Tom Brady Had COVID After Bucs' Championship Parade

Bruce Arians recently announced that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 100 percent vaccinated, becoming only the second NFL team to reach that benchmark. The reaction to this announcement was a mix of approval and mild surprise, because being 100 percent vaccinated means Tom Brady was vaccinated.

Nobody thinks Brady is against the vaccine, necessarily. He's just spent so long preaching (and occasionally selling) home-grown remedies to help the body's various ailments that it wouldn't have been surprising if he refused said vaccine. But he got the jab, presumably because the only thing Brady cares about more than the TB12 method is winning football games.

It turns out there was some extra motivation that nobody knew about until today for Brady to get the vaccine. The Hall of Fame quarterback revealed to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that he himself battled COVID shortly after the Bucs' championship parade in February of this year.

TAMPA ― The Bucs are 100 percent vaccinated, and yes, that means quarterback Tom Brady.

In fact, Brady confirmed he had COVID-19 in February, shortly after the Super Bowl 55 championship boat parade.

He went on to explain why he thinks protecting everyone against the virus is going to be even more important competitively this season than last.

Before they could win the Super Bowl, the Bucs had to beat the virus. Teams battling COVID-19 was among the topics Brady discussed one-on-one with me. He thinks it will be a bigger story in 2021.

“You guys beat COVID last year. It’s still around. You’ve had it?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” Brady said.

“And I think it’s going to be challenging this year,” he continued. “I actually think it’s going to play more of a factor this year than last year, just because of the way what we’re doing now and what the stadium is going to look like and what the travel is going to look like and the people in the building and the fans.

Quite a reveal from Brady here. But what he says makes sense. If anything the man cares about a competitive edge and a vaccine certainly qualifies. It isn't completely foolproof but it's close enough.

To reiterate my coworker Stephen Douglas, if Tom Brady is getting vaccinated, no one else has any excuse.