FOXBOROUGH, Mass. _ Tom Brady made an appearance on Paul Rudd's comedy "Living With Yourself" that debuted on Netflix on Friday night. On Saturday, the social media reaction to the spot wasn't as funny.
On the show, Rudd's character, Miles, tries to improve his life by getting experimental treatment at a strip mall day spa. Instead of being healed _ spoiler alert _ Miles is accidentally cloned.
It seems harmless on paper, but the "Top Happy Spa" _ a cloning center _ looks strikingly similar to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa and Massage, where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft found himself a bit trouble in February.
Twitter exploded with reactions, many assuming Brady was taking a shot at the owner.
On Saturday, Brady said that wasn't the case and put the blame on _ spoiler alert _ the media.
"It's this type of atmosphere that you create, the blame-and-shame media atmosphere that's kind of percolated for a while," Brady said. "I think there's a lot of things that are said that are taken out of context and you choose to make a headline as opposed to what it's actually about."
In the scene, Rudd pulls up to the suspicious-looking spa and says "I'm going to get killed here." He looks up and out walks Brady, who's wearing jeans, a white T-shirt and a brown jacket.
Brady looks at Rudd and asks "First time?" Rudd stammers "uh-huh, you?" and as Brady gets into a car, he replies "six," an obvious reference to his Super Bowl titles.
In a story on refinery29.com, show creator and writer Timothy Greenberg said the idea to include Brady came from Charlie Kaufman, who wrote "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind." Greenberg said they approached Brady's agent and publicists last year and Brady was interested but had to wait until the season ended. When Kraft was charged with soliciting a sex worker at Orchids of Asia, Greenberg said it looked "almost exactly like what we were shooting" and thought the appearance wouldn't happen.
Greenberg said he wasn't told why Brady agreed, but did say the joke was written four and a half years ago.
Brady didn't say why he agreed to do it but categorically denied the scene had anything to do with Kraft's controversy.
"That's not what that was about. I think that was taken out of context, just like your taking it out of context and trying to make it a story for yourself, which has a negative connotation for it, which I don't appreciate," said Brady to the media scrum in the locker room on Saturday. "It was meant to be something different than that. The fact it's a distraction or you're bringing it up is not something I want to be talking about."
While talking heads have questioned the relationship between the franchise quarterback and the franchise owner, thanks to Brady's lack of contract for next season and his disappointment with his offensive weapons, he said nothing's changed between himself and Kraft.
"For 20 years it's nothing but love and respect," Brady said. "I've been through a lot of tough things with him. I love him dearly, I sympathize with a lot of things he's gone through in his life. I empathize with a lot of people that get taken advantage of and used and understand that's that just part of what we're living in."
