Tom Brady has a 17-foot statue outside Gillette Stadium, six Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots, and a fan base that still treats him like a religion. Days before Super Bowl LX, he made it clear he is not riding with them.On this week’s episode of the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray, Brady said he will not be rooting for either the Patriots or the Seattle Seahawks when they kick off on Sunday. Instead, he is publicly choosing the safest and most awkward possible lane for the greatest Patriot of all time.
Tom Brady’s ‘no dog in the fight’ line lands like a gut punch for Patriots fans
Brady did not leave any room for spin when Gray asked where his allegiance sits for Patriots vs. Seahawks.“I don’t have a dog in the fight in this one. May the best team win,” Brady said on “Let’s Go!” “And 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.”For a fan base that just watched the team build a six-ton statue of Brady outside Gillette in the summer of 2025, that answer hits different. Patriots fans have every reason to expect their guy to lean publicly toward New England in its first Super Bowl trip since he left. Instead, Brady is drawing a hard line between his past and his present.He did not talk about payback, legacy, or “one more for the old team.” He talked about aesthetics and execution.“I just wanna see good football. I wanna see good plays, good throws, good strategy, good decisions,” Brady said.That is a very broadcaster answer, which fits where he is now. Brady is a lead analyst for FOX, a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, and the unofficial face of the modern NFL product. Sliding into neutral, at least in public, keeps him clean with everybody.The part that will still sting in New England is that this is not coming from some distant alum. Brady just had his Patriots Hall of Fame induction last year and saw that statue go up outside the stadium he helped turn into a Super Bowl factory. Those ties are still fresh.Brady’s explanation makes it clear he sees those years as a closed book, not an ongoing obligation.“I think there’s always different chapters in your life and you have different chapters and moments that you go through where you’re affiliated with a certain team,” Brady said. “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.”Once he runs through that résumé, the rest of his stance makes more sense.“So those memories that I have are forever ingrained in me, and I’m indebted to all the people who worked so hard to help make our team successful,” Brady added. “And now in a different phase in my life, I really root for people and the people I care about, the people who I know the work that goes into what they’re trying to accomplish. So I really wanna sit back as a fan and enjoy the game, enjoy the moment.”He is not rooting for laundry anymore. He is rooting for relationships. For a lot of Patriots fans, that is exactly the problem.
Raiders ownership and Klint Kubiak ties make neutrality Brady’s safest play
Brady’s stance is not just about “good football.” It is also about the job he holds now and the job someone else is about to bring into his building.Brady is a minority owner of the Raiders. That alone makes it tricky for him to go on a national platform and declare, on the record, that he is backing the Patriots over the Seahawks. His business brand is now tied to Las Vegas, not Foxborough.Layer on what is expected to happen next for Seattle’s offensive coordinator, and his neutral line starts to look less like fence-sitting and more like damage control.Multiple outlets have reported that Klint Kubiak is expected to leave the Seahawks after the Super Bowl to become the next head coach of the Raiders. If you are part of the ownership group that signed off on that move, going on the record and publicly cheering against your soon-to-be coach days before he walks into your locker room is not smart business.Brady did not say that explicitly, but the logic is obvious. If the Seahawks win, Kubiak walks into Las Vegas with a fresh ring and a little more authority in front of a roster that has not seen a Lombardi since the early 1980s. If the Seahawks lose, Brady does not wear any of that on his face. Either way, staying neutral keeps his hands clean with Raiders players, coaches, and fans.At the same time, he still found space to publicly back the people he knows best in New England. Brady praised new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls with him as a linebacker in New England, and longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who helped steer three of Brady’s title runs.“Josh McDaniels, who’s been a great friend of mine as well,” Brady said. “And again, you root for people and you want them to have great performances.”He is threading a needle here. Brady is telling Patriots fans he still loves the people in the building, telling Raiders fans he is not cheering against their incoming coach, and telling the league office he is above the tribal noise now.The quote that really sums up where he is in 2026 is not the headline line. It is this one.“I really root for people, and the people I care about,” Brady said. “I really want to sit back as a fan and enjoy the game, enjoy the moment and I always think, ‘May the best team win.’”
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