Patriots and Brady pissed over radio station prank

Word from our gridiron spies is that the New England Patriots [team stats] are rather steamed that shock jocks Opie & Anthony - heard on the team’s flagship station WBCN [website] - aired a fake “news” story yesterday saying that QB/QT Tom Brady [stats] had been suspended for steroids.

“The team is not happy,” said Someone Who Knows. “And they let that be known. But at the same time they want this to go away and not become any more than it already is.”

The so-called “dirty urine” story was part of the demented duo’s ongoing “Make Stuff Up Tuesday” routine. Of course, Opie & Dopey are the same shock jocks that brought you the Mayor-Menino-Is-Dead rumor and the Sex-In-St.-Patrick’s-Cathedral scandal.

Team spokesguy Stacey James declined to comment on the matter other than to say that “we’ve notified our legal department.” Word is, the team got calls from a number of media outlets and fans who believed the report was true.

The not-so-funny gag is rather touchy because ’BCN airs the Pats games and advertises itself as the “Patriots Rock Radio Network.” At the same time, the station has little control over the content of the Opie & Anthony show, which comes out of New York.

Station spokesguy Chachi Loprete declined comment except to say, “It was ‘Make Stuff Up Tuesday’ on the Opie & Anthony show and the report is not true.”

The “Make Stuff Up” schtick involves listeners who call in and suggest fake stories that Opie & Anthony then report as if they are real. Yesterday, an early suggestion involved a fake car accident in which longtime “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak lost all his teeth.

The duo - who, you may recall, were fired from Boston’s WAAF [website] in 1998 after they aired a phony April Fool’s Day story announcing that Menino had died in a car accident - passed on the Sajak saga.

Then a caller from New York suggested the made-up Brady scandal.

“They kicked it around for a while, then went on the air at 7 a.m. and delivered it like it was real,” said one listener.

But many listeners who were not privvy to the pre-7 a.m. chit-chat apparently believed the Brady story was true. A number of fans called the Herald sports department to inquire about the story. And for a while yesterday morning the phrase “Tom Brady Suspended” was the most-searched topic on Google.

A spokesman for XM Satellite Radio, which also carries the O&A show, insisted that the joke was obvious.

“It was clear to anyone who listens to the show that it was a gag,” said XM spokesguy Nathaniel Brown. “They actually build the story with the listeners and anyone who is familiar with the show knows the routine - it’s all made up.”

But considering their past history, it’s a wonder that O&A would want to go there. Besides being fired by WAAF for the Menino incident, they were broomed by Infinity Broadcasting in 2002 after they encouraged a couple to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with these guys,” said one insider. “You would think they’d learn a lesson but they never do.”

File Under: Bad News.

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