Cute Librarian to Bob Ryan: What’s That Supposed to Mean?

Bob Ryan incurred the wrath of bookish females everywhere when in Monday’s man-crush gush over Tom Brady, he used a throwaway line that dissed librarians. Some say he was only insulting the homely with his remark, while others resort to ad hominem attacks against the writer in the paper’s Letters to the Editor.

To settle the issue once and for all, we asked an attractive librarian what she thinks of Ryan’s assertion.

Meet Melissa, a librarian in her mid-20s sitting at the reference desk of the Boston Public Library. She isn’t a football fan, and she hadn’t heard about the hubbub surrounding Ryan’s column. After she went through the “boring” parts of the article, Melissa found the quote:

And you can be sure Brady will be seen in public with a homely librarian before he engages in any discussion about the difference between the receivers he was forced to work with last season and the ones he has now.

“What is that supposed to mean?” She cried, eyes wide behind her thick-framed glasses. “It seems really unnecessary. I don’t really understand the point. What’s wrong with homely librarians?”

It seems that even if Brady wanted to be seen out and about with the blond reference babe (who, it should be noted, is not at all homely), she wouldn’t have him. But she does have an interest in another Boston sports hero.

“No, I would not date Tom Brady.” After a pause, she adds, “But I would date Josh Beckett.”