Donald Trump says Tom Brady, Bill Belichick are on his team; Gisele Bündchen disagrees

Tom Brady has been coy about his political support for Donald Trump, but, in one of his final speeches before the election, Trump revealed on Monday that the New England Patriots quarterback said he had voted for him — and that he had the support of Coach Bill Belichick, too.

“Tom Brady, great guy, great guy. Great guy, great friend of mine — great, great champion. Unbelievable winner,” Trump said in Manchester, N.H. “He called today and he said, ‘Donald, I support you, you’re my friend, and I voted for you.’ …

“And I said, ‘So, Tom. You voted for me, you support me, am I allowed to say it tonight at this massive crowd in New Hampshire?’ He said, ‘If you want to say it, you can say it.’ Okay? Tom — that’s what a champ is all about.”

That’s at odds with a comment by Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, over the weekend, but this much is certain: Brady has voted. Brookline town officials shared a photo with Boston’s Fox affiliate and said he had voted at 10 a.m. Monday.

Brady’s agent, Don Yee, also would not reveal Brady’s candidate choice, telling ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Brady, “like many Americans, prefers to keep his preferences to himself.”

During his inhumanly early weekly appearance Monday morning on WEEI, Brady promised to divulge which candidate he had voted for next Monday. Still, if there’s a hint, perhaps it came from Bundchen, who seemed to indicate over the weekend that the couple does not support Trump. (For one thing, Trump’s views on climate change are at odds with hers.)

This came to light when Bundchen shared an innocuous Instagram image of Brady at Boston’s Under Armour store and, deep in the comments, she was asked if the couple supported Trump.

Her response? “NO!”

During his speech Monday night, Trump also revealed the contents of a letter he said came from Belichick. He described it as “the most beautiful letter” and added that, when he asked whether he could read it at the rally, Belichick said he’d send one that “is a little bit different.”

“So I figured he was going to take all the good things out, right? Like most gutless people do. Gutless,” Trump said. “But he’s the opposite. He’s a champ. So he sent me the new letter and it was much better. It was stronger! Most people don’t do that.”

CSN New England confirmed the letter came from Belichick and here’s what Trump read to the crowd:

“Congratulations on a tremendous campaign. You have dealt with an unbelievable slanted and negative media and have come out beautifully. You’ve proved to be the ultimate competitor and fighter. Your leadership is amazing. I have always had tremendous respect for you, but the toughness and perseverance you have displayed over the past year is remarkable. Hopefully tomorrow’s election results will give the opportunity to Make America Great Again. Best wishes for great results tomorrow, Bill Belichick.”

In the swing state of New Hampshire, an endorsement from Brady and Belichick would carry a lot of weight. Most of the rest of the country feels differently about their Patriots, though.

Until Monday, Belichick had been mum on Trump — just as he is on most matters outside football. Brady, though, has faced questions about his relationship with the nominee since a “Make America Great Again” cap was spotted in his locker last year. He called Trump a friend and golfing partner, but shied away from endorsing him. Brady declined to weigh in on the issue of “locker room talk” when lewd comments by the candidate became public and although there was speculation that Brady might address the Republican National Convention, he did not appear.

Last December, Brady opened up a bit — but only a bit — about their relationship.

“Can I just stay out of this debate?” Brady said on WEEI. “Donald is a good friend of mine. I have known him for a long time. I support all my friends. That is what I have to say. He’s a good friend of mine. He’s always been so supportive of me — for the last 15 years, since I judged a beauty pageant for him, which was one of the very first things that I did that I thought was really cool. That came along with winning the Super Bowl. He’s always invited me to play golf. I’ve always enjoyed his company.

“I support all my friends in everything they do. I think it’s pretty remarkable what he’s achieved in his life. You’re going from business, kind of an incredible businessman and then a TV star, and then getting into politics. It’s a pretty different career path. I think that is pretty remarkable.”

Last month, he told WEEI that he and Trump maybe “would talk about it after Super Tuesday or whatever it is.” And he said he did plan to vote.

“I met him probably 15, 16 years ago,” Brady said. “We’ve played golf together many, many times and I’ve always had a good time with him. He’s been a friend of mine. He’s supported our team. He’s supported the Patriots. He’s been on the Patriots sideline a lot. He’s always called me after games to encourage me over the course of 15 years. That’s kind of the way it is.”

More games: friv

Tom Brady Has Never Eaten a Strawberry in His Entire Life

You’ll be happy to know that Tom Brady has been making good use of his time off:He got a new haircut.

The Patriots quarterback, who is currently serving a four-game suspension for a ball-deflating scandal that rocked Ben Affleck to his core, has been up to very little while he quietly endures these few mandated weeks away from football. “I don’t get the opportunity to do nothing, like I used to,” he explains wistfully, slouching in the style of a confident man on an olive velvet couch at the Viceroy hotel in midtown. He smells like clean wood. He looks like a cardboard cutout of Tom Brady. A haircut may have been the first thing he did with his newfound time away from football, but next came a nap.

“I like to take a little nap here and there. Read a book. Definitely listen to music. Anything that is just chilling a little bit.” This is what Tom Brady does when he has vowed to “do nothing,” the new personal mantra he’s adopted during his suspension. UGG, the slipper and boot brand that Brady has endorsed for the past six years, is supporting him in this pursuit, bringing bearded Jeff Bridges and fellow Patriot Julian Edelman along for the wild ride. Together, they are on a crusade to encourage more men who wear slippers to do nothing.

When I ask Brady how many pairs of UGGs he has at his house, he tells me, “I have a lot. More than you could ever imagine.” I try to imagine more UGGs than I could ever imagine. He’s right — I can’t imagine them. “My wife doesn’t let anyone wear shoes in our house, so we have a bench, and under the bench is all UGGs slippers.” The Brady-Bündch(en) household sounds incredibly relaxing. I ask Brady what he wears to go along with his thousands, potentially millions of pairs of UGGs — what is the best outfit in which to “do nothing”?

“I have more suits than days of the year that I get to wear them,” he says — roughly 10 or 15 days total. “It’s just the way it goes.” But that doesn’t mean that one of the world’s best living athletes to play for a Boston team laments not being able to wear a suit. “I’m a pretty casual dresser. At home, it’s probably whatever is functional to relax in, whether it’s a pair of sweats or a pair of jeans.”

Tom Brady, a human who seems genetically engineered to think about nothing but football, is starting to give off a real Jack Johnson vibe during his time away from the field. I begin to worry he might start expounding on the benefits of transcendental meditation or crystal therapy, so I inquire about his infamous health routine. Does Tom Brady ever miss all the good foods he doesn’t eat anymore? Would Tom Brady like to, say, eat a bowl of ice cream right now?

“I’m 39 and I get to play football for a living. There are not a lot of people who get that chance,” he says, an even more wistful, contemplative twinkle clouding his eyes. “Part of that is because of the way that I treat my body.” I release a deep sigh of relief. There’s the Tom Brady that the greater Boston area and some of Connecticut loves. “There are not many people who get to play for as long as I have, and I want to be able to show the next generation of athletes that if you follow certain routines and you’re disciplined in certain areas, then you could get to do this, too.”

But what about relaxing, not wearing suits, going with the flow … doing nothing? The new, extremely chill Tom Brady?

“Do you need to eat a cheeseburger every day to realize that you love a cheeseburger?” he ponders, Confucius-like. “Or could you eat it once a week … or once every two weeks … or once a month … or once every two months?” Tom Brady has learned that he doesn’t love strawberries or coffee by never having tried either at all, a commitment no mortal man could ever conceive of pulling off. “I’ve never eaten a strawberry in my life. I have no desire to do that.” Never? “Absolutely not.” Brady is magnificently laser-focused for a man who owns more UGGs than any person could ever imagine. “I don’t believe you could be a 39-year-old quarterback in the NFL and eat cheeseburgers every day. I want to be able to do what I love to do for a long time.”

For this reason, he and Gisele, an entirely ageless supermodel, seem like a match made in heaven — or a Cambridge-area lab. I ask which of the two manages to “do nothing” more. Without equivocating, he responds, “Definitely me.” Could he do Gisele’s job? “Hell no,” he says, again with certainty, like he’s thought about trying before. “I’m very efficient in what I do. I don’t waste any time or energy anymore doing things that I know don’t work. I think she’s very much the same way in her job. She’s like, ‘You do this, you do this, you do that.’ That’s like us in our house. ‘You do that, you do that,’” he says while mime-snapping his fingers, “and I’m like, ‘Okay! Okay!’” He laughs. I laugh. More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life, I’d kill to be an errant grain forgotten on the floor of the Brady-Bündchen household. Do they really abstain from eating cheeseburgers every day? Is Coldplay really Tom Brady’s favorite musical group?

UGGs or no, active player or suspended, Tom Brady is confoundingly still human. When I ask him if, like Tim Tebow, he could imagine tackling a sport other than football, he sits stumped for several long moments, really considering what could be better than being Tom Brady, who he already is. “I’ve always been the slowest guy on the team, so I’d love to be like Usain Bolt. I’d love to be the fastest guy on the planet.” Philosophically, he adds, “When I’m on the field, I sometimes think, Man if I could just run away from everybody, how hard would this game really be?”.

Patriots fans rally to Tom Brady's defense as he returns to practice

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The “FIRE GOODELL” shirt Matt Bishop wears once a week was in the wash, or he would’ve worn it under his Tom Bradyjersey for the first day of training camp.

“Even if he did do it, does it really matter?” said Bishop, a 19-year-old student from East Taunton, Mass., as he stood in a seemingly endless line of fans outside the New England Patriots’ practice fields Thursday morning.

“Aaron Rodgers can go out and openly say he overinflates footballs, and no one bats an eye. (Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson) said he paid off someone before the Super Bowl to deflate footballs. No big deal. But God forbid angel-faced Tom Brady goes out there and deflates some footballs.”

The “Deflategate” saga is over, at least as far as the Patriots and their superstar quarterback are concerned. Brady, who turns 39 next week, will serve a four-game suspension to start the season after dropping his end of a legal fight the NFL Players Association still may take to the Supreme Court, pressing third-year pro Jimmy Garoppolo into early action for the perennial contenders.

New England's history under coach Bill Belichick suggests they’ll be just fine, their run of seven consecutive AFC East titles and 13 seasons in a row with 10-plus wins in no great jeopardy.

Brady will return Oct. 9 against the Cleveland Browns. And when it comes to his reputation — at least around here — it seems nothing has changed.

“Tom Brady’s the man,” said Jeff Carroll, a 30-year-old police officer from West Warwick, R.I., wearing a “TOM F-N BRADY” shirt. “He’s got too many rings. That’s what it is. Everybody hates people that got rings. It’s the jealousy thing, man. Haters keep on hating.”

Cheers of “Brady! Brady!” started early in the packed stands Thursday. A sign declaring “TOM IS GOD” was visible near another that called for the ouster NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose decision to uphold Brady’s suspension for participation in an alleged plot to deflate footballs in the AFC Championship Game following the 2014 season sent the matter into the courts.

Brady “didn’t hide anything, besides his little mishap with his phone,” said Al Camara, 52, of Attleboro, Mass., wearing a Brady jersey and replicas of the Patriots’ four Super Bowl rings. “I wish he was playing. But hopefully, our future quarterback is going to look good for when Tom Brady decides to retire.”

As is their custom on any controversial subject, Patriots players deflected questions about Brady’s suspension and the unusual setup at quarterback, where Brady took the first rep in most drills Thursday before Garoppolo opened an 11-on-11 period late in practice.

“Nothing has really changed,” Garoppolo said. “When they put me in for the reps I’m in for, I’ll go out there, do my best and do whatever the coaches ask.”

Asked if the outcome of Brady’s legal fight was fair, all-pro tight end Rob Gronkowski made a face. “Come on,” he said. “Is that a question?”

The verdict among the fans was clear.

“It was absolutely pathetic,” said John Delcore, 60, a federal auditor from Melrose, Mass. “It was totally blown out of proportion. I think it all comes down to other teams were jealous, and other owners had it in for” Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who chatted with Brady for a while on the field during Thursday’s practice.

Brady didn’t speak to reporters but seemed like himself in action. He showed frustration when he underthrew a pass during a red-zone drill and spent extra time during and after practice working on routes with Gronkowski and fellow tight end Martellus Bennett, who arrived in an offseason trade with the Chicago Bears.

“No matter what the circumstances are,” Gronkowski said, “I never see Tom Brady come out and not give it all in practice.”

The Patriots last missed the playoffs in 2008, when Brady blew out a knee in Week 1. They still went 11-5 behind untested Matt Cassel. Like Cassel then, Garoppolo has never started an NFL game. But that’s set to change with the Sept. 11 prime-time opener on the road against the Arizona Cardinals — the Patriots’ toughest challenge on paper until Brady returns, with their next three games at home against the Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills.

“I wish (Brady) took it to the (Supreme) Court,” Bishop said, “because it’s no longer about Brady. It’s about Goodell being a tyrant. Someone could give him a dirty look, and they’re suspended for four games now.”

Dropping the legal fight when Brady did gave the Patriots clarity on his situation, though. Belichick got in front of any misguided speculation Wednesday by saying Brady will return as the starter once he’s reinstated — though the focus is on getting Garoppolo ready now.

“They just have to weather the storm until (Brady)’s back,” said Delcore’s son, John Jr., 32. “And Cleveland should watch out Week 5.”

Wait, what’s in Tom Brady’s freezer?

On June 21, Tom Brady posted on his Facebook account a photo of his two kids hanging out by the open freezer in their home, with the family dog standing inside. “I turn my back for one second and Fluffy’s in the freezer,” Brady wrote. “At least she didn’t get into the avocado ice cream!”

Everyone knows our New England Patriots quarterback is a healthy guy who watches what he eats, and we couldn’t help but notice what the Brady family freezer contains. We see there are two containers of his trademark avocado ice cream, as well as two other containers labeled “vanilla” and “coconut.”

Upon closer inspection, one can also see that someone in Brady’s household really enjoys Greek frozen yogurt pops made by Yasso, a company whose slogan is “dessert with benefits.” We spotted one box of Yasso’s chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt pops in there, along with four other different flavors of Yasso frozen desserts.

After Brady posted the photo, traffic to Yasso’s website surged and temporarily crashed the brand’s site. A Yasso spokesperson told us that the Massachusetts-based company responded by making Brady his very own limited batch flavor in their test kitchen. Can you guess what flavor it is? (Scroll down for the answer...)

HOW TOM BRADY CAN AVOID 4-GAME DEFLATEGATE SUSPENSION TO START 2016 SEASON

It’s been roughly three weeks since a federal court ruled Tom Brady must serve his four-game suspension for his role in Deflategate. Nothing new has happened with the case since, besides Brady and the NFLPA getting extra time to plan their next step.

 

There are still many questions with the case from a legal standpoint — the biggest being will Brady in fact miss the first four games of the season?

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio had a great breakdown of what is next for Brady. Here are some of the highlights:

— By Monday, Brady and the NFLPA will likely file a petition for a rehearing of the federal appeal. If the petition is granted, Brady likely will able to play the entire 2016 season as the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit hears the case.

— On the other hand, if the petition is denied, Brady and the NFLPA would need to take further action to delay the suspension and persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.

— Brady and the NFLPA would need to ask the Second Circuit for a stay of the suspension while an appeal is prepared for the U.S. Supreme Court. If the request is denied, Brady and the NFLPA would then need to present to the full U.S. Supreme Court, but to the lone Supreme Court justice assigned to the Second Circuit.

— As it stands now Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is that person, which Florio says is good news for Brady as she typically sides with labor over management. She could be the key to the entire case as if she did issue a stay, Brady wouldn’t have to serve a suspension until likely 2017 at the earliest.

As always with this case, stay tuned.

Tom Brady’s Facebook is on fire

Tom Brady(‘s social media manager) is having a good offseason.

On Thursday morning, the ingenious Facebook account of the Patriots quarterback struck again.

In a spoof Beats by Dre commercial, Brady drowns out the construction noises at his mansion by slipping on his headphones … and listening to a remix of the 1990s game “What’s Up” by the 4 Non Blondes. The cheeky caption says: “A lot of people have asked me what I listen to to get in the zone…”

Last week, Brady’s account drew its inspiration from “Anchorman” with a short clip of Brady tooting on a conch shell and the command: “New England Patriots RECEIVERS… ASSEMBLE!!!”

Wideouts Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, tight end/human embodiment of the phrase “jock jam” Rob Gronkowski and newcomer Martellus Bennett each posted responses to the highly successful meme.

Tom Brady Doesn’t Make Top 15 In ESPN’s Ranking Of Super Bowl MVP Performances

Tom Brady has had some memorable Super Bowl performances, but where does he rank among his fellow MVPs? 

Well, ESPN took a crack at that very question when it ranked all 49 Super Bowl MVPs based on their performances on football’s biggest stage. The Patriots quarterback made the list three times, but none of those were within the top 15 spots. 

Brady’s best ranking was 16th for his performance in Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Carolina Panthers. His comeback effort against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX was right behind at No. 17, and his performance against the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI was ranked No. 32. On the flip side, ESPN recently named Brady the greatest player in Super Bowl history. 

Deion Branch, the only other New England player to win Super Bowl MVP honors, was ranked No. 37 for his play in Super Bowl XXXIX. 

Joe Montana, someone Brady often is linked to as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, took home the top spot for his effort in Super Bowl XXIV. Montana was followed by Terry Bradshaw (Super Bowl XIII), Steve Young (Super Bowl XXIX), Doug Williams (Super Bowl XXII), Jerry Rice (Super Bowl XXIII), Emmitt Smith (Super Bowl XXVIII), John Riggins (Super Bowl XVII), Joe Flacco (Super Bowl XLVII), Terrell Davis (Super Bowl XXXII) and Larry Csonka (Super Bowl VIII) in the top 10.