Over the course of his 20-year NFL career, Tom Brady has typically played things pretty close to the vest with his interviews.
But appearing on The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback provided some of the most insight into his playing career -- and personal life -- that he's ever given before.
In what was a two-hour interview with "The King of All Media," Brady touched on a variety of topics, including his departure from the team he spent the first two decades of his career with, the New England Patriots. And while it wasn't until last month that he made his decision public, the 6-time Super Bowl champion confirmed that he knew ahead of the 2019 season that it would likely be his last in New England.
"I don’t think there was a final, final decision until it happened," Brady said, per NESN.com. "But I would say I probably knew before the start of last season that it was my last year. I knew our time was coming to an end.”
The 42-year-old Brady also opened up about his relationship with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, which has been the subject of speculation over the course of the past few years. Last month, ESPN's Seth Wickersham detailed the divide between Brady and Belichick, which played a role in the former's departure from New England.
Speaking to Stern, Brady downplayed the rift between the two. He did, however, admit to feeling as if his former head coach was planning for a future without him.
"So many wrong assumptions were made about our relationship and how he felt about me. I know genuinely how feels about me," Brady said of Belichick. "I’m not going to respond to every rumor or assumption made other than what his responsibility as a coach is to get the best player for the team not only for the short term but the long term as well.
"I got into unchartered territory as an athlete because I started to break the mold of what so many other athletes experienced. I was an older athlete and he started to plan for the future, which is what his responsibility is, and I don’t fault him for that. That’s what he should be doing.”
The 4-time MVP's interview with Stern didn't just focus on football. Perhaps most notably, Brady shed a light on his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who he said wrote him a letter that ultimately resulted in him skipping Organized Team Activities with the Patriots over the past few years.
"A couple of years ago, she didn’t feel like I was doing my part for the family. She felt like I would play football all season, and she’d take care of the house. Then when the season ended, I’d be like, ‘Great, let me get into all my other business activities, let me get into my football training,'" Brady said. "I had to make a big transition in my life to say I can’t do all the things that I wanted to do for football like I used to. I had to take care of my family because my family situation wasn’t great. She wasn’t satisfied with our marriage. I had to make a change in that."
Additionally, Brady opened up about his relationship with President Donald Trump, who he said asked him to speak on his behalf at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
"I met him in 2001. It was probably very similar to our relationship that you had with him," Brady told Stern. "In 2002, after I won my first Super Bowl, he asked me to go judge a Miss USA competition, which I thought was the coolest thing in the world because I was 24 years old and had a chance to do something like that.
"Then the whole political aspect came, and I think I got brought into a lot of those things because it was so polarizing around the election time. It was uncomfortable for me because you can’t undo things, not that I would undo a friendship, but political support is a lot different than the support of a friend."
You can listen to the entirety of Brady's interview with Stern at HowardStern.com.