Tom Brady covers the latest issue of Variety. It was only four months ago that Brady decided to un-retire from football and he will be playing for Tampa Bay in the upcoming season. Even though Brady was only technically retired for forty days, he had already made some significant retirement moves. It’s what Serena Williams has done too – plan for the future, plan for when you do retire from your sport. Thus, Tom has a huge Fox Sports contract just waiting for him when he’s done as a football player. He also has a production company and has started producing films and documentaries. He’s got a fashion line and the TB Method diet/exercise crap. He’s a one-man conglomerate. That’s why he’s on the cover of Variety. I walked into this interview thinking that he would just be a meathead about everything, but he actually talked about some interesting stuff. Some highlights:

Whether he knows when he’ll be done playing football: “I really don’t. I would say it’s year to year: Could this be my last year? Absolutely. Could I change my mind? Absolutely. I’ve realized I don’t have five years left. I want to do it my way. I want to give it everything I got and see where I’m at. My body feels really good. I’ve had a lot of traumatic injuries over the years, but if things go really smoothly and we win, that’d be great.

An unheard-of 40-day retirement: “I know, I know. I would have preferred to un-retire in July if I wanted to play. But I couldn’t. If I said I’m not playing, they’d make plans. So I felt there was a lot of pressure to make a decision quickly. And then ultimately, I just decided, “Yes, let’s do it.” And once I said that, it was like — OK, here we go.

Movies he’s seen recently: “I really love documentaries just because I really feel like I’m learning something. I really love “Free Solo,” “Meru,” “The Alpinist,” “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” “Citizenfour.” “Icarus” was another great one. These are real-life stories — part of what inspired me to do “Tom vs Time” and even “Man in the Arena” to a degree.

Whether he watches much TV: “A little bit. I don’t have the time. I watched “Ted Lasso” for the first time, and I loved that. I started “Yellowstone.” Before I had kids, my wife and I would binge-watch a lot of shows. “24,” “The Shield,” “West Wing.” It was never “Seinfeld” or “Friends” — I didn’t really watch any of those. We would binge-watch “Entourage.”

Whether there could be an openly gay quarterback in the NFL: “Could there literally be? Yeah, absolutely. [Q: And he would be accepted by players and fans?] I don’t think it would surprise them. There are gay players — not that many openly gay players, for one reason or another. But there’s been very successful gay players in men’s sports for sure.

Whether he would consider a career in politics: “Probably not. I don’t think anyone’s fond of politics these days.

Whether he’s in touch with Trump: “No. I haven’t talked to him in a lot of years. I think [the media] just mischaracterized a lot. And 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.

His diet: “I mean, I eat ice cream. I’m not very super strict with my diet. I don’t want to give off the impression that I’m some psychopath about a diet. I just make good choices most of the time. It’s not even about the diet. You’ve got to see the process of food being grown. Just because it’s in a grocery store doesn’t mean it’s food. My view of food is, like, I need things that are going to give my body what it needs. Does that make sense? I don’t want calories. If I need nutrients, I need that from soil. It’s not going to be from Frosted Flakes. Now, because they sell it in a grocery store, people correlate that to “I’m going to get food.” In my view, that food would have never allowed me to play football until I’m 44.

[From Variety]

This little rant about politics and Trump is his attempt at a diplomatic “live and let live” approach to modern politics. Which doesn’t cut it. I understand if he doesn’t want to constantly chime in about this political issue or that one, it is his privilege as a white man to stay silent whenever and wherever he chooses, because clearly those issues don’t affect him at all. But I would hope that even Tom Brady could stop for a moment and just acknowledge that Donald Trump is a treasonous, evil piece of sh-t. It f–king sucks that Brady still “worries” about alienating or insulting Trump and Trump’s death cult.

As for the retirement stuff… I sort of understand what he means. He’s going to play in this upcoming season and see how he feels at the end of the season. That’s it. If he feels like “sh-t, I can’t keep doing this to my body,” he’ll retire. If he still has goals and sh-t he wants to do, he’ll keep playing.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Instagram.