Saying Tom Brady is the NFL's greatest player of all time is starting to feel like an understatement.
But is his talent overshadowed by controversy? Here's the shady side of Tom Brady.
Brady's business partner, Alex Guerrero , is a long-time health-industry huckster with
questionable credentials — he has lied under oath and even allegedly posed as a doctor
to hock fake cures to AIDS patients, according to Boston magazine.
Brady is big into holistic healing and has come "under Guerrero's spell," as the publication
claimed. As a result, Guerrero runs the quarterback's questionable TB12 Sports Therapy Center. Guerrero
was sued by the Federal Trade Commission in 2004 for selling a fraudulent cancer treatment
complete with fabricated research detailing miraculous recoveries that reportedly never
happened.
Although it seems like scamming terminal cancer patients would be enough to get Brady to drop-step
and pivot away from Guerrero, the QB instead defended this alleged con man during an interview
with W.E.E.I. Sports Radio Network, saying,
"I mean, that's part of his life and that's something that happened 13 years ago. [...] Nutritional
supplements and FTC regulation, and all those types of things, there are a lot of gray areas."
Brady even reportedly forced The New England Patriots to employ Guerrero, despite what
Forbes described as "his disgusting history of deception."
Brady will have made some $350 million dollars, minimum, when he's done with NFL glory, according
to Forbes. Taxes do take a bite, so Yahoo! estimates his net worth as around $200 million.
That tidy sum is somehow dwarfed by his wife Gisele Bündchen's own estimated net worth
of $400 million. This power couple is well on its way to billionaire status, and yet,
when the coronavirus pandemic hit, Brady, instead of keeping his TB12 business afloat
with his own bountiful liquidity, took $960,000 from taxpayers, according to CNBC.
The cash was a PPE loan, the Paycheck Protection Program, run by the U.S. Small Business Administration,
which released the information on Brady's company. The program was designed to allow
companies struggling with pandemic disruptions to keep employees on the payroll, but, as
the publication reported,
"It's unclear how TB12 was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and how many jobs it
retained with the loan."
Other successful sports businesses, like the NBA's most cash-rich franchise, The Los Angeles
Lakers, took similar loans — $4.6 million in their case — but paid it back when the
PPP went broke. Nearly 100,000 small businesses of all types shut their doors for good during
the first seven months of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, according to data released
by Yelp. Not all of them could access these publicly funded, low-interest loan programs
that were so quickly snapped up by Brady and others with questionable need.
Speaking of shocking Brady business practices, Brady and the TB12 brand has a $200 cookbook
for you, The TB12 Method: How to Do What You Love, Better and for Longer. CBS Sports joked
that the "absurd" cost is fully justified, as they put it,
"If you hate sugar, white flour, olive oil, iodized salt, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms,
eggplants, all caffeine and dairy products."
TB12 describes this book as a "living document" that can be continually amended. It's also
made in the U.S. and, according to Brady's website:
"[The book is] printed on thick 100-pound text paper. The covers are made from natural
wood with a laser-etched TB12 logo and title."
Brady's own diet is famously uber-specific.
"I love to eat good, you know why I love to eat good? 'Cause it makes me feel better.
And if I feel better, then I can work out more."
His personal chef told Boston.com the quarterback eats 80% vegetables, but he shuns two very
commonly used pieces of produce: mushrooms and tomatoes. Sometimes Brady goes wild and
enjoys some ice cream — but not actual ice cream, obviously — TB12 avocado ice cream,
which he even shared with reporters on his 40th birthday.
You can save yourself the $200 and nab the recipe from Boston.com, who re-printed it
and pointed out how TB12 blurred out the details when promoting it on Facebook. With those
savings, you could invest in Gisele's $700 coffee table book.
Something weird happened in week five after Brady's new team in 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
lost a nail-biter to Nick Foles' new team, the Chicago Bears, 19 to 20. According to
Bleacher Report, Brady ran off the field without the customary dabs between the rival QB's,
leaving a sad-looking Foles sort of wandering around the field. After the game, Brady told
reporters,
"I don't think it's anything in particular except I have great admiration for Nick and
he's off to a helluva start."
So maybe it was just a Covid precaution? Well, not so fast. Kyle Brandt pointed out on Good
Morning Football that Brady gave plenty of love after games that season to other guys.
So what gives? Brandt pulled no punches when he further speculated,
"Is it because he beats you every time, Tom?"
And maybe there's something there. Foles' former team, The Philadelphia Eagles, upset
Brady and his New England Patriots at Super Bowl 53 in 2019. Foles, a backup playing behind
Carson Wentz for most of the season, replaced the injured starter, led the Eagles through
the playoffs, and beat Brady out for Super Bowl MVP. Brady is an insatiable competitor
and this most recent loss might still sting.
Any football player will admit that the funny-shaped ball is easier to grip when it's a teensy
bit flat. Brady obviously agrees, but his love of slightly softer footballs created
a scandal so big that in 2019, a 10-year-old boy received national attention for his science
fair project called "Is Brady a cheater?," which demonstrated flat balls are indeed more
accurate, according to NBC News.
The scandal was dubbed "Deflategate." The NFL's investigation found that Brady was,
quote, "at least generally aware" of team staff's efforts to use balls with lower pounds
per square inch levels than the league mandated during the 2015 season. Brady earned a four-game
suspension for this crime, his team was fined $1,000,000, and they lost several draft picks.
"I don't know what happened between the time that I had touched it and, really until Monday
morning I have no idea what happened with the balls."
Brady has made four Super Bowl appearances since he got caught in this supposed scheme
— and deflategate has just plain "aged poorly," according to one ESPN reporter, who wrote,
"At best, it was a relatively minor rules violation that no rational person would link
to the Patriots' victory two weeks later in Super Bowl [49]"
A 2021 documentary Four Games in Fall further dogged the NFL, suggesting that the league
ignored science. The went on to say,
"[The league] used biased investigators, manipulated evidence and an effective, if pathetic, misinformation
campaign to railroad Brady."
The air has come out of this story, but whatever the merits, it was devastating to Brady personally.
As much of a nothing burger as "Deflategate" may seem in retrospect, it was pretty rough
for Brady at the time, not just as an athlete, but as a husband. Brady had been married to
Bundchen for six years in 2015 when the pseudo-scandal broke, and it reportedly pushed the relationship
into "dangerous territory" when Bundchen "threatened" Brady with divorce, according to US Weekly.
The magazine said the couple was having "intense fights" following the announcement of Brady's
four-game suspension for his alleged minor role in deflating footballs for competitive
advantage. A family insider claimed,
"Tom's become very nasty and irritable and started acting out on her."
Things got so bad Bundchen allegedly visited a divorce attorney. The source went on to
say,
"Tom thinks it's only a threat. But this is definitely a rough patch. [...] This could
be the end for them."
Another report described Brady as "moody, [...] nasty and cold," supposedly succumbing
to the stress of the scandal. A source told People magazine,
"Tom is singularly focused on his career and sometimes Gisele feels left out. There have
been arguments."
The couple then declined to spend their summer birthdays together that year — even while
Gisele was signaling that all was well from afar with a throwback photo on Instagram.
But whatever transpired, they got through it, and no actual divorce proceedings ensued.
"No matter how challenging it was, we've always been supportive of one another and I think
that's the most important thing you can have."
We can all relate to that awkward situation when you start dating the world's most famous
supermodel — but then your movie star ex calls up with some huge news. Right? Bundchen
wrote in her memoir,
"Two months into our relationship, Tom told me that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant. The
very next day the news was everywhere, and I felt my world had been turned upside down."
That ex-girlfriend was actress Bridget Moynahan . She and Brady met in 2004 and split in late
2006. The quarterback had so quickly moved on that a blissful Bundchen has repeatedly
described being blindsided. She told Vanity Fair,
"This can't be true, it's so good!' And then, Whoops — wake-up call!”
"I felt like I didn't know what to do. It was kind of one of those moments of like,
do I just run away?"
Moynahan gave birth in 2007 to a healthy baby boy, and told Harper's Bazaar,
"I'm not sure anyone — and I could be wrong in this — grows up thinking, 'I want to
be a single mom.'"
But even if both women struggled with this unexpected familial triangle initially, Bundchen
told People magazine she has no regrets about her blended family. She explained,
"I'm so grateful for [Bridget], I know this was hard, but I couldn't imagine my life without
[Jack]. I call him my bonus child."
Brady got pulled into politics in 2020 when a supposed quote attributed to him about Donald
Trump started circulating. According to the New York Post, Brady allegedly said,
"The guy is doing his best to help the country. I'd like to see his critics try to do better
in his position."
In reality, a parody account on Twitter had fabricated the whole thing, according to Forbes.
But Brady was dragged anyway, partly because a "Make America Great Again" hat was spotted
in his locker in 2015. Brady said it was a gift from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a Trump
donor. Still, the football star and the former president are apparently buddies. Speaking
about Trump's surprisingly good golf game, Brady told GQ that "he just doesn't lose."
But as the presidential campaign heated up that year, the QB became decidedly non-partisan,
swearing off talking politics entirely, according to the Boston Globe. Still, the drag Brady
party continued. In 2021, a viral tweet that was cited by Newsweek stated,
"Funny how people can separate Brady's politics from his game, but struggle to do the same
when it comes to Kaepernick ."
But, what politics? Brady even distanced himself from his POTUS pal in 2017 when he notably
skipped the Patriots' post-Super Bowl trip to the White House. Brady had a solid excuse,
telling Extra he was with his ailing mother, who was being treated for cancer.
The Super Bowl is not only one of the most-watched events on the planet, but it's also physically
attended by tens of thousands of people. In the year 2021 — also known as Pandemic:
Year Two — that made it a perfect opportunity to showcase how a massive sporting event could
be a lesson in COVID-19 safety precautions for large gatherings. In fact, ahead of the
game, CNBC reported,
"NFL executive Jeff Miller said mask-wearing will be mandatory for fans, players and team
staff, and the league will enforce social-distancing measures."
"Well, I may argue something differently."
It would seem these rules don't apply to the GOAT.
Not only was Brady caught walking into Raymond James Stadium maskless ahead of Super Bowl
55, he clearly did not wear a mask during the post-game celebration of his historic
seventh win of the big game. Granted, Brady was far from the only player or spectator
caught maskless during the event, which Yahoo! Sports reported has "health authorities already
worried" that it was a "super-spreader event" in the making.
Brady hasn't commented on the controversy, but his father, who contracted and recovered
from COVID-19 in late 2020, shed a tiny bit of light on his son's apparent aversion to
mask-wearing. Speaking with NFL, the elder Brady said,
"You know what? He’s 43 years of age. We keep harping on it. [...] He probably takes
45 pills a day. [...] So far, God willing, he’s still healthy. But the answer is yes,
we do [tell him to wear a mask]."
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