In the latest demonstration of letting his 42-year-old hair down, self-described “warm weather” Tom Brady went on SiriusXM for an interview with Howard Stern. Prior to the interview taking place, Stern had already talked up the six-time Super Bowl winner while comparing him to Jared Kushner.
Complaining about how Kushner was handling the pandemic, Stern questioned whether the senior advisor could handle his wife Ivanka Trump in bed. Apparently, Stern didn’t have the same concern about Brady.
“This f*cking Jared Kushner running things, it’s making me mental,” Stern said on his show. “[The coronavirus pandemic] is too serious a thing to be wasting time with this kid. How’s he f*cking Ivanka? She is a primo. Tom Brady looks like a guy who could handle Ivanka in bed.”
While Brady didn’t delve into anything quite as provocative (or entertaining) during his two-hour talk with Stern, he did swear and open up a little bit about the end of his time in New England with the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick, as well as his relationship with President Trump and what it’s been like living in Derek Jeter’s house in Tampa Bay — after some technical difficulties with Zoom were resolved.
Here’s the best of what he had to say:
On whether he or Belichick deserves credit for New England’s success: “I think it’s a pretty shitty argument … I can’t do his job and he can’t do mine. Could I be successful without him, the same level of success? I don’t believe I would have been. But I feel the same vice versa.”
On if he resents not being made a Patriot for life by Belichick: “Absolutely not.”
On his relationship with Belichick: “He has a lot of loyalty and we’ve had a lot of conversations that nobody has ever been privy to and nor should they be. So many wrong assumptions were made about our relationship and how he feels about me. I know genuinely how feels about me. I’m not going to respond to every rumor or assumption made other than what his responsibility is as a coach is to get the best player for the team not only for the short term but the long term as well.”
On why he started skipping OTAs in New England: “Two years ago, as it related to football for me, I had to make a big transition in my life to say I can’t do all the things that I wanted to do for football like I used to. I had to take care of my family because my family situation wasn’t great. She wasn’t satisfied with our marriage. I had to make a change in that.”
On how Gisele made it clear she wanted to go to therapy: “She actually wrote me a letter. It was a very thought-out letter that she wrote to me, and I still have it. I keep it in a drawer, and I read it, and it’s a very heartfelt letter for her to say this where I’m at in our marriage. It’s a good reminder to me that things are gonna change and evolve over time. What worked for us 10 years ago won’t work for us forever because we’re growing in different ways.”
On when he knew things were over with the Patriots: “I don’t think there was a final, final decision until it happened, but I would say I probably knew before the start of last season that it was my last year. I knew our time was coming to an end.”
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On leaving New England for Tampa Bay: “I would say I never cared about legacy. I could give a shit. I never said in high school, ‘Man, I can’t wait for what my football legacy looks like.’ That’s just not me. That’s not my personality. So why would I choose a different place? It’s just time. I don’t know what to say other than that. I had accomplished everything I could in two decades with an incredible organization and an incredible group of people. That will never change. No one can ever take that away from me. No one can take those Super Bowl championships or experiences away from us.”
On the prospect of playing for coach Bruce Arians in Tampa Bay. “I like him a lot. I think part of the reason I chose here is a lot of reasons. I learned so much about having the opportunity to evaluate where the priorities were for me. Coaching obviously was important, hugely important. He has a different way about him, but it’s authentic to him. I think the best thing for a coach to be is authentic to who you are. He definitely someone who tells you straight, which I appreciate, too.”
On how he wants the Patriots to do this year: “I have a lot of friends there. I want them to do great … Well, I want my team to win the Super Bowl.”
On how he relates to his teammates: “I know guys who came from wealthy backgrounds, I know guys who came from nothing. I know guys who came from good high schools, from shit high schools … You develop relationships with all these different people and you’ve gotta find ways to connect on different levels with different guys. I’ll be 43 this year, and a lot of my teammates will be 22. I’ve gotta connect with the 22-year-olds and find things we can share and have fun with. I think that’s why I’ve always enjoyed team sports because it’s not just about me.”
On when he’ll be ready to quit playing football: “I could sit here and (say) stop playing football so I could worry about what’s going to happen or worry about this or that instead of saying why don’t I live my life the way that I want to and enjoy it? For me, it’s doing what I love to do. You don’t tell a musician to stop singing at age 42. You don’t tell a great painter, stop painting at 42. If you want to stop, stop, go ahead. But for me, because I feel like I can still play doesn’t mean I should just stop playing because that’s what everyone tells me I should do.”
On his relationship with President Trump: “Yeah, he wanted me to speak at the [2016] convention, too, and I wasn’t going to do anything political. I met him in 2001. It was probably very similar to our relationship that you had with him. In 2002, after I won my first Super Bowl, he asked me to go judge a Miss USA competition, which I thought was the coolest thing in the world because I was 24 years old and had a chance to do something like that … He would call me after games. ‘I watched your games, Tom. Let’s play golf together.’ In 2003, 2004, that’s kind of the way it was. He became someone who would come up to our games and stand on the sideline and would cheer for the Patriots. He always had a way of connecting with people and still does. Then the whole political aspect came, and I think I got brought into a lot of those things because it was so polarizing around the election time. It was uncomfortable for me because you can’t undo things, not that I would undo a friendship, but political support is a lot different than the support of a friend.”
On politics in general: “I didn’t want to get into all the political, because there’s zero-win in regards to any of that. Because it’s politics. The whole political realm right now is, I dunno … I got brought together in a locker room where I was always trying to get along with everybody. I feel like in an outward sense when you start talking about politics it’s about how do you not bring people together, which is the opposite of what politics always should have been in our country.”
On if President Trump wanted him to marry Ivanka: “That was a long time ago. That was a long time ago in my life … There was never that where we ever dated or anything like that.”
On living in Derek Jeter’s house: “I am going to stay here for a while. I had to get here on really short notice. He’s been a friend of mine, so we talked and it all worked out. Perfect for me here to get started here. I forgot people could drive up to your house. Here they can pull right up to the back of the house. Derek did a pretty good job of screening it. I am a little bit of an introvert. I feel like my house is the place I can relax. When you are outside the house, you understand everything with being me … In the backyard, there’s a lot of boats that have pulled up and people at the front.”
On smoking and drinking in high school: “In the end what really kept me from smoking a lot of weed … obviously in high school you try that … but I always felt I was letting my dad down in a way … My dad was always available to me, so in a way when I did those things, I really felt guilty. If I woke up the next morning with a hangover, I just felt guilty about it. I never was really indulging. I definitely had my fun in high school, with partying and drinking and smoking weed on occasion, but as it got later in my high school life, those became less and less and less.”
On how he did as a student: “School was a lot harder for me (than sports) because I didn’t have much of an interest in school … I was smart enough to get by giving very average effort … If my kids gave the effort I did, I’d be pretty pissed at my kids.”
On if he is better than Joe Montana: “I can’t say that. I would never say that. That’s not how I Think about myself. The only thing I care about is am I the best I can be? I’m the best I can be.”
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