How 'Tom Brady Sux' ended up on Sun King beer cans
Dana Hunsinger Benbow,
dana.benbow@indystar.com 11:40 a.m. EDT August 12, 2015
You can't make this up. Blame it on a guy who works the canning line, named Biscuit.
More than 20,000 cans of Sun King Brewery's Wee Mac Scottish Ale came off the line with a not-so-subtle, born-on-date jab.
"Tom Brady Sux."
The company, solidly an Indianapolis brewery whose beer is sold at the Colts' home (Lucas Oil Stadium), is taking no credit nor blame nor responsibility for the New England Patriots insult.
Instead, it's crediting -- or blaming -- a guy named Biscuit, who works Sun King's canning line.
"It was a prank by Biscuit," Sun King co-owner Clay Robinson said Tuesday morning.
The born-on-date saga started May 13, a day the brewery was canning Wee Mac and the same day the country was atwitter over DeflateGate.
The Wells Report had been released a week prior and Brady's 4-game suspension had been handed down by the NFL just two days before.
"It wasn't an idea we came up with at all," said Robinson, referring to Sun King the company. "Every day, we change the thing on the bottom of our cans. One of the guys running the canning lines had to come up with something. Biscuit is his name. So Biscuit put 'Tom Brady Sux.'"
When Robinson and other Sun King higher ups saw it?
"We were like, 'Oh, wow,'" Robinson said. "We were like, 'What the hell were you thinking?'"
Biscuit (who Robinson declined to reveal the true identity of) still works for Sun King, but he now is required to submit a list of the sayings he plans to stamp on the bottom of beer cans each week.
And, Robinson, concedes, "I actually thought it was funny. Now there are thousands of cans out there that say 'Tom Brady Sux.'"
Sun King is known for its quirky words next to its born-on dates. During the Indianapolis 500, for example, there will be sayings like "Turn left," or "Go fast."
Sometimes, there are movie quotes or one-line quips, such as "Drink and Repeat" and sometimes all the can says is "Yummy."
"It's really, really random," Robinson said.
Not so random, of course, this time.
The bad news, for people who want to get their hands on a "Tom Brady Sux" Wee Mac, is that its shelf life is nearing the end.
"I assume most were consumed and recycled without anyone noticing," Robinson said.
And for those people who do notice, Robinson believes Biscuit's prank may turn out to be one of the most positive -- albeit unintended -- marketing ploys.
"We are an Indianapolis-based brewery, we wanted to grow to become Indianapolis' beer," he said. "We are in Colts country."
The only way the ploy could get better?
Have Biscuit stamp the exact same words on Sun King cans Oct. 18, when Brady takes on the Colts at Lucas Oil in his first game back after the DeflateGate suspension.
Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.