Diksha Sundriyal
2023’s sports comedy-drama film, ‘80 for Brady,’ follows the story of four octogenarians who are huge fans of Tom Brady. When one of them comes up with the idea of going to the 2017 Super Bowl and watching the player in action, the entire group decides to do whatever it takes to make their trip a success. The personal lives and challenges of the women come to the fore as we find out what has been holding each of them back all this time. It also turns out that one of the women, Trish, has a successful career as an author of an erotica book series. At first glance, it might look like an imaginary thing added to the plot to make the character more interesting. But just like the women, the book also has a real counterpart. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Between a Gronk and a Hard Place by Virginia Ledoux is Inspired by a Real Erotica
’80 for Brady’ is inspired by a real group of women who harbor a love for Tom Brady and the Patriots. However, when it comes to the film’s stories and the characters, almost everything about it is fictional, including Trish’s author background. None of the women from the real group are known to have written a book, much less an erotica. The book ‘Between a Gronk and a Hard Place,’ which features in the movie, is entirely fictional. However, it is inspired by a real erotica fan-fiction about Rob Gronkowski.
Titled ‘A Gronking to Remember,’ it is a duology written by Lacey Noonan, which is the pen name of Greg McKenna. The books follow the story of a married woman named Leigh whose life takes a turn when she sees Rob Gronkowski on the screen for the first time. She is immediately attracted to him, a situation made worse by the fact that her husband is a Jets fan. Exploring the forbidden romance that Leigh harbors for the player, the book delves into all sorts of sexual fantasies that she is gripped by. The author revealed that the book was written as a joke in the beginning, but the author re-considered everything when it became a best-seller on Amazon’s Kindle Store. The book got so viral that even Rob Gronkowski found out about it and even read from it on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show. He took things a bit further when he created a movie trailer for the book’s adaptation.
Things got a bit serious regarding the book when the sellers, Amazon and Apple, found themselves in the midst of a lawsuit regarding it. The original cover of the book was objected to by the New England Patriots, whose rep team reached out to Amazon about removing Rob Gronkowski’s picture in Patriots uniform as it infringed their trademark rights. The lawsuit, however, came from a couple who revealed that their picture had been used on the cover without their consent. Their privacy rights had been violated, and they held Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble accountable for allowing the book to be sold in their online stores.
In the movie, Trish doesn’t have to go through any of the legal troubles because she has a much more professional touch to her career. However, it does exhibit her love for the game as well as the player, and she even gets to meet Rob Gronkowski after the Patriots win the game. The player showing up in the movie adds a meta layer to the whole thing and elevates the joke to another level. As for the character, it remains entirely fictional, just like her book.
Read More: 80 for Brady: Is Dan O’ Callahan Based on a Real Former NFL Player?
