It wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret that New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady was a Donald Trump supporter throughout the just-completed 2016 Presidential election. His candidate is now the President-Elect.
However, his support of Trump came with plenty of backlash from inside and outside the sports world. Perhaps that has led him to reverse course on talking politics, declining to answer questions about who he voted for after previously agreeing to discuss it on a WEEI talk show ahead of the election last week.
“I’m not talking politics anymore guys, I’m just not. I’ve got other things to worry about,” he said during his weekly interview coming about 12 hours after Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. “Just speaking with my family, it’s just a bad idea. So I know I told you I would, and after I told you I would, I changed my mind.”
Brady has been saying for the better part of a week that he is done talking politics, and he noted on Monday that the negativity from the public following Trump’s election is troublesome and unproductive.
“I just don’t want to get into it, I really don’t. There’s nothing positive that comes of it,” he said. “There’s just so much negativity over the last week. I’m a positive person and I just want to keep things positive.”
The talk show hosts tried a few different ways of asking the same question, including asking if Brady was happy that a friend won the election. The Michigan-educated man didn’t take the bait and deflected the last question.
“Like I said, I don’t want to express any emotions or feelings of how I feel,” said Brady. “You know what I am? I’m hopeful and optimistic that our country can move forward. I’m happy the election is over, I’m sure a lot of other people are, and I’m going to focus on football.”
It is safe to say that until the political environment calms itself down in this country, Brady and many other sports figures are going to be done talking politics publicly.
[ESPN]
