The Red Sox aren’t the only team Tom Brady is rooting for in the MLB playoffs
"Those are the two ones I’m pulling for."
Tom Brady is apparently a man of many baseball teams.
The California native grew up with the San Francisco Giants as his hometown team and was once spotted wearing (gasp) a New York Yankees hat in 2007. But during his weekly WEEI interview Monday morning, the New England Patriots quarterback — perhaps smartly — declared that his loyalties are with the Boston Red Sox in their American League Division Series against the Yankees.
“The best teams rise to the occasion, and hopefully the Red Sox do,” Brady said, after being asked about dealing with increased pressure during the playoffs.
“I know everyone is rooting for them,” he added. “I certainly am. I hope they take care of business.”
The Red Sox certainly took care of business Monday night, trouncing the Yankees in a historically lopsided 16-1 victory to take a 2-1 lead in the series. But that wasn’t the only baseball outcome that Brady was celebrating over the weekend.
During an interview last week, Brady told Westwood One’s Jim Gray that he’s pulling for two teams in the MLB playoffs, first explaining — in a similar fashion as in his WEEI interview — that he had taken to watching the hometown Red Sox.
“Boston is such a sports town, and they love the Red Sox,” he said. “I certainly love watching them.”
Then, unprompted, Brady added that he’s also rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers, referring to the team’s owner, Mark Attanasio, as “our buddy Mark.” Milwaukee advanced to the National League Championship Series on Sunday, after sweeping the Colorado Rockies.
So how did Brady become a Brewers fan?
ESPN’s Mike Reiss followed up on the question Sunday, reporting that Brady was actually introduced to Attanasio through Gray, hence his reference to the Brewers owner as “our buddy.” According to Reiss, the friendship grew to the point that Attanasio’s son, Mike, who went to college at (and played a full minute of basketball for) the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has been Brady’s guests at Patriots games and training camp. The Los Angeles multi-millionaire and Brady also reportedly had lunch together when the two men (and Gray) appeared at the Milken Institute Global Conference this past May.
“Those are the two ones I’m pulling for,” Brady told Gray last week. “Hopefully, it’s a good MLB playoffs.”
It’s unclear who Brady would be rooting for if the Red Sox and Brewers were to meet in the World Series.
In an alternate universe, Brady could perhaps even be playing in the MLB playoffs himself. Of course, the former Montreal Expos draft pick ultimately opted to stick with football. Five Super Bowl rings later, it seems like it was probably the correct choice.
