Around New England

Is Tom Brady A Pagan?

February 8, 2019

Altars, healing stones, belief in the “power of intention,” and positive references to witchery are among the approaches to success in football that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady cited during a charity appearance Thursday.

Brady was asked a question that got more of an answer than people in the crowd were expecting while getting his playoff beard shaved off by a professional barber during a charity event at the Gillette office in South Boston on Thursday, February 7, four days after the Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl with Brady at quarterback. (And 25 days after Gillette released its controversial ad “We Believe:  The Best Men Can Be.)”

Brady was raised a Roman Catholic, but doesn’t practice that faith. Four years ago he told an interviewer from the New York Times who noticed a glass menorah in Brady’s home in Brookline:  “We’re not Jewish. But I think we’re into everything. … I don’t know what I believe. I think there’s a belief system, I’m just not sure what it is.”

On Thursday he said his wife, Gisele Bundchen, has had some unusual advice for him during the past several years when it comes to trying to win.

A transcript of the exchange is below, from a video published by WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston:

Man Asking Question:  Any superstitions going into the game? Any special thing you carried into the game on Sunday that you had tucked away somewhere?

Tom Brady:  Ah, I did.

Man Asking Question:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  I always, um — You know, I’ve learned a lot from my wife over the years. She’s so about the power of intention — you know? — and believing things that are really going to happen. And she always makes a little altar for me at the game.

Man Asking Question:  Awww

Tom Brady:  ‘Cause she just wills it so much. And, ahh — So she put together a little altar for me that I could bring, with pictures of my kids. And I have these little special stones, and healing stones, and protection stones, that she has me wear a necklace, and —

Audience:  [laughs slightly]

Tom Brady:  — take these drops she makes.

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  And I say all these mantras.

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  And, I stopped questioning her a long time ago.

Man Asking Question:  It works.

Tom Brady:  I did. I just shut up and listen. And at first I was like, ‘This is kind of crazy.’ And then, about four years ago, we were playing the Seahawks, and she said, ‘You better listen to me. This is your year, but this is all the things you’re going to have to do to win.’ And I did all those things, and by God, you know, it worked. It was pretty good.

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  And then in 2015, it was about early January, and she said, ‘You know how much I love you.’ And I said ‘Yeah,’ and she said, ‘I just wanna let you know, this is not going to be your year’ —

Audience:  Awwwwwww

Tom Brady:  — and of course we lost. I said, ‘What does ’16 look like?’

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  And she said, “ ‘16’s gonna be your year.”

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  So, it was early January this year, and I said, “Babe, I’m asking:  Like, do we have a chance?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, but you’re going to have to do a lot of work, and you’re really going to have to listen to me.’

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  So, man, I listen to her. And right after the game, she said, ‘See I did a lot of work. You do your work, I do mine!’

Audience:  [laughs]

Tom Brady:  She said, ‘You’re lucky you married a witch. I’m just a good witch.’

Audience:  [laughs]


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