Tom Brady definitely knows what it’s like to be knocked down. Considered by many to be the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL, he took plenty of hits over the course of his 23-season career before hanging up his cleats for good in 2023. However, it seems nothing he experienced on the field came close to the brutality he endured as the subject of Netflix’s live event The Roast of Tom Brady.
Comedians, celebrities and athletes came together to honor Tom Brady by demolishing him with jokes about everything from Deflategate to his divorce from Gisele Bündchen. No topic was off the table (OK, one topic was off the table), and now that the retired QB has had a chance to reflect on the harshest jokes from the roast, he got real about how intense the experience was. Brady told US Weekly:
I thought everybody brought their A-game and I think for me, just being up there with all my teammates was really an incredible moment. Those were the hardest hits I’ve ever taken in my life. But we woke up and we saw the next day.
Tom Brady spent his career on the field with many of those men, whose job it was to protect the quarterback at all costs. What a strange turn of events it must have been to have people like Rob Gronkowski, Drew Bledsoe and Randy Moss being the ones to fire those shots. He’s got a great attitude about it, though. He may have been a little bruised the next day, but he survived The Roast of Tom Brady.
At the time, it sounds like the seven-time Super Bowl champ was just trying to smile through the pain. He continued:
I tried to keep a smiley, happy face out there [because] everybody worked really hard with the production. There were a lot of fun things about the night, but at the same time, there were a few things that were tough hits, but again, we survived.
Following the roast, a number of athletes apparently reached out to say they would never do what Tom Brady did, and the honoree seemed to have a bit of regret too, as he said he wouldn’t do that again due to how it affected his three children. His ex-wife Gisele Bündchen was also allegedly upset, as insiders said she found the content of some of the jokes irresponsible and disappointing.
As Tom Brady said, though, everyone made it through, and that includes the others who surrounded the NFL great on the dais. The roasters certainly didn’t make it out unscathed, with people like Kim Kardashian, Nikki Glaser and roastmaster Kevin Hart taking as many hits as they dished out, causing some wild reactions from the audience members in attendance.
If you missed the live event or want to relive any of the most brutal jokes, The Roast of Tom Brady can be streamed with a Netflix subscription.
