Many wondered whether Tom Brady telling comedian Jeff Ross to cut out the jokes at the expense of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft during The Roast of Tom Brady live on Netflix on Sunday night was real or scripted. We’re still no closer to the truth after Ross and former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe offered differing answers on Monday.
During the roast, Ross alluded to Kraft’s involvement in a scandal with a massage parlor in Palm Beach, in which security cameras caught him receiving a sexual favor from the owner. After the joke, Brady could be heard telling Ross, “don’t say that s*** again.”
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But in an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Monday, Ross insisted Brady was just joking as well.
“He was having fun,” Ross said. “That’s his dad, Robert Kraft is like a father figure to him. He was just showing his love for Robert Kraft. And Robert Kraft loved it: we were having a great talk afterward, and he was so happy that I gave him a shoutout and a salute.”
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However, Bledsoe was more sympathetic to Kraft and believed Brady was truly angry. Bledsoe said on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz that the cast of roasters wasn’t sure whether Kraft would attend the event until the last minute, and some, including Bledsoe, unofficially treated Kraft jokes as off-limits.
“That was an authentic moment,” Bledsoe said. “That was not scripted, Tom came up to make sure we weren’t getting after our buddy … that was Tom genuinely coming to his defense.”
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Generally, Ross said he thought Brady was a good sport. He followed the rules and loosened up. Then, he closed out the show with a killer rebuttal.
“I kept him in the dark on a lot of the surprises, and he didn’t hear anybody’s jokes,” Ross said. “And even though he was a producer on the show … he abided by the rules of the roast, which is basically ‘Anything goes, and surprise me.’ I got to give the guy credit, man, he really did it.”
Ross said he originally reached out to Brady after the legendary quarterback won the Super Bowl in 2021. Then, the roast was delayed years with Brady’s stops and starts in the NFL.
It was gratifying for Ross and Brady to see this come to fruition. And Brady for his part played it cool.
“A couple jokes might have stung out of the gate, but once he realized that he was in for it and it’s all for love … I think he was down for it,” Ross said. “And I think he earned his rebuttal.”
The truth here is probably between Bledsoe’s read on it and Ross’s. Brady was clearly bothered, but Ross may be correct that it wasn’t as big of a deal as it was made out to be.
