Tom Brady is still talking. He has a podcast called Let’s Go!, with his buddies Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray. In a recent episode, Brady talked about the 2004 Super Bowl, which he played (and won). That was the infamous Super Bowl where Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performed during the Halftime show, and Timberlake ripped Janet’s costume and revealed her boob. Les Moonves basically took out a fatwa against Janet and her career suffered for years and years (all while Timberlake was simply allowed to move on). There were congressional hearings and Fox News went apesh-t for months about it. But according to Brady, that whole episode was good for the NFL long-term.
During a recent episode of his Let’s Go! podcast, Brady offered an eye-opening take on the Janet Jackson controversy, suggesting it was actually good thing for the NFL due to the increased publicity surrounding the Super Bowl halftime show. Via the New York Post, Brady admitted that he and the rest of his teammates were too focused on the Patriots’ Super Bowl clash vs. the Panthers to watch the halftime show, so they were unaware of what had transpired on the field during the intermission.
“They were asking me about that, and I couldn’t even understand what they were telling me about,” Brady said. “They were like, ‘Did you see the halftime show?’ and I said, ‘Nah, I didn’t see anything.’ I was thinking about the game and was trying to figure out halftime adjustments.”
While New England and Carolina reviewed their first half and made some halftime adjustments, Jackson and Timberlake were making controversy on the field. The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show took place at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX, and while everyone will remember the Patriots hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, it was Jackson’s halftime show that left the most headlines—and controversy—in its wake.
“I think, in the end, it was probably a good thing for the NFL because everyone got to talk about it, and it was just more publicity and more publicity for halftime shows,” Brady said.
In hindsight, Brady thinks the ordeal ended up benefitting the NFL. Halftime shows generate plenty of fanfare, and as the 45-year-old mentioned, the publicity the league gained, whether positive or negative, was impactful in the grand scheme of things.
I’ve seen people criticizing Brady for saying this and kind of breezing over the fact that several very powerful white men spent years trying to destroy a Black woman. That’s true. But the sickest sh-t is, Brady is right. The controversy was good for the NFL and good for the Super Bowl. It made people pay much more attention to the Halftime show, long-term, it got even more people to watch because they didn’t want to miss another iconic moment. They tried to destroy Janet over something which benefited them long-term.
Meanwhile, Tom adopted two kittens… I think his daughter wanted them. He did get them from a local rescue! I would kind of love it if Tom became a cat lady in retirement.
Tom Brady is now a cat owner … TMZ Sports has learned he's adopted two Siamese mix kittens in retirement. https://t.co/Wedt7dDjoW
— TMZ Sports (@TMZ_Sports) February 15, 2023
Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.
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- Cambridge, MA – Tom Brady plays football with his sons John and Benjamin at the Harvard University Best Buddies event. Tom caught a pass for a touchdown from fellow Patriot Julian Edelman. Michael Chiklis played football too. Tom was very affectionate with his kids on the field. Brady was once again the star of the weekend, raising a lot of money for Best Buddies during his downtime with a new football season just around the corner. Pictured: Tom Brady BACKGRID USA 31 MAY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Monaco, MONACO – **FILE PHOTOS** Like many public spaces across the country, parks in Tampa, Florida, are closed to visitors because of restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus. That didn’t prevent one man from trying to get an outdoor workout recently. The scofflaw was none other than new Tampa resident Tom Brady, according to Mayor Jane Castor. And, yes, the superstar quarterback was sighted (not cited), she said. Park staff came across Brady while patrolling a downtown park, Castor said Monday during a joint news briefing with St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. “I got to tell you this story, too. Now, I always tell people, I’m not one to gossip so you didn’t hear this from me,” Castor said. “Our parks are closed down; and so a lot of our parks staff they patrol around just to make sure that people aren’t doing contact sports and things like that, and saw an individual working out in one of our downtown parks,” Castor said. “And she went over to tell him that it was closed and it was Tom Brady.” Pictured here during a Tag Heuer event during the 76th Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix **SHOT ON 05/26/2018** Pictured: Tom Brady BACKGRID USA 21 APRIL 2020 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Munich, GERMANY – Quarterback Tom Brady and the rest of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers battle the Seattle Seahawks at Allianz Arena in Munich. Pictured: Tom Brady BACKGRID USA 13 NOVEMBER 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Munich, GERMANY – Quarterback Tom Brady and the rest of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers battle the Seattle Seahawks at Allianz Arena in Munich. Pictured: Tom Brady BACKGRID USA 13 NOVEMBER 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Awesome! It brought more eyes and attention to the NFL and the halftime show? Then pay Janet for the percentage increase in eyes on the show since then. She deserves it more than anyone who spent a decade trying to demonize her, while lining their pockets and Scrooge McDucking across the field ever since.
Me, reading this post:
Ugh! Why doesn’t he just go away alrea….KITTENS!!
Agreed. To me, he just comes across as a dumb jock!
The header photo of him reminds me so much of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead
That is a misconception; Brady has advocated for better pay for NFL players over the years and for them to know their rights.
Yes kittens!!! 😻😻 For god’s sake I cannot, will not, stop hating this boneheaded douchebag, but KITTENS!!! Grudging kudos to the guy for volunteering at the shelter with his kids, who look totally thrilled to be there as well.
They’re all I saw too lmao. Widdle sweetums. 😁
The public and the media were outraged after the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake controversial half-time show. Someone’s head head to roll and it was Janet’s head that rolled. It was so unfair that all the blame was dumped on her and not Justin.
The public were not outraged. It was a ginned-up controversy by Les Moonves, misogynist extraordinaire.
Les Moonves but have done a really good job ginning up controversy because I remember a lot of mothers of young children fuming at Janet Jackson for her breast exposure on TV.
Janet ultimately paid the price for the show but he’s right about the positive and negative press.
That’s why so many companies and celebrities embrace the attention but it puts their product straight to the front of the conversation.
I used to think crossing the line or racism or criminality wasn’t a benefit..but now
racism will get you positive attention from right wing media unfortunately.
Janet deserves everything
I think he’s right, he just needed to finish the sentence – it worked out good for the NFL, who was happy to throw Janet under the bus to make more money for themselves.
Kittens! They are super cute, and adopting a pair of kittens actually make me like him a teeny tiny bit. Just a little.
Yeah, I mean, he is right. He didn’t bring an evaluation of Janet Jackson’s pop culture wealth into the conversation. He’s basically saying that the halftime show changed the focus for a lot of people. Instead of it being the game + commercials. Now a lot of people tuned in just for the halftime show and maybe stayed for the rest of the game. Now the fallout of that performance was horrible and was not good for Janet.
Yeah if he’d finished the sentence and said something about how it was also unfair to Janet, we might have seen a human inside the helmet.
@Jais yeah that’s pretty spot on. Instead of saying he should shut up and hire PR. I think PR person would have helped him craft a much more nuanced statement that got his point across while also making sure he included that Janet’s treatment was unfair. I think he stopped short because he was uncomfortable saying anything and he didn’t want his point to be misconstrued. Except it got from under him anyway.
Honestly, I’m not sure he was ever going to say anything about Janet. Mostly bc he comes across as a football robot, which is where the human under the helmet comment came from. Like he only sees how that incident affected the football community as opposed to how it affected actual human beings. Which sounds harsh but, that’s how he comes across, whether it’s true or not. I’m sure he actually is a real human but he fails to come across as one sometimes and that’s what his pr should work on. The kittens help actually😂
That’s his problem: he will never go there about Janet. He is a successful
white man who doesn’t have to care. And it is clear that he doesn’t discuss it with the Black playeras he’s worked with. If they do discuss it, I’m sure that they all minimize it. The Colin Kaepernicks of the NFL lay low now, I would think, because they make themselves vulnerable by pushing those conversations in the locker room.
Then again, Janet is a woman, and football players aren’t universally known for cheering for women’s rights. We only get the occasional player who goes out of their way for women. I mostly read about NFL players abusing their women, so I don’t completely fault Brady for not prioritizing Black women.
Brady is correct that this absolutely increased profits and publicity for the NFL, but he won’t discuss Janet or misogynoire or women because he is a product of a damaged culture. You all may have seen the recent stats on how dangerous it’s been for teenage girls and the increased incidents of violence, especially domestic violence, from boys and men and how girls are increasing contemplating suicide. He doesn’t care, just like most men.
He needs a new PR person that will tell him to shut up
Les Moonves was the one who was solely focused on destroying Janet after her Super bowl performance. When she didn’t apologize he was obsessed with ruining her. Justin Timberlake however did apologize and probably groveled behind scenes, that’s why that moron was allowed to perform for the Grammy’s and say he was sorry for anything he did.
Tom Brady will be a NFL stooge for the rest of his life, I guess. After all, he put that organization over his wife & children. Imagine putting a huge corporation’s interests over your kids. But hey! He adopted some cute kitties!
He’s not wrong. It did benefit the NFL and the Half-Time show itself.
I’m surprised people are mad at him for making an observation that is correct.
We’re all watching the Half-Tine show just to keep up with conversations so I guess we’re as guilty as he is for not weighing in on the effect on Janet Jackson’s career.
Yeah, I really don’t know why people are so mad at Brady. He made a pretty safe statement. I think people are just over Brady and take everything he says offensively.
I knew two people who had box seats at that game and although they watched the half time show was unaware of what happened. It was an occurrence of mere seconds, blown out of proportion.
Brady is correct in his assessment and recall.
The political and hypocritical reactions to that was good for the NFL.
Janet was at the top of her game and was irrestiable to medicores like the sexual harasser Les Mooves and has ilk.
It spawned Youtube. The half time blew up in part because of Colin Kapernick and the NFL’s initial response to concussions.
That was when I personally stopped watching the game and focus on particular performances.
I watched that game at home and was paying attention to that performance and I didn’t see anything. Tempest in a teapot for no reason at all. Although I have disliked JT ever since.
Tom is not going to post stupid thoughts everyday now is he?
I know he has a lot of free time but Please, shut up.
Even though that was a close game it was the most memorable thing about that SB tbh.