Definition
Bradying is an internet meme and photographic pose that involves sitting or lying on the ground with one’s head supported by one hand, legs outstretched, wearing a sullen or contemplative expression. The pose originated as a photograph of NFL quarterback Tom Brady taken after his team, the New England Patriots, lost Super Bowl XLVI to the New York Giants in February 2012. In the image, Brady sits alone on the field, helmet off, staring into the middle distance with the devastated calm of someone processing a very public failure.
Why it matters
Bradying matters because it became a meme template for the precise posture of dignified defeat. Unlike “Tebowing” (prayerful victory) or “planking” (absurdist horizontal pose), bradying captured something specific: the moment after a high-stakes loss when composure is all that remains. It was imitated by fans, athletes, and celebrities, often in deliberately mundane contexts — someone bradying after their coffee shop ran out of oat milk, or after a video game character died. The humor came from the gap between Brady’s actual devastation and the triviality of the imitator’s supposed tragedy.
Example
A student sitting on the library floor after receiving a B-minus on an exam they studied two hours for, hand supporting their chin, staring at a wall with theatrical melancholy. They are bradying.
Internet Angle
Bradying peaked in 2012 as part of a wave of athlete-based memes that included Tebowing and Kaepernicking. It demonstrated how a single sports photograph could become a universal gesture — a visual shorthand for “I tried, I failed, and now I must sit with it.” The meme has aged into a niche reference, occasionally revived by sports historians and irony-poisoned millennials.
Related Terms
- Tebowing — kneeling in prayer, named after Tim Tebow
- Planking — lying face-down in unusual locations as a meme
- Manning face — another sports-based reaction image meme
- Meme pose — a physical gesture that becomes an internet template
- Sports photography — the genre that captured the original Bradying image
- Viral photography — how a single image becomes a cultural reference
- Super Bowl — the context of the original Bradying photograph