Tom Brady was ready to "let loose," after all.
In his first public interview since his introductory press conference with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the former New England Patriots quarterback spoke with SiriusXM's Howard Stern for two and a half hours Wednesday in a candid, wide-ranging interview.
You've probably heard some of the highlights: Brady knew as early as last season he was finished with the Patriots. He gets along fine with Bill Belichick. He skipped Patriots OTAs due to marriage issues with his wife, Gisele. His mentality during Super Bowl LI was the stuff of legends.
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You also don't have two and a half hours to sift through everything else Brady said. But guess what? With no other sports going on ... we do!
Here are five more takeaways from Brady's interview with Stern that Patriots fans may find interesting -- or in some cases, downright bizarre.
1. When he wasn't happy with his pass-catchers, he let Belichick know.
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"I would say, ‘I don’t have any trust that this guy can help us win the game.' I’ve definitely expressed my opinion to say, 'If you put him out there, I’m not going to throw him the ball.'
"The whole team is trusting me to do what’s right by the team, so you can’t put someone out there who I don’t believe in. Because if I don’t believe in him, it’s worthless for the team."
Brady insisted Belichick shared that belief with him. But we'd imagine the QB and head coach had this conversation several times -- especially in 2019, when Brady was throwing to the likes of N'Keal Harry, Jakobi Meyers and Matt LaCosse.
2. He loved being a free agent this offseason and even made a list to aid his decision-making process.
"That was a fun experience for me to experience that, and I enjoyed that aspect of seeing what other teams could offer.
" … I wrote down about 20 different things that were important to me and kind of prioritize what was important. I kind of scaled it, and looked at all the opportunities that were out there."
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3. He drank and smoked weed in high school -- until guilt set in.
“What kept me from smoking a lot of weed -- obviously in high school you try that and drink and go to parties -- but I always felt like I was letting my dad down.
" ... I definitely had fun in high school with partying and drinking and smoking weed on occasion, but as it got later in my high school life, those became less and less."
We'd imagine drinking and smoking aren't part of the TB12 diet, not that Brady needs to worry anymore about disappointing his father.
4. He's good friends with President Donald Trump, but wouldn't accept Trump's invite to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
"He would call me after games (and say), 'I watched your games, Tom. Let’s play golf together.' In 2003, 2004, that’s kind of the way it was. He became someone who would come up to our games and stand on the sideline and would cheer for the Patriots. He always had a way of connecting with people and still does.
"Then the whole political aspect came, and I think I got brought into a lot of those things because it was so polarizing around the election time. It was uncomfortable for me because you can’t undo things, not that I would undo a friendship, but political support is a lot different than the support of a friend."
5. He suffered a gross injury in 2006 that led backup QB Matt Cassel to give him a grosser nickname.
"It ended up being a hernia in the game, where the abdomen wall split open. I don’t know all the details. But other than that, (my) testicles -- literally, one side was like an orange and then the other side was normal. I was like, ‘Something’s wrong here.'
" ... Cassel drew pictures of me with this one huge testicle on one side, and then he would leave them in my locker every day. 'Purple Balls,' he’d call me, because I got all bruised up."
Did we mention this was a tell-all interview?