Donald Trump: I Told Tom Brady Not To Endorse Me
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Donald Trump admitted he told New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady not to endorse him.
The Republican presidential hopeful made the comment during an interview with Boston radio station WEEI on Monday.
"No, because I told him not to," Trump told WEEI. "He's got sponsors, he's got all of his different things that he has to do. And I told him not to."
Brady came under fire last year after reporters noticed he had Trump's "Make America Great Again" hat in his locker.
Brady said at the time that he supports "all my friends in everything they do."
"Donald is a good friend of mine. I have known him for a long time. I support all my friends. That is what I have to say. He's a good friend of mine. He's always been so supportive of me -- for the last 15 years, since I judged a beauty pageant for him, which was one of the very first things that I did that I thought was really cool. That came along with winning the Super Bowl. He's always invited me to play golf. I've always enjoyed his company," he told WEEI at the time.
Trump explained to WEEI that he was concerned that the Super Bowl-winning quarterback might lose sponsors if he officially backed him.
"He couldn't be nicer. There was an article in GQ, he said, 'Trump's the biggest winner, you can't beat Trump' and all that stuff. And I said, 'Don't do that, because you may have a sponsor that doesn't like me.' They may be liberal, they may be something. And I don't want him to get involved in that stuff," Trump said. "It's hard for athletes."
The billionaire continued, "Now, with that being said, I have had many athletes endorse me. Lots of different guys have endorsed me, which is great. But Tom's in a very interesting position, and I said, 'Tom, don't do that.' What he does is he says great stuff about me. I think he would do it if I asked him. I've never asked him to do it. But I think he'd do it if I asked him."
Trump added that Super Bowl 50 was "boring" without Brady playing.
"We needed our guy in there," he told WEEI. "That was just a boring game. Am I the only one that thought that? … It was a terrible game, it was terribly played. The whole thing, it had a bad vibe. Well, we need Tom. We're a little prejudiced, so anyways. Next year Tom will be in there."
Trump is currently in New Hampshire ahead of Tuesday night's primary.