Tom Brady reflects on regrets about doing Netflix roast: ‘It was tough on my kids’

One year ago, seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady opened himself up to arrows and slings like never before when he agreed to do the G.R.O.A.T — “The Greatest Roast of All-Time” — as a comedy special for Netflix. Now one year removed from doing the special, Brady spoke honestly and candidly about his regrets concerning it, namely the effect that it had on his children.

Speaking on Impaulsive, Brady acknowledged that while he could take all of the jokes about both himself and ex-wife Gisele Bundchen, his kids were much more sensitive to what was said about their parents than he realized.

“It was tough on my kids, for sure,” Brady said. “I kind of went in there — look, you don’t know what to expect. I love laughing at myself. It felt like I was in the locker room. And the harder people go at me, I actually love it. If people make fun of you, then I know that I’m good with them. I don’t take myself too seriously. But I do understand for my kids, that was really hard.

“There are some things as a parent you f— up and you don’t realize until after. We’re not perfect parents. There’s no perfect manual for it. And you’ve got to evaluate yourself as a parent all the time. So even though I really enjoyed the show and the performances were incredible — when you were in that moment in that theater that night at the Forum, it was electric. It was crazy. We got done, everybody was on Cloud 9. And I think that moment, I’ll never forget.

“And then I’ll never forget when I talked to my kids the next day. It felt like a stake through the heart, and understandably. They’re protective of their mom, of their dad, of everybody. ‘What was the point of that? Why did you do that?’ It’s just you live and you learn.”

Brady has three children, a son and a daughter with Bundchen and another son from a previous relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan. Brady and Bundchen announced their divorce in 2022.