What exactly is going on with Tom Brady?
That is the question everyone from Dave Portnoy and Jason Whitlock to Megyn herself seem to be asking these days after the legendary NFL quarterback has found himself in a series of increasingly bizarre headline-making moments.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook of Ruthless to discuss Brady’s influencer-like behavior and why it is not a good look for the future Hall of Famer.
Slap Stunt Goes Wrong
Back in May, Brady sparked plastic surgery rumors after he made his runway debut at the Gucci show in Times Square. The chiseled athlete topped off his questionable model walk with a face that appeared even more sculpted than usual. Megyn and her husband, Doug Brunt, wondered at the time what kind of attention he was seeking with both the fashion show and looksmaxxing-inspired look, and now the seven-time Super Bowl champ is once again raising eyebrows.
Brady attended Fanatics Fest in New York City over the weekend where he appeared to get into a spat with podcaster and pro wrestler Logan Paul during a panel discussion. Things heated up to the point where the QB slapped the WWE star. Cameras also captured the pair flipping each other off at the World Cup final on Sunday.
Brady later posted a video of the Fanatics Fest incident on X, prompting many to believe the incident was scripted and part of some sort of developing WWE storyline.
Staged or not, Brady’s behavior caught the attention of Patriots super fan and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who called out the “cringey” antics on Monday’s Wake Up Barstool podcast. “This, to me, is one of the great downfalls of an icon, with Tom Brady and the way he is acting post-retirement,” he lamented.
“It’s a legacy that is being lame-ified. I use that word, people are like, ‘What does that mean?’ It means he’s becoming very lame,” Portnoy explained. “And it’s a guy who very few athletes — Michael Jordan, Messi, Beckham, Gretzky — like, these are like superstars that seem so above the fray that you don’t want to see them mixed up in all sorts of lowbrow, TikTok, flag football leagues in Saudi Arabia, or whatever it is. Everything about him is cringey right now to me, and it’s highlighted with this wrestling stuff.”
And Portnoy isn’t alone in his critique. Jason Whitlock accused the 48-year-old Brady of “making a fool of himself” while discussing the Paul stunt on his Fearless podcast Monday. “Michael Jordan understood something Tom Brady doesn’t: Absence creates myth. After basketball, MJ didn’t chase relevance, he withheld it. The Air Jordan brand does $6 billion a year. Jordan barely speaks publicly. When he does, it’s an event,” he explained.
“NBC paid Jordan what $60 to 70 million for one interview. One really boring, bad interview,” Whitlock noted. “The lesson? Jordan monetized his greatness by protecting it. He built an ecosystem that works while he stays silent. Scarcity is the strategy. Jordan doesn’t need the camera; the camera needs Michael. That’s power.”
In Whitlock’s view, Brady is “doing the opposite” of Jordan. “He is everywhere. The Fox booth, widely paying, the functional beverage hockey, the crypto entanglement, the roast, and now bets with influencers half his age. There’s nothing wrong with a man making money, the question is, what is he trading for,” he asked.
Bad Advice?
In addition to the steady stream of public appearances and social media posts, there has also been endless speculation about Brady’s dating life in the aftermath of his divorce from Gisele Bündchen. He has been linked to a number of models and influencers in the last couple of years, while his ex got remarried and welcomed another child.
“[Brady] is gainfully employed… and he’s got plenty of money in the bank… He shouldn’t be bored. So, why would you be doing influencer stunts,” Megyn pondered. “Whitlock posits that everything started going south when he divorced Gisele; that when a man has a wife and a family to come home to every night, they ground him in in the best sense and they give him something to strive for… All the things that run through a man’s mind when he goes off to work… are no longer really motivating Tom Brady.”
Holmes, meanwhile, wondered if Brady is the victim of his own success to some degree. “When you get to be that big of a deal, you’re surrounded by teams of people that manage your image. And what has happened to Tom Brady is he’s got some element of his team that, for self-serving reasons, wants to book him on all of these things and wants to keep him relevant to younger audiences because they get paid and they create those connections that they can use for other clients, and other things, and their own future belly,” he posited.
“There’s nobody sitting at the top of Tom Brady Enterprises underneath Tom himself who is saying, ‘Dude, this is the greatest quarterback of our generation. What in the hell are you doing putting him with a TikTok influencer whose most noteworthy latest thing is fighting Mike Tyson when he is 65 years old,'” Holmes said. “Nobody is managing that for him, and I feel badly for him as a result. He really is the greatest quarterback of his generation, and he is getting totally underrepresented in my view.”
Megyn agreed. “Thank you for saying that… This morning, I was like, I bet you, it is the people around him who are just looking to cash in on every dollar he can make and he can make an endless amount of them, so they’re like cash in, cash in.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ruthless by tuning in to episode 1,364 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.