media campaign to reach and encourage fans who will attend the game that night in Foxboro to get on their feet and applaud Brady, who helped bring six Super Bowl titles to New England, for five minutes.
“Standing ovations for the most part come natural, they’re really not planned,” Cammuso said. “It’s hard in football stadiums with the number of people and the noise and people out in the parking lots cooking for three hours before they come into the game. Overall, I think it’s going to be a challenging thing to get it going, but I think it’s an opportunity for more of a community effort and any Tom Brady fan can be part of it just by sharing (Cammuso’s social media message) and spreading the word.”
Cammuso, who founded the Greendale Youth Flag Football League and has been involved with many community causes and fundraisers over the years, originally got the idea for the Brady ovation before the Patriots’ 2019 season wild-card round loss to the Tennessee Titans, which ended up being Brady’s last game with New England.
Brady departed the Patriots at season’s end, signed with Tampa Bay, and in February, led the Bucs to victory in Super Bowl LV.
Cammuso, who enjoys researching records, revisited the idea for the ovation when Tampa Bay was announced as a Patriots’ home opponent for 2021. The NFL unveiled this season’s schedule in May. The Patriots and Bucs will kick off in prime time, at 8:20 p.m.
In 1995, when Cal Ripken Jr., broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak, Baltimore Orioles fans gave him an incredible 22-minute standing ovation.
Cammuso thinks it would be great if Patriots fans could show their appreciation for future Pro Football Hall of Famer Brady, who “provided us New England fans with nine Super Bowl appearances,” as he writes in his social media message, and his lengthy list of records and accomplishments, upon his return.
Cammuso was a Patriots season-ticket holder from 1979-86. He gave up the tickets as his family grew, but still goes to games on occasion with friends.
The tickets for the Patriots-Bucs game are expected to be in extremely high demand.
“If some friends have tickets and offer me one,” Cammuso said, “I would probably take it. If the opportunity is there, I’d take it. If not, I’ll watch on TV.”
Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTandG.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
