Tom Brady hasn’t spoken to Donald Trump in years and says their relationship was mischaracterised.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, 44, was often pictured golfing with the ex-president before Trump took office in 2017, and had a conspicuously placed ‘Make America Great Again’ hat in his locker while with the New England Patriots two years earlier.
When asked about the relationship in a new interview with Variety, Tom admitted he hadn’t seen Trump for “a lot of years” but added he didn’t want to disparage anyone.
He said: “My personality isn’t ever one to insult anybody... I have plenty of my own flaws. I’m not here to point out anyone else’s flaws.
“There are things that I agree with. There are things that I don’t. There are things I agree with my wife about.
“There are things that I don't. I love her to death, but we don’t always see eye to eye. I don’t see eye to eye with anyone.
“And I’m not responsible for what other people say. I’m really responsible for what I say.
“So if people want to say things that I said or that I’m about, that’s up to them, and I’m not going to respond to all those things all the time either.”
He said his mainly golf-based relationship with Trump, which goes back to 2001, started when he was “so young”.
Tom added: “This was 17 or 18 years ago. I was so young. I got to go to a private golf course. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.”
He also said media “mischaracterised” their relationship by falsely portraying the pair as close.
When reporters noticed his MAGA hat in his locker in 2015, Tom said he hoped Trump would be a great president.
His supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, 41, has said she and her husband did not back Trump as a presidential candidate.
Tom also said he couldn’t put a date on his retirement, adding: “I would say it’s year to year: Could this be my last year? Absolutely. Could I change my mind? Absolutely.”
His interview with Variety was released before the news Trump’s first wife Ivana had died aged 73.
Latest reports say she was found at the bottom of the stairs of her townhouse in Manhattan just before 1pm local time on Thursday (14.07.22) after she apparently suffered a heart attack.
One of three children she had with Trump, 38-year-old Eric, was spotted at the home after her death was confirmed.
He said after leaving: “It’s been a very sad day, a very sad day.”
