Tom Brady, who was ruthlessly roasted recently during Netflix’s “The Roast of Tom Brady,” vowed to never willingly be the butt of a joke again. Comedian Nikki Glaser is calling his bluff.
Glaser addressed the NFL star’s post-roast regrets during an interview with “Today” co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. After the star-studded roast, which skewered the athlete’s football career and high-profile divorce from Gisele Bündchen, Brady said he “wouldn’t do that again because of the way it affected” his family.
The comedian, whom Kotb and Bush Hager dubbed the roast’s “winner,” said she thinks Brady “maybe didn’t consider the backlash from his family and how would affect them.” She also expressed disbelief that Brady wasn’t aware of what he was getting into, noting that he could have prepared by watching footage of previous comedy roasts.
“I think it’s kind of a thing you say after the fact,” she said. “It’s impossible to me that he didn’t consider what could’ve happened.”
“The Roast of Tom Brady” streamed live on Netflix earlier this month and featured jabs from host Kevin Hart and panelists Will Ferrell, Jeff Ross, Rob Gronkowski, Kim Kardashian and Andrew Schulz, among others. Brady, during a Tuesday episode of “The Pivot” podcast, said he “loved” when he was the target of the jokes but “didn’t like the way it affected my kids.” He has three children: a 16-year-old son with actor Bridget Moynahan and two children with ex-wife Bündchen.
“There’s the bittersweet aspect of when you do something that you think is one way, then all of a sudden you realize, ‘I wouldn’t do that again because of the way it affected actually the people I care about most in the world,’” he said during the podcast.
Glaser joked Wednesday that she thinks Brady couldn’t take the heat because “no one’s ever said a bad thing to him in the past 30 years.” While the comedian said she and her fellow roasters agreed beforehand not to bring Brady’s children into the mix, Glaser later added there weren’t specific guidelines on which topics were off-limits.
“I got a sense that it was a little more than he had planned for. He hadn’t planned out to react,” she added. “At first it kinda jarred him… I don’t really think he thought they were gonna go there.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Glaser, whose new HBO special “Someday You’ll Die” can be streamed on Max, told Kotb and Bush Hager about the ways “The Roast of Tom Brady” has boosted her career. “I’ve never won anything in my life,” she said.
“It really is a culmination of a lot years of work, having this moment. There’s nothing like this. My life is completely changed,” she said. “I now have to dress nicer when I go out. I’ve never been recognizable.”
Times staff writer Steve Henson contributed to this report.
