In his first extensive interview since leaving the New England Patriots, Tom Brady sat down with Howard Stern on Wednesday and let his guard down. At least by Tom Brady standards. In a long and winding conversation, the Buccaneers quarterback explained how he knew it was the right time to move on from the Patriots, and gave stunning insight into his marriage with Gisele, among many other things.
When the news first broke that Brady was moving on from the Patriots after being with the team since 2000, many people were shocked. But Brady admitted to Stern that even before the start of last season, he knew it was going to be his last 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," he explained.
Brady also discussed the raging debate regarding who deserves the most credit for the success of the team, him or Bill Belichick. "I think it is a pretty shitty argument, actually. I can't do his job and he can't do mine," he told Stern while wishing the Patriots well going forward. "I have a lot of friends there. I want them to do great," he explained.
When it came to the touchy subject of his longtime friend Donald Trump, Brady kept his comments brief. He said that Trump asked him to speak at the Republican Convention in 2016, but he ultimately declined. "The political support is totally different from the support of a friend. .... I wasn't going to support, I didn't want to get into all the political, because there's zero-win in regards to any of that."
At one point, Stern brought up the fact that Trump wanted to hook Brady up with his daughter, Ivanka. While Brady never confirmed it, he didn't exactly deny it either.
Perhaps the most revealing part of the interview came when talk turned to his marriage with Gisele. Brady explained that his dedication to football started to get in the way of his family life. "I had to check myself," he said, adding that Gisele "wasn't satisfied with our marriage." He explained that he had to "make a change in that," since Gisele thought he wasn't "doing my part for the family." Brady also revealed that Gisele wrote him a letter about their marriage that he kept. "I keep it in a drawer and I read it and it was a heartfelt letter that said this is where we are in our marriage," he said.
"She felt like I would play football all season, and she’d take care of the house," he said. "Then, when the season ended, I’d be like ‘Great, let me get into all my other business activities, let me get into my football training,’ and she’s going ‘When are you going to do for things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school?’ That was a big part of our marriage."
As the conversation fluctuated between his personal life and his football career, Stern asked Brady about the shower room situation for NFL teams, and Brady provided an interesting insight. "Why are we doing this?" he asked of open showers in the locker room. "You get used to it. Every guy's penis looks the exact same. A man's a man," he added.
Speaking of male genitalia, Brady recalled getting hit in that region by a football, and described how one of his testicles swelled to the size of an orange. Listen below.
Another part of the interview that got people's attention was when the usually buttoned-up Brady discussed "partying and drinking and smoking weed" back in high school.
If you want to listen to the interview in its entirety but don't subscribe to Sirius, you're in luck. The satellite radio service is available for free until May 15.
