If it helps to have friends in high places, Tom Brady is about to get even luckier — if that’s possible.
Now the president-elect, Trump is standing by Brady, even going so far as to say that he believes the quarterback did nothing wrong in that whole Deflategate thing that resulted in a four-game suspension at the start of the season.
“He’s a friend of mine, he’s a great guy, and he’s a great athlete obviously, but he’s a winner,” Trump said Friday in an interview with TMZ’s Harvey Levin that was recorded in October and shown Friday on Fox News.
Trump went on to say that Brady “played better when he had the other ball,” which is rather eyebrow-raising, but added, “I think Tom is totally innocent. I think Tom is — first of all, I know him, he’s such an honorable guy, and I’m with him all the way.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has backed Brady. Shortly after the NFL’s Wells Report on Deflategate was released, Trump tweeted that Brady was “a total winner” and would’ve won even “if he was throwing a soccer ball.”
He even foreshadowed his presidency.
As for Brady, he had delicately danced around the issue of his political support for Trump ever since a “Make America Great Again” cap was spotted in his locker in 2015, but he did sound excited about the possibility that, as he put it, Trump would probably put “a putting green on the White House lawn.”
Trump had said he understood because of Brady’s endorsement deals, but during the final days of the campaign, he brought Brady back into the conversation when he told a New Hampshire crowd that Brady had called to say he had voted for Trump. Brady wouldn’t confirm that, and it would seem to have been at odds with an Instagram comment by his wife, Gisele Bündchen, who replied “NO!” when asked whether the couple supported Trump.
Now that Trump is about to become president, maybe he’ll override Roger Goodell and absolve Brady.