Tom Brady has one regret about his Netflix roast — the impact it’s had on his children — but roaster Nikki Glaser says it’s “impossible” he didn’t think of that beforehand.
The Roast of Tom Brady is the streamer’s top show this week with more than 15 million views of the former NFL quarterback getting comically slapped around by Glaser, host Kevin Hart, Kim Kardashian and Ben Affleck, among others. While Brady knew that he was going to be a punchline, he claims he wasn’t expecting how it would hurt “the people that I care about the most in the world.”
“I loved when the jokes were about me, I thought they were so fun,” Brady said on Tuesday’s The Pivot Podcast. “I didn’t like the way it affected my kids.”
He continued, “It’s the hardest part about — the bittersweet aspect of — when you do something that you think is one way and then all of a sudden you realize, ‘I wouldn’t do that again because of the way that it affected, actually, the people that I care about the most in the world.’”
Brady — who shares eldest son Jack, 16, with actress Bridget Moynahan and son Benjamin, 14, and daughter Vivian, 11, with ex-wife model Gisele Bündchen — admitted he was “naive” about what he had signed up for at the May 5 event. His divorce from Bündchen and her subsequent relationship with their children’s jiu jitsu teacher, Joaquim Valente, was among the punchlines. Bündchen was reportedly “deeply disappointed” by the jokes at her expense.
His former boss, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was in attendance, was also a punchline for his massage parlor visit. Brady got out of his seat to tell comedian Jeff Ross to “Never say that shit again” after his zinger.
Brady called the roast a “good lesson” and said he’ll “be a better parent as I go forward because of it.” He went on to say that he was glad that those who attended the live event — including former teammates and celebrities like Affleck — “had a lot of fun.” After all, “if we’re not laughing about things, we’re crying,” he said. “And I think we should have more fun.”
Brady isn’t the only one reflecting on the roast
On Wednesday’s Today With Hoda & Jenna, Glaser — the comedian who drilled Brady during the roast and included a dig at him for leaving a pregnant Moynahan for Bündchen — was asked about his comments. She thought it was “impossible” that he hadn’t considered the repercussions.
Brady “maybe didn’t consider the backlash from his family and how it would affect them,” she allowed. “But I also think Tom Brady does not do anything without doing his research and knowing exactly what he’s getting into.”
Glaser added, “It’s impossible to me that he didn’t consider what could have happened because there’s roast footage out there that you can watch and go, ‘They’re gonna go this hard.’” Though she could see that, given his successful career and “how much people love him,” he could also be in a bubble.
“No one’s ever said a bad thing to him in the past 30 years,” she said, “I really don’t think he thought they were going to go there.”
Nikki Glaser joined Hoda and Jenna to talk about the attention she’s gained for her jokes in “The Roast of Tom Brady,” and weighs in on Brady’s reaction. pic.twitter.com/Mcy3NeO7Va
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) May 15, 2024
In a separate interview, Glaser talked about fellow roaster Kardashian DMing her after the show to say she “killed it on the roast.” The reality star — who was booed during the live show, but it was later edited out for the special — also told Glaser of the teardown comedy, “I don’t know how you do this; it’s abuse, lol.”
Apparently it could have been worse. Brady’s former teammate Drew Bledsoe revealed that his wife, Maura, was the one who wrote his joke about Brady “not being touched” at the end of his marriage to Bündchen.
“It was a replacement for a joke that I had written that was far worse,” Bledsoe said on Monday’s Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz podcast. “But she said, ‘No, you can’t do that one,’ so she helped me write one that was a little bit more of a softball.”
Brady gulped a few drinks after Bledsoe delivered the line. As for what he was going to say, Bledsoe replied, “We’re not going there. [My wife] told me I couldn’t say it.”
Bledsoe added that when it came to making fun of Brady, “You can’t really make fun of his career,” which has netted him seven Super Bowl wins. “So you have to dig deep. … We had to jump into the personal stuff.”