Former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe skewered NFL legend Tom Brady during the Brady’s Netflix roast on Sunday night.
Bledsoe took to the dais during “The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady” and reminded his replacement quarterback about his high-profile divorce from model Gisele Bündchen.
Bledsoe joked that although Brady took his starting job during the 2001 season and went on to carry the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins, he could take solace in the fact that his wife had never left him.
“Buddy, you know you have more rings than I do, but I’ve experienced a couple of things that you’ll never experience,” Bledsoe began.
“The feeling of being the No. 1 overall draft pick in the NFL,” he joked. “And a 28th wedding anniversary. It was yesterday.”
“I’ve experienced a couple of things that you’ll never experience:
The feeling of being the No. 1 overall draft pick in the NFL.
And a 28th wedding anniversary; it was yesterday.” – Drew Bledsoe to Tom Brady 🏈📺 #TomBradyRoast pic.twitter.com/snGChu4yDa
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 6, 2024
The crowd went wild while Brady laughed, taking the jibe in stride.
Brady and Bündchen appeared to be the NFL’s happiest couple from 2009 until late in the 2022 season when the quarterback briefly came out of retirement and the two ended their marriage.
Did this joke go too far?
But long before Brady found himself on the radar of a Victoria’s Secret model, he was drafted in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft.
The former Michigan Wolverine backed up Bledsoe – the No. 1 overall pick in the 1993 NFL draft – until the second game of the 2001 season.
Bledsoe suffered an injury that sidelined him for most of the season and Brady never let go of the reins.
Bledsoe had just inked a then-record 10-year contract with the team, but Brady led the Patriots to their first Super Bowl win.
Bledsoe was traded to the Buffalo Bills after the season and retired from the NFL after the 2006 season with one league championship ring for backing up Brady in Super Bowl XXXVI.
While Brady generally receives all the praise for the Patriots’ first title win, Bledsoe did step in during that year’s AFC Championship – a 24-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers – when Brady went down with an injury of his own.
The win propelled the Patriots to the Super Bowl, a game in which Brady started and won.
Bledsoe spoke to Fox Sports Radio host Colin Cowherd about Brady and his own complicated legacy in a candid 2021 interview.
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that stuff, and I love Tom to this day,” Bledsoe said of his time in the NFL.
“The only thing that does kind of bother me sometimes though, and this is just being totally honest, I feel like my career has kinda been treated like a footnote. You know, like it’s just a footnote to Tom’s career.”
