Gisele Bundchen, the wife of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, said in an interview with CBS that Brady "had a concussion last year" and hinted that he had suffered previous concussions.
Bundchen made the comments during the "CBS This Morning show" on Wednesday in answer to a question posed by Charlie Rose in response to comments Brady made on SiriusXM NFL Radio in February that indicated she would prefer that he retire.
"Are you trying to get him to retire?" Rose asked.
"You know, I just have to say as a wife, I'm a little bit, it's, as you know, it's not the most like, let's say, un-aggressive sport, right?" Bundchen said. "Football, like he had a concussion last year, I mean he has concussions pretty much every _ you know, we don't talk about it but he does have concussions.
"I don't really think it's a healthy thing for your body to go through like, through that kind of aggression like, all the time. That cannot be healthy for you, right?" she said. "I mean, I'm planning on having him be healthy and do a lot of fun things when we're like 100, I hope."
Brady, who turns 40 on Aug. 3 and has said he wants to play well into his 40s, was not listed on any injury report last year with a concussion. According to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, Brady hasn't been listed on an injury report with a concussion dating as far back as 2003.
Neither Brady nor the Patriots have commented on Bundchen's remarks.
According to a 2015 report by Newsday's Jim Baumbach on football helmets, Brady wears a helmet that has a low rating in terms of protection against concussion. The report said Brady wears a helmet with a one-star rating, as determined by Virginia Tech researchers. By contrast, Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. wears a helmet with a five-star rating.
"A five-star helmet is the best at reducing the risk of concussion," the Newsday report said. "A one-star helmet is the least effective."
The NFL requires teams to list injuries to players and how it might impact their status for the upcoming game. The NFL can punish a team by fining and/or removing draft picks for a violation of the rule, although the latest incident in which a team failed to list an injury resulted in a warning. The Seahawks failed to disclose last season that cornerback Richard Sherman was dealing with a knee injury. The NFL hasn't commented on Bundchen's remarks about Brady's concussions.
Bundchen said Brady, 39, has felt much better overall in recent years in part because of the strict diet the family follows.
"We have a plant-based diet, we've been having it for 10 years," she said. "We feel better, it's better for our health, and everything we put into our body has an effect on us, on our energy, how we feel.
"(Brady) doesn't feel achy, he just has so much more energy," Bundchen said. "In the beginning, it was a little, you know, different for him, but now he loves it and he wouldn't have it any other way because he feels better."
