"Grossi Posse, Packer Nation! Welcome to another episode of Packast, where you don't have to be a Packers fan, but it sure does help."
— Tom Grossi, Packast
Tom Grossi is a podcaster and YouTuber known for his National Football League content and his love for the Green Bay Packers. Alongside his weekly podcasts (featuring the many people in his life), he also occasionally makes skits featuring characters representing the various NFL teams, all played by himself. Among the series he has done:
- Coach: Tom gets an unusual offer from the Green Bay Packers, having him play Madden NFL to prove his coaching skill.
- The NFC & AFC East's Reaction: A series of videos which started as Tom Grossi's standalone skits, before developing a coherent storyline revolving around Bruce (Tom's Giants fan character) and Springsteen (Tom's Jets fan character).
- The NFC & AFC West's Reaction: A sequel to the aforementioned videos, with this storyline revolving around the fans of the eight teams in the two divisions on a Reality TV show.
- The NFC & AFC South's Reaction: The next sequel in this saga, focusing on the fans of the eight teams in these two divisions.
- 30 in 30: In June 2023, Tom and his editor/cameraman Johnny Barks set out across the United States to visit all 30 NFL stadiums in 30 days. At every stop, they produced a video of their visit of each stadium, as well as the fan meetups organized by the duo in each city, uploaded on a two day delay. The tour started on May 30 in Green Bay (naturally) and ended in Los Angeles on June 28. The entire tour was done for charity, with all proceeds being donated to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
- The NFC & AFC North's Reaction: The (presumably last) sequel in the Reaction saga, focusing on the fans of the eight teams in these two divisions as two familes.
- If the NFL Was Scripted: Tom's newest series, which satirizes the notion that professional football is rigged by depicting a scenario in which the outcomes of a given week's games are devised by a scriptwriter (who frequently has to deal with irate fans of the teams that lose their matchups).
- International Stadium Tour: A follow up to 30 in 30, announced at the 2024 NFL Draft. This time, Tom travels to the 7 stadiums outside the United States that have or will host regular season NFL games. Once again, the tour will also be a charity fundraiser for St. Jude's.
His YouTube channel can be found here
. He also takes part in the Grossi Perna Show podcast with Brandon Perna of That's Good Sports on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as well as the Clickbait Sports podcast on Thursdays with Perna, UrinatingTree, FivePointVids, and Scooter Magruder.
Now please turn to page 1 of the Tommunist Manifesto.
Tom Grossi Comedy contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Mack, one of two Raiders fans in the NFC/AFC West saga, had a horrible father who viewed him as a disappointment no matter how much Mack tried to make him proud (and his mother wasn't any different). When Finn Oakley informs Mack's father of his son's death, Mack's dad doesn't care in the slightest, stating that him and his wife turned his bedroom into a gym and are making a large profit from it. This causes Finn, who viewed Mack almost as a son, to enter a Tranquil Fury and deliver a "Reason You Suck" Speech over how Mack was far better than his parents deserved.
- Aerith and Bob: In his AFC/NFC East reaction videos, you have Bruce and Carl alongside names like Springsteen and Wildflower Turquoisenote
- Animal Lover: Tom. He has two cats (Nova and Nebula) and two dogs (Moose and Synclaire) who make periodic appearances on his streams and who he clearly dotes on. He is also a vegan for animal rights reasons (though he's made it clear he considers it a personal decision and doesn't take issue with other people making a different choice).
- Author Appeal: While Tom will cover major developments in the National Football League, most of his videos are about his beloved Green Bay Packers.
- Ax-Crazy: A literal example in The NFC East's Reaction to Week 5 when Gus blames Bruce for Dak Prescott'snote injury that occurred days prior when facing the Giants. He decides to cut off Bruce's leg so it will match Dak's, only to have Carl intervene for his own revenge for Bruce crashing his motorcycle.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Wildflower Turquoise talks to trees and generally acts like a Granola Guy. He wound up at the top of his (admittedly weak) division in 2020, has a habit of casually threatening to harm people, and ran over Gus with the neighbour's lawnmower.
- Big Bad: Chomas, the Bears fan is Tom's main antagonist in the second season of Coach. Over the course of the season, he mentally torments Tom, ending by defeating Tom in a game of Madden NFL. He is also revealed to be the main villain of The NFC & AFC East's Reaction, manipulating Rocky to destroy the main characters and also the main villain in The NFC & AFC West's Reaction, manipulating Louis to destroy everyone, just like he attempted in the East saga.
- Big Brother Bully: Carl, the Patriots fan, is introduced with his brothers being terrified of the thought that he's returning to their home, which is well-founded. Carl emotionally abuses Bruce and Springsteen, threatening physical harm while treating them like servants. However, he softens up as the 2020 NFL season progresses. See Big Brother Instinct below for more.
- Big Brother Instinct: Carl may be rough towards his brothers, but when they are in danger, he will viciously protect them. When Gus, the Cowboys fan, is about to hurt, if not outright kill, an unconscious Springsteen, Carl flies into the room, throws Gus to the floor, and savagely beats him.
- Bittersweet Ending: The NFC/AFC West saga has this when it concludes at the end of the 2021 NFL season.
- On the bitter side, Rams fan Louis, who devolved into a vicious backstabbing Hate Sink, was the last man standing with the Rams making (and ultimately winning) the Super Bowl instead of the nicer characters. Furthermore, Eugene ultimately dies from the sickness that plagued him throughout the saga. In addition, Captain Finn Oakley is still searching for fellow Raiders fan Mack, while Broncos fan Breck, seemingly killed for his murder of Mack, is found by a Buffalo Bills cult, whose leader is Frederick and whose membership includes Mack.
- On the sweet side, the surviving heroic characters accept their defeats with dignity and part on good terms, with Gavin letting Jerry stay at his place despite the two being rival fans (Seahawks and 49ers, respectively) and Eugene being able to reunite with his grandchildren since Jerry scares off Louis when the Rams fan attempts to murder him. Though Eugene does die, he passes peacefully in his bed, surrounded by his friends and family. Louis, in the meantime, ultimately has a Meaningless Villain Victory when he realizes he is alone and won't be helped by Chomas as originally promised.
- Bookends: Where applicable, in the 2022 edition of the [Team] Reacts To the [Year] Season, several videos start and end with the same line (with the opening line being in reference to the outcome of the 2021 season). For example, the 49ers fan notes a heartbreaking loss in the NFC Championship game and the uncertainty of their QB situation for the future, the Bengals fan is proud of the season the team had and insists they'll be back but need an offensive line, and the Broncos fan is reassured by a friend (played by real-life Broncos fan Brandon Perna) that, having hired the hottest head coach on the market, everything will be better for the upcoming year. Averted if the outcome between the two seasons is too disparate to make it work, such as for the Rams (went from winning the Super Bowl to a 5-win season) and Chiefs (went from a bad loss in the postseason to winning the Super Bowl).
- Catchphrase: "Oh, hey there!" for Wildflower.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Wildflower Turquoise, the character for the Washington Football team, often is totally oblivious to the shenanigans of his NFC East brothers. He is usually friendly towards others, but if you make him angry, or god forbid stand in the way of his crown, you will regret it.
- Wildflower Turquoise: And I'm just one win away from that crown. And if that means I gotta break a couple more legs, well, I'll do that in two flaps of a hummingbird's wing.
- Contrived Coincidence: Invoked and Lampshaded in the Week 18 edition of "If The NFL Was Scripted", as the scriptwriter notes how all of his writing throughout the season has set up a particularly tantalizing slate of Wild Card gamesnote . Of course, the true Irony of this is that the series is entirely dictated by real-life events, so all of this really did come to pass by pure chance.
- Convenient Coma: Springsteen falls into one after Frederick accidentally runs him over with his car.
- Costume Evolution: In early videos, Tom's outfits for his fan characters mostly consisted of regular clothing with a shirt in the relevant team's colors. As he started to put more time and energy into his videos, he started using actual jerseys more and more often. By 2021, he has jerseys for every team and uses them pretty much exclusively as the characters' costumes (the only exception being if he's doing a more elaborate costume, like his Jaguars' mascot costume from the 2022 season).
- Dating Catwoman: Jade Grossi is a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, one of the Packers' main rivals. Sadly, the pair separated and Jade moved out of state, though she still made a guest star appearance in Season 3 of Coach.
- Despair Event Horizon: A Browns fan has this in A Browns Fan Reaction to the 2018-2019 Season after the Browns go 0-16 in 2017, one year after they went 1-15.Browns Fan: I feel nothing. Life...is an abyss of darkness. In which we live our lives in misery and filth, and then we die. And nobody remembers us. (begins crying) NOBODY REMEMBERS US!!
- Disappeared Dad:
- Bruce and Springsteen's dad is a Dolphins fan who abandoned them as babies.
- In "A Browns Fan Reaction to the 2020-2021 Season" video, Browns Fan's Dad disappeared for 17 years following the Browns losing to the Steelers back in 2003. His dad does return following Cleveland's victory over the Steelers in the playoffs earlier this year.Browns Dad: "So what did I miss while I was gone?"
Browns Fan: "Honestly... not much. (Beat) Lotta quarterbacks.
Browns Dad: "Sounds about right."
- Disproportionate Retribution: In The NFC & AFC East's Reaction to Week 14, Wildflower wants to kill Frederick with a sword. Why? Frederick's car isn't a Prius, so Wildflower says Frederick is therefore killing the environment.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Springsteen, a Jets fan, is an idiot, to say the least. But when he's going home along with his brothers, Bruce and Frederick, the latter asks him if he brought anything to take home. Springsteen then dryly points out that he was planning to stay there for a total of 15 minutes to find Bruce and therefore brought nothing.
- Foreshadowing: Since his "Fan Reacts to the Season" videos are shot at the end of the season, it's not uncommon for Tom to throw in deliberate breadcrumbs early in the video hinting at something that becomes important later (e.g. the 2021-2022 Packers video includes multiple comments about the state of the special teams, which ended up being the thing that cost the team a playoff game).
- Fun with Acronyms: His show with Brandon "That's Good Sports" Perna is called "The Grossi Perna Show" with the tagline of "Your football navigation system".
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Tom and his editor/cameraman, Johnny Barks. It's become more apparent as Tom has started traveling more for the channel (beginning with 30 in 30), and wherever he goes, Barks always goes with him (and while bringing a cameraman with him could, theoretically, be for content creation reasons, the dynamic between them makes it clear that that's not it in this case).
- Heroic BSoD: Most of the fans reacting to their teams' seasons. Includes Tom himself whenever the Packers' NFC Championship Game failures are mentioned.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: After losing to the Chiefs in overtime in the 2021 AFC Divisional Round, the Bills wanted the OT rules changed (due to the original rules being if the first receiving team scores a touchdown, the game ends), and they are in the 2022 offseason. Unfortunately, this comes back to bite the Bills fan (albeit indirectly) in If the NFL was Scripted: Super Bowl 58 as it ends up playing out to the benefit of the Chiefs (the very team that beat them based on the original rules resulting in the change): the 49ers fan tells the scriptwriter that they want the ball first in overtime, unaware of the new rules, and when he realizes this when the Chiefs fan chuckles, it's already too late as the scriptwriter has the 49ers kick a field goal while the Chiefs drive down the field and score the game winning touchdown, winning their second straight Super Bowl.
- Insistent Terminology:
- Tom likes referring to the Minnesota Vikings as "the purple incarnation of Satan."
- In his "If the NFL Was Scripted" series, the Texans insist on being referred to as the "Strouds".
- Interrupted by the End: The wrap-up talk of the trailer for "The Grossi Perna Show" is interrupted by a possible title sequence.Brandon: Is that how you do an announcement promo?Tom:: I think we nailed it. I don't think it could have gone any better. The only thing that could have gone poorly is if you just interrupted me like mid-[cue intro]
- Just One More Level!: In the fourth episode of Coach season one, Tom plays the Madden NFL season of the Green Bay Packers, continuing until he clinches a playoff berth, not realizing until shortly after that it is 2 AM and he skipped dinner with his wife.
- Long-Lost Relative:
- Bruce, a Giants fan, turns out to be unrelated to his AFC East family but instead related to the NFC East.
- A huge reveal comes in The NFC & AFC West's Reaction to Week 13, when it turns out that Eugene, aka the elderly Cardinals fan, is the grandfather of Wildflower, Gus, Bruce, and Rocky.
- In The NFC & AFC South's Reaction to Week 10, it turns out that Raymond, the Colts Fan, is the biological father of Carl, and the reason why Joe left and had Danny was because he found out.
- Loony Fan: Given that most of Tom's series are based on fan characters, it was bound to come up.
- In the "If The NFL Was Scripted" series, the Houston Texans (or "Strouds") fan becomes increasingly unhinged, even blowing up the scriptwriter's car and possibly also the moon in retaliation for bad scripts.
- In the NFC East saga, Gus (Cowboys fan) tries to cut off Bruce's (Giants fan) leg in retaliation for Cowboys QB Dak Prescott getting his leg broken against the Giants.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Fans across the entire NFL has this when the Patriots, having won their sixth Super Bowl the year prior, sign controversial yet very talented receiver Antonio Brown. Well, except for the Patriots' fan.Patriots Fan: I'm going to put the seventh ring on my penis.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Rocky worked as a lackey for Chomas only to be abandoned by him to die in The NFC & AFC East's Reaction to Week 17 (Finale). After he somehow survives Danny shooting him, (due to Ambition), he tracks Danny down to team up and hunt down Chomas.Rocky: You up for a bear hunt?
- Named After Somebody Famous:
- Bruce and Springsteen are named after Bruce Springsteen, a reference to the fact that both of their teams (the Giants and Jets) play in the musician's home state of New Jersey. Frederick (Bills Fan) is also named after Bruce Springsteen, to reinforce the surprise that Bruce isn't related to the rest of them.
- Rocky (the Eagles fan character) is named after Rocky Balboa.
- Danny (the younger Dolphins fan) is named after Dan Marino.
- Vince (Packers fan) is named for Vince Lombardi.
- Jerry (49ers fan) is named after Jerry Rice.
- Josh, Patrick, Allen (Bills Mafia) is named for Josh Allen.
- Lenny (Chiefs fan) is named after Len Dawson
- Seb (Bucs fan)'s scooter is named after Tom Brady.
- Steve (Steelers fan) is named after UrinatingTree (whose real first name is Steve).
- Real Life Writes the Plot: All of the division sagas are based on the events of the real-life NFL season, as is If The NFL Was Scripted.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tom often gives these out to opposing teams in his fan reactions to show the frustration many fans of NFL teams have with how poorly their teams are run as an organization. He also does this with his own fan-made characters, such as once in The NFC West's Reaction to Week 5, when Jerry, a 49ers fan, demands respect from Eugene, a Cardinals fan, and the latter responds to him in a calm yet scathing manner:Eugene: You drafted Alex Smith instead of Aaron Rodgers, let him get destroyed back there for a few years, and then you finally hire a competent head coachnote , go to the NFC Championship only to lose to the Giants. Then the following year, [you] come back, Alex Smith gets hurt for a couple of games, and despite leading the league in completion percentage, you replace him with Colin Kaepernick. You go to the Super Bowl, in which you're only competitive because there's a freaking blackout. So you lose that one, and by 2017, Kap is gone, and by 2021, you'll have "end racism" painted in your end zone, but I guess that wasn't a priority back in 2016. You suck for two years, then you go and beat the Packers in the playoffs like we all have, and then you go and blow it to the Chiefs. The following year, you're so injured you had to come into our house to play football, and we're still trying to get the stench of you out of it. So now you're standing here at 2-3, saying that you deserve respect. So tell me something: why the hell should I respect you? And no, we haven't been good, but the entire division treated us as an afterthought, and now we're sitting here as the only undefeated team in football, while you're struggling to beat the Lions and the Eagles. So you want respect? Do something to earn it.
- Running Gag: Tom will put a long and hilarious nickname for himself in between his first and last name during the first minute of a video.
- In the Super Bowl edition of "If The NFL Was Scripted", as the scriptwriter is trying to tell the Chiefs and 49ers what's going to happen, various other teams keep popping out of the woodwork (almost literally) as soon as they hear something that's also applicable to them."You rang?"
- In the Super Bowl edition of "If The NFL Was Scripted", as the scriptwriter is trying to tell the Chiefs and 49ers what's going to happen, various other teams keep popping out of the woodwork (almost literally) as soon as they hear something that's also applicable to them.
- Sanity Slippage: In the If The NFL Was Scripted series, the Texans fan renames his team the "Strouds" (after their rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud) and subsequently descends into a deranged madness that results in, among other things, his destroying the scriptwriter's car and even blowing up the moon. However, when the Texans are eliminated, the fan takes it with a surprising amount of grace... so long as the scriptwriter is very clear that he expects even better next season.
- Self-Made Orphan: Wildflower thinks he's this because he'd wished his parents dead and a tree he'd been hitting with his sword fell on them during a storm. Even discounting that he wasn't actually trying to kill them, there's no indication the tree wouldn't have fallen anyway.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Starting to get one in the form of Brad Holmes, GM of the Detroit Lions, due to Detroit trading up and sniping players he wanted the Packers to draft 3 years in a row.
- Stinger: In the final episode of the Bills and Washington Football Team AFC/NFC East reaction videos, the video ends with the Vikings fan looking for a man named Tom, teasing the coming third season of Coach.
- Straight Man: To Brandon Perna on the Grossi Perna Show. Especially when the team Power Rankings are involved, Tom's rankings will be a clean-cut top 10 with, sometimes, honorable mentions (that do not appear in the actual ranking) and Brandon's will have several .5 ranks, a top 10 that goes to 11 or 12, Heaven/Hell/Purgatory and sometimes have teams of a different sport entirely and actual plays rather than teams.
- Summation Gathering: The "How the Cowboys Feel About the Eagles 2023 NFL Draft" special has Gus (Cowboys fan) rounding up other teams' characters to try and parse out who's to blame for the Eagles' remarkable draft, certain there's a conspiracy afoot. It quickly descends into chaos, with the 49ers using the opportunity to make fun of the Cowboys (having seemingly shown up entirely for this reason, since they didn't pick in the first round and consequently didn't have much impact on the Eagles' draft), the Seahawks only wanting to brag about their draft, and the other teams present (Bears, Falcons, Saints, and Lions) insisting they were only doing what was best for their teams, all while the Eagles just sit and smirk at seeing how angry the Cowboys are. Gus becomes so desperate to prove that the Eagles were the beneficiary of some sort of collusion that he even tries to blame the referee, even though referees have no role in the draft.
- Tempting Fate: In "A Commanders Fan Reaction to the 2022-2023 NFL Season".Wildflower: All right, my expectations are very very low, but what's the worst that can happen?
(Next cut)
Wildflower: I'm sorry, what happened to Brian Robinson?! - Tranquil Fury: Tom Grossi has shown, both in his reactions and the AFC/NFC East series, that he is excellent at displaying this with his characters:
- In the 2019-2020 Saints Reaction, the Saints fan is seen smiling as he calmly writes a letter to Roger Goodell to sarcastically thank him for the incredibly controversial referee non-call that cost the Saints the 2019 Championship. His anger momentarily shows itself when he says that another instance of "refball" against the Saints will make him "burn the league to the ground", but it is quickly replaced by the serene smile of before.
- Anytime Carl gets angry, you can expect this emotion from him as he quietly but angrily threatens whoever was dumb enough to piss him off. Even as he threatens to rip off Bruce's eyelids for the grave crime of bringing up the two Super Bowls that the New York Giants beat the Patriots in, he only raises his voice once, yet even his calm threats make Bruce pee himself.
- Rather ironically, Bruce himself has multiple examples of this later in the AFC/NFC East Series:
- When Frederick (who accidentally ran over Springsteen with his car) is initially remorseless about putting Springsteen in a coma (though in his defense, Springsteen along with Bruce treated him like crap), Bruce punches him in the nose before calmly threatening to kill him if Springsteen dies.
- When his adopted father is shot by Rocky, Bruce is in a cold and quiet rage the entire time that he's talking to him.Rocky: I told you, he came at me first! It was self-defense!Bruce: Well in that case, I hope you're ready to defend yourself again.
- In the last episode of the AFC/NFC East series, Rocky tries to get Bruce to his side by trying to say that he's his brother. Bruce calmly responds with "no, you're not," before beating the shit out of him and leaving him so Danny can get revenge for Rocky killing the latter's father, who was also Bruce's adoptive father.
- Tom himself has this reaction when discussing Antonio Brown's release from the Patriots after sexual assault accusations came out against him.
- Wait, What?: In If The NFL Was Scripted Week 12, the scriptwriter has this reaction to the reveal of how the "Strouds" fan dealt with supposedly losing because of the moon.Texans/Strouds: So, should I have not blown up the moon?
Scriptwriter: I'm sorry, what? - Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: Referenced in If the NFL Was Scripted: Free Agency (likely based on a tweet from Rich Eisen).Cowboys: All in, my ass!
Scriptwriter: Don't forget a comma!
...and as always, Go Pack Go.
