#The Intricate Homoerotic Rituals of a QB/WR1 relationship

[tampatom12]

Law and Order: SVU and the Bradelman of it All

Ok, so for those that are unaware, I am a BIG Law and Order: SVU fan.

I absoutley adore Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler and most of the other characters who have been involved with the show.

That having been said:

In 2011, actor Christopher Meloni's contract was not renewed. Chris had played Elliot Stabler for 12 years at that point and unfortunatly left because the studio/Dick Wolf were not giving him what he deserved.

This left actress Mariska Hargitay, and her character Olivia Benson, REELING. Mariska and as a result, Olivia, struggled deeply with his absence.

Cut to:

April 1st, 2021, aka the day that Chris and Elliot returned to the Law and Order world!!!!

This was the first time in TEN YEARS that Benson and Stabler had seen or even SPOKEN to each other!!!!!

Eventually, in the second half of the episode, they found themselves in a hospital waiting room where they had a LONG overdue conversation about him leaving:

Elliot Stabler: Liv, I'm sorry. Olivia Benson: Elliot, we don't have to do this. [seeing the pain in his eyes] Olivia Benson: Okay. I guess... you wanna do this now. You're sorry for leaving? Or are you sorry for walking... for not giving me the courtesy of telling me? Elliot Stabler: Both. I think I thought if I talked to you about how... Olivia Benson: You walked away. 'Cause that's what you did, Elliot. I had to find out from Cragen. Elliot Stabler: Olivia. Olivia Benson: Elliot. You were the most... single most important person in my life... Elliot Stabler: Olivia. Olivia Benson: And you just... disappeared. Elliot Stabler: I know. I was afraid... if I heard your voice, I wouldn't have been able to leave.

Dialogue directly from the official IMDB page

So...!!

What does all of THIS (⬆⬆⬆⬆) have to do with me posting about this on my NFL side blog instead of my main???

Well, I'm glad you asked!!! :D

You see, I've been thinking about this scene a lot lately in a Tom and Julian context.

As we ALL know, Tom left the Patriots back in 2020, thus leaving Julian behind (while also reuniting with Rob). At the end of episode one, season two of his podcast Games With Names, Julian talked about how Tom didn't even tell him that he was leaving before he left...apperantly, Jules found out when the rest of the world did and read the news on the bottom of a scrolling news ticker.

As soon as this fact was revealed, I was truly SHOCKED.

Tom and Julian had always had a hella tight bond, so it didn't make much sense as to why Tom would leave without saying even one thing to Julian!!!

I was recently rewatching "The Return of the Prodigal Son"-the official name of Elliot's return episode-when the above scene in particular hit me like a semi truck.

It got me thinking about the 2020 Tom and Julian situation in a different context...

What if Tom was like Elliot??

He didn't speak to Julian about leaving before he left because he was afraid that if he heard Julian's voice, he wouldn't have been able to leave.

As low-key insane as this sounds, I also think that this idea is something that makes a whole lot of sense.

Tom and Julian were very much in love with each other, even though it seems that Julian both fell first and fell harder.

Overall, I do think that Tom is a person who doesn't wanna look back once his mind is made up. Bill didn't wanna give him the security of what he wanted, so it makes a lot of sense why he chose to leave after he offically became a free agent.

At the same time, it's intresting to think about what could have happened if Bill had been willing to work with Tom and give him the deal that he very much deserved.

Julian and New England as a whole would have been thrilled, but I also know that then Rob would not have come out of retirement because I've always gotten the sense that once Rob retired from New England, he was done done with that city, even though it is a large part of who he is.

Alright and now: Here is where everyone is at today, in April of 2024:

-Rob and Julian seem to be tighter than ever. They have been hanging out a lot lately and that is in part due to the fact that they are now both on the Fox Sports Network as part of the team that provides commentary about NFL games.

-Rob has been on Games with Names TWICE already for the second season!! Meanwhile, Tom still hasn't been on once. 😳😵😔

-Rob and Julian seemed to have a FANTASTIC time together while in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl this year!!!

They did a ton of events/press together!!! My favorite parts were when Bounty paper towels gave them matching jackets (it is SO boyfriend/husband/partners for life coded!!!) and when they were at Rob's Gronk Beach event together; specifcally because of this moment ⬇⬇⬇⬇

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A post shared by Julian Edelman (@edelman11)

-Meanwhile, when he isn't endlessly thirst trapping over on Insta stories, Tom is chillin' and hanging out with his kids, either at his fabulous home or out at some kind of resort for a vacation with them.

-He's also still making episodes for his Let's Go! podcast and of course has been golfing a lot too.

-On top of all of this, he is doing promotions for random businesses; basically anything-literally anything-that he can promote, he has been.

-Most recently, he has teased that he may come back to play in the NFL again, but I don't feel like that's gonna happen for real, even though he clearly loves football so much. (Perhaps too much, but that's another topic for a different blog post. 👀👁👄👁)

-He hasn't been completly ignoring Rob and Julian...he's been liking their posts on Instagram and even sometimes throws a comment in here and there; be it on a post-post or through a simple shout-out via Stories.

-Overall though, he has not been as publicily with them as what Rob and Julian have been seen with each other, which is...fine.

-Obvisouly Tom is a VERY busy man, but it's also intresting to see who and what he priortizes. Of course I understand that his children are always gonna come first, but it also seems as though his various business ventures will come over any/all other relationships, even though I know how much Tom truly does value all of the interpersonal realationships he has built over the years.

-Anyway, for this upcoming NFL season, Tom is going to be a lead commentator on Fox Sports, so that will automatically and offically reunite him with Rob and Julian, which is so, SO exciting to me!!!!

-I hope that this reunion leads to more projects between the three of them!!! Maybe Tom will finally agree to come on Games With Names, who knows.

Sooooo...in Summary:

-Tom left Julian in 2020 and Julian didn't even find out from Tom himself.

-After not seeing or speaking to each other for ten whole years, Elliot Stabler told Olivia Benson that if he would have heard her voice after he left, that he actually would not have been able to leave.

-I have intermingled the two above events in my head to mean that Tom wanted to tell Julian that he was leaving but didn't because he feared that if he did, that he would not have actually left New England/the Patriots for real.

-Julian still misses and loves Tom so much even though he has a fantastic relationship with the one and only Robbie G. 🥺🤧🥰

-Tom has been busy this year hangning out and doing odd things, but WILL reunite with Rob and Julian when he offically enters his Television Broadcasting Career Era.

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I have been driving myself a tad insane with all of these thoughts and this post is my way of getting them out!!!! A big thank you to anyone who has stuck around to read all of this; I love and appreciate you more than you know. 😊<3 <3 <3