The toughest pass Tom Brady completed this past February wasn’t one of his three touchdowns from Super Bowl LV. It came a few days later as the Buccaneers celebrated their championship with a boat parade around Tampa. That’s when Brady famously launched the Vince Lombardi Trophy from his vessel over the open waters of one of the city’s channels and into the hands of Bucs tight end Cameron Brate, narrowly avoiding disaster.
Three months after the hilarious stunt, or agita-inducing moment depending on your perspective, we get a glimpse into what the three-time Super Bowl MVP was thinking thanks to a new campaign Brady appears in for the eyewear brand Christopher Cloos.
Produced by the European company that was founded just four years ago and is debuting a new collaboration with the quarterback, the tongue-in-cheek video called “A Closer Look” shows off Brady’s comedy chops and gives fans the scientific inside scoop into how he completed what some might consider the most challenging throw of his career.
While promoting the Cloos x Brady collection that features pairs of shades like the Hermosa frame named after his favorite Costa Rican beach desitnation and blue light glasses, the seven-time Super Bowl champion was a recent guest on The Complex Sports Podcast and talked about that infamous afternoon on the waters of Tampa Bay where it looked like he was having the time of his life.
“What’s funny about that is I had obviously been very fortunate to have some parades in the past,” says Brady. “They were never on a boat and they were never 80 degree weather. So it was the coolest. The fact that we were rolling through downtown on boats, you know, and we were having the best time, it made for a perfect day. I’m glad Cloos got all the marketing from it.”
Brady’s also, predictably, pretty damn excited about the prospects of the Buccaneers repeating. All 22 starters from the 2020 squad are set to return, but the task of becoming the first back-to-back Super Bowl winners since Brady was under center with the Patriots in the early 2000s wasn’t made any easier when the NFL expanded the regular-season to 17 games.
“It’s great to have so many of the guys coming back,” Brady tells Complex Sports. “As I always say, just winning a game in the NFL is hard—and now we have 17 of them! All of us now understand the commitment it takes to win a Super Bowl and we’ll have to be even better this season to repeat.”
The episode featuring the GOAT will include more exclusive answers from Brady about the Buccaneers, the boat parade, how the 43-year-old living legend is absolutely not washed, and more.
—Additional reporting from Zach Frydenlund
