Trump and Brady: ‘It’s just a friendship’
If Tom Brady picked up a phone and called President Donald Trump in the days leading up to his inauguration, he would prefer for that to remain a state secret, thank you very much.
“I have called him, yes, in the past. Sometimes he calls me. Sometimes I call,” the Patriots quarterback said Monday on a radio show, detailing his diali ng habits. “But, again, that’s been someone I’ ve known. I always try to keep it in context because for 16 years you know someone before maybe he was in the position that he was in. He’s been very supportive of me for along time. It’ s just a friendship. I have a lot of friends. I call a lot of people.”
Brady has tried to dodge political talk about Trump throughout the regular season, and he was taking evasive action again last week after Trump addressed Patriots owner Robert Kraft during a pre-inaugural dinner, saying, “Your friend Tom just called. He feels good. He called to congratulate us. He feels good.”
Brady might have let the topic die after that statement, but he elaborated the morning after the Patriots advanced to Super Bowl LI.
“Why does everybody make such a big deal?” he said. “I don’t understand it.”
It has been a rather big deal ever since a Make America Great Again cap was spotted in Brady’s locker during the 2015 season.
He, along with coach Bill Belichick, have been asked again and again about the friendship with Trump. During a campaign stop the weekend before the election, Trump proclaimed in New Hampshire that Brady had voted for him and Belichick had sent a supportive note. But Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, replied “NO!” to an Instagram user who asked if she and Brady supported Trump.
Last October, he described a relationship based on golf and Trump’s support for the football team. On Monday, Brady said even the best of friends and golfing buddies don’t always agree on every single thing.
“I don’t want to get into it, but if you know someone it doesn’t mean you agree with everything they say or they do. You have a lot of friends in your life,” Brady said.
“I think there are things that are based in your own dealings with someone that is a personal dealing, not a public dealing. Because you have personal experiences.”
With a Super Bowl less than two weeks away, Brady least of all wants to create the thing football coaches hate most: a distraction.
“I just don’t want to be a distraction for our team. There are too many guys that are working hard in one direction to help us win games to help us get to the point where we are now.”