NFL star quarterback Tom Brady took a scarcely veiled shot at Donald Trump’s false election claims during a celebration of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl victory with President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
“Not a lot of people think that we could have won and in fact, I think 40% of the people still don’t think we won,” Brady said, to laughs.
Standing nearby, Biden chimed in, saying, “I understand that.”
The quarterback added a jibe at the “Sleepy Joe” moniker Trump coined for his opponent during their campaign.
“We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was,” Brady said. “I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing and they started calling me ‘Sleepy Tom.’ Why would they do that to me?”
Brady has starred in the NFL for more than two decades and is the oldest quarterback to lead his team to a championship. He previously won six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots before joining Tampa Bay last season.
He drew headlines after he skipped the Patriots’ 2017 visit to the White House, when Trump was in office. He also skipped a visit during Barack Obama’s administration, citing family reasons.
Many athletes skipped the ceremonial White House visits during Trump’s administration.
Trump has repeatedly called the November election results fraudulent, despite statements to the contrary from his own administration officials, numerous audits that confirmed his defeat and scores of failed challenges in federal courts. As recently as July 18, he issued a statement repeating the false claim and tying it to vaccine hesitancy among his supporters.
Brady has avoided public discussion of his political allegiance, though one of Trump’s signature red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps was once spotted in his locker. Trump has referred to him as a “friend” in the past.
