Tom Brady jokes about the election result and ‘sleepy’ nickname at White House

Tom Brady took aim at Donald Trump‘s denial of the election results and mocked President Joe Biden‘s ‘sleepy’ nickname as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrated their Super Bowl win at the White House on Tuesday. 

‘It didn’t look great there at one point, seven and five struggling a little bit,’ said Brady as he recalled his team’s modest start to the 2020 season.

‘But we found our rhythm got on a roll. Not a lot of people think that we could have won.’  

‘In fact I think about forty percent of people still don’t think we won, right Mr. President?’ said Brady, poking fun at the previous resident of the Oval Office’s election denial. 

A beaming Biden responded: ‘I understand that.’

This is the first time an NFL team has visited the White House to mark a Super Bowl victory since 2017, and the first time in 16 years Brady jointed his teammates for the event. 

Despite winning the Super Bowl twice, owner Bryan Glazer said this was the first time the Buccaneers were able to be hosted at the White House because ‘world events’ in 2003 – the onset of the Iraq War – prevented it. 

Brady courted controversy during the 2016 presidential election campaign, displaying Donald Trump’s red MAGA hats in his locker when playing for the New England Patriots. 

But he was happy to poke fun at the previous resident of the White House – and himself, describing how he was ridiculed for making a mistake during a game in Chicago.

‘I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing and they started calling me “Sleepy Tom,”‘ he said. ‘Why would they do that to me?’ Brady joked. 

He was referencing Trump calling Biden ‘sleepy Joe’ throughout the 2020 campaign.

Biden introduced the team by talking about Delaware native and wide receiver Chris Godwin, discussed how he almost went on to play football in college and turned around and said: ‘Any of you who haven’t taken the shot, get it’.

It’s unclear if any of the players on the team are unvaccinated.  

‘We have to say that the fans down in western Florida are having a pretty good this year,’ Biden said, acknowledging how the Tampa Bay Lightning also recently won the Stanley Cup. ‘We’re making a pretty strong case to start calling Tampa the “city of champions.”‘  

Tampa Bay was also the first team to ever win the Super Bowl at a home stadium.  

On Godwin, Biden said the two talked before the Super Bowl, calling him a ‘star receiver’ and said he was inspiring a ‘whole lots of kids back home in Delaware.’ 

‘Born in Pennsylvania, raised in Delaware, where I come that’s a heck of a combination man,’ Biden said. 

The president then turned his attention to Brady and to Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians. 

‘You know a lot has been made about the fact that we have the oldest coach ever to win the Super Bowl and the oldest quarterback to win the Super Bowl,’ Biden said. 

‘Well I’ll tell you right now, you won’t hear any jokes about that from me,’ the 78-year-old president said. ‘As far as I’m concerned there’s nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop.’ 

Turning to Brady, Biden said it looked like he had ’20 more years left.’ 

‘And making it to 10 Super Bowls in the last 20 years, that ain’t bad man,’ Biden continued. ‘We’ve never seen anything like you in the game.’ 

Arians talked about the mantra he used to build a championship team: ‘one team, one cause.’ 

The coach then turned to Biden, ‘I hope the Senate and the House start helping you.’ 

‘One team, one cause,’ Arians repeated. 

The event ended with the team gifting Biden a Buccaneers ’46’ jersey with the president’s name on it. Biden is the 46th president and the Tampa team is in its 46th year.  

One noticeable absence was Rob Gronkowski, who Biden referred to as a ‘legendary tight end.’

 ‘That I’m told gave up a promising acting career to return to the game,’ Biden added. 

Gronkowski has had roles in movies including ‘Boss Level’ and ‘You Can’t Have It’ and appeared on ‘The Masked Singer,’ according to the player’s IMDB page. 

He played alongside Brady for the New England Patriots and famously crashed press secretary Sean Spicer’s press briefing during the team’s visit in 2017.  

In the months following the Patriots’ visit, Trump became publicly critical of the NFL over players kneeling during the national anthem. 

Vice President Mike Pence walked out of an Indianapolis Colts game in October 2017 when players kneeled in protest for racial equality. 

The following year Trump disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from a planned White House celebration. 

Trump then hosted an event to ‘celebrate America’ instead.