Super Bowl 2012: Lay off Gisele Bundchen

Gisele Bundchen, the stunning spouse of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, has been taking a lot of heat for her intemperate remark about the Pats’ receivers following the Super Bowl.

I say it’s time to cut her some slack.

In case you just got back from a vacation in the Gobi Desert, Ms. Bundchen was caught on camera exclaiming, “My husband cannot (bleeping) throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.”

Certain elements have interpreted Ms. Bundchen’s comment as a mild rebuke of Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker and others who failed to hold onto Brady’s throws down the stretch of the Pats’ 21-17 loss to the New York Giants.

The same people are suggesting Ms. Bundchen would have done better by keeping her mouth shut.

Why, for heaven’s sakes?

The reaction to Ms. Bundchen demonstrates two things. First, we don’t have enough to do. Second, we’re becoming a nation of thin-skinned ninnies who can’t handle the truth.

I guarantee you that Patriots fans in bars up and down New England were bellowing the same thing. I’ve known a few working-class New Englanders, and they’re not famous for holding back.

So why should Ms. Bundchen?

Oh, right. In that moment of bitter defeat, when your blood is boiling and you want to kick a hole in the nearest wall, you’re supposed to confine yourself to saying only nice things about everybody.

Wouldn’t it be better if, like Ms. Bundchen, you could just say what you thought?

What about the time you got passed over for that promotion? You had to congratulate your nemesis and tell everybody what a great guy he was.

Wouldn’t you rather have said this: “Bob is a disgusting suck-up who doesn’t know his rear end from a rattlesnake bite, and the only reason he got the job is because he lets the boss win at bowling every Wednesday.”

There. Didn’t that feel better?

With time, this new value for candor could catch on throughout corporate America. Imagine one of those quarterly calls with stock analysts when your company is losing money faster than a bookie who took too many bets on the Giants.

You know how those calls usually go. The CEO gets on the phone and drones, “Well, we’ve had a few hiccups in our supply chain and the market is still waiting to respond to our offerings, but we’re confident we’re on the right path, and…”

If only your CEO had the courage, he could say, “The truth is, our products are outdated, the competition is killing us because they’re better and cheaper, our managers make Dilbert’s boss look like a genius, and I’m ineffective and overpaid and probably should be fired.”

Pretty soon, it would spread to politics. Actually, it has, although it’s been awhile.

Ronald Reagan may not have been the greatest intellectual ever to occupy the Oval Office, but he called it the way he saw it. He told the world that the Commies were an evil empire, and when he visited West Berlin, he didn’t say, “Gee it would nice if the people of Eastern Europe could be free.” He cried, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, does it?

Brings up an interesting question, too. Why have free speech if we’re all afraid to say what we think?

Which is why I have this to say to Gisele Bundchen.

You go, girl.