Tom Brady Explains Why He Won’t Be Rooting for the Patriots In the Super Bowl

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Tom Brady will not be rooting for the Patriots in the Super Bowl this year. He won’t be rooting for the Seahawks either.
Eleven years ago, Brady led the Patriots to an iconic come-from-behind victory over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. It was the fourth of the six championships he won with New England before closing out his career on the Buccaneers. Since his retirement, he’s been inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, had his jersey retired and had a statue of him built. Even so, the Fox commentator will not be pulling for his team of 20 years in its first Super Bowl since his departure.
“I don’t have a dog in the fight in this one,” Brady told Jim Gray on the Let’s Go! podcast. “May the best team win. In terms of the Patriots, this is a new chapter in New England, and I’m glad everyone’s embraced the Mike Vrabel regime, all the amazing players that have worked so hard to get their club to this position. We did it for 20 years. There was a little bit of a hiatus in there, but the Patriots are back and it’s a very exciting time for everyone in New England.”
Brady also has a conflict of interest now that he’s a minority owner of the Raiders, who are expected to hire Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as their next head coach after the Super Bowl concludes.
“You have different chapters and moments that you go through where you’re affiliated with a certain team at Michigan and then I was with the Patriots for 20 years, I was with Tampa for three amazing years. I’ve been in broadcasting, now I’m an owner of the Raiders,” Brady noted. “Those memories that I have are forever ingrained in me. ... Now in a different phase in my life I root for people and people I really care about.”
As for his prediction, Brady believes any team can win on any given day, but does feel if the Seahawks and Patriots faced off 10 times, Seattle would win six times while the Patriots would win only four times.
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Eva Geitheim is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in December 2024, she wrote for Newsweek, Gymnastics Now and Dodgers Nation. A Bay Area native, she has a bachelor's in communications from UCLA. When not writing, she can be found baking or re-watching Gilmore Girls.