In a radio interview Tuesday morning, Tom Brady refused to budge from his position of passive support for “good friend” and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, even in the aftermath of Trump’s Islamophobic remarks this past week.
Trump’s call to bar Muslims from stepping onto U.S. soil has drawn the ire of a series of notable sports figures in recent days. But while Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Charles Barkley all used their platforms to speak out against the former reality TV star, Brady did his best to shirk WEEI radio’s questions regarding the candidate, asking, “Can I just stay out of this debate?"
"Donald is a good friend of mine,” Brady continued. “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.”
Brady’s connection to Trump hit the headlines in early September, when one of the candidate’s “Make America Great Again” baseball caps was seen in Brady’s New England Patriots locker. Then, on Sept. 16, the quarterback said it’d be “great” if Trump could take the White House and that he hoped that would happen. Less than two weeks after that pseudo-endorsement, he began to backtrack, saying that he had just made some “off-handed comment[s]” and that he didn’t “even know what the issues [were]” this election cycle. Last week, however, Trump ran with Brady’s quasi-support, claiming that “Brady said that Trump’s the greatest.”
While Brady certainly didn’t get near the hot-button topics over which Ali, Abdul-Jabbar and Barkley have all condemned Trump as of late in his Tuesday interview, his tone and sentiment were undeniably complimentary of the candidate.
"I support all my friends in everything they do,” he said. “I think it's pretty remarkable what he's achieved in his life. You're going from business, kind of an incredible business man and then a TV star, and then getting into politics. It's a pretty different career path. I think that is pretty remarkable."
The same man that Brady repeatedly called “remarkable,” Abdul-Jabbar compared to a terrorist and Barkley suggested was a “loser.” Tom Brady, ladies and gentlemen -- always mired in controversy, even when he attempts to dodge it.
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