Need to talk it out. Tom Brady wants to clear the air with Ryan Fitzpatrick. Accusations of disrespect started flying when Fitzpatrick, a former quarterback, said Brady called him “that motherf—ker” back in February 2022. Tom has finally weighed in.
On the Let’s Go! podcast hosted by Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB cleared the air. Gray asked whether the “motherf—ker” comment was indeed aimed at Fitzpatrick. “Oh god, not this again,” he said. “I like to keep them guessing, and unfortunately with this coming out, I’d have to tell him.” Brady added: “It wasn’t him,” but he remained tight-lipped as to whom he was referring.
“I love Ryan, but somewhere he’s got it out for me,” Brady continued, “and I actually talked to Ryan Griffin, who’s one of our quarterbacks, and he said ‘Ryan’s always all over you. I don’t know why.’ So I don’t know why Ryan is. Maybe Ryan and I need to have a talk.”
The Super Bowl champ also praised his former rival, though took a little dig at his appearance. “Ryan is a hell of a guy, too, and I’ve competed against him. He’s a Harvard guy, now he looks like he’s part homeless, and now he’s on TV doing what my future job’s going to be, so I think Ryan’s got a good thing going, I’m not sure why he needs to think that I’m after him or something like that.” Tom continued, “Sometimes I’m a little facetious, sometimes people take me a little too literally,” Brady said. “And I think my guy Maverick, he actually gave me some tequila before that show when I was on The Shop, so I spoke a little more liberally than probably I normally would have.”
On Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take podcast, Ryan discussed the infamous clip on HBO’s The Shop and assumed that the Super Bowl champion was referring to him. ”It had to be me,” Fitzpatrick told hosts Big Cat and PFTCommenter. “Zero respect. He’d never shake my hand.” He then talked about the instances where Brady was unfriendly to him. “I’ve told this story before, but he just pisses me off. Because you’re in Buffalo, you’re playing New England, they’re kicking our ass every single year they’re beating us. We finally in 2011 knocked them off. It was right at the beginning of the season. We had this great start and he threw five interceptions in the game, which was just wonderful to see every single one of them. Just wonderful to see.”
Fitzpatrick continued, “And [Brady would] run straight off. Like, no handshake, no quarterback middle of the field, no, ‘Where are the cameras? OK, hey, stay healthy buddy.’ Just ran straight off. So it bothered me so much because there was no respect there. Every time I played him after that, I was like ‘All right, let’s make this dude respect me.’ “Ended up in New York with the Jets and with Miami beating him. The last one was especially sweet because it was the Tank For Tua year. They beat us by 40-something points at the beginning of the season. They needed to beat us to get home-field advantage and it was his last regular-season game as a Patriot, and we go and we score at the end of the game and beat them.” He then confirmed that he got his handshake, but went on to say that he “probably initiated it.”
Tom and Ryan’s drama came after reports that Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bundchen have their own drama since his decision to un-retire from the NFL. A source confirmed to Us Weekly in September 2022 that there was “tension” between the couple. “Gisele was not happy when Tom un-retired from the NFL after such a short time,” the insider said, referring to when Brady retired in February 2022 but retracted the retirement only two months later. “There is tension between them.” The source added that Tom is “doing everything he can to make it up to” Gisele. “They’re working through things and trying to come out the other side,” the source said.
Image: Simon & Schuster.
