New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently sat down for an interview with Oprah in which the five-time Super Bowl champ addressed a range of topics including his relationship with Gisele, his spirituality, and the NFL's national anthem controversy.
In speaking about the latter, Brady tells Oprah that he respects why people are doing what they're doing, and says his team had discussions about how they were going to show support. “We had meetings after practice, talking about we wanted to, you know, deal with that particular situation at the time, taking a knee. We chose to lock arms," Brady says.
“I think there were a lot of good, healthy conversations coming out of it in our locker room. The great part about sports are the relationships, and I’ve been in it for a long time. I’ve been with guys from all different parts of the country. Every color, race, belief. And you know what? You respect what other people — I do, I respect why people are doing what they’re doing. And they’re doing it for different reasons. And that’s OK. You can do things for your reasons, they can do things for their reasons, and you have respect for that. But I thought it was great.”
He also told Oprah, “I’ve been playing sports long enough. Everyone comes from something different, and I think showing respect for everybody is ― in a locker room, in a team with guys trying to go in the same direction ― you’d better have that empathy for everybody,” Brady added. “That’s what sports are about.”
You can check out clips from his sitdown with Oprah here.
