Had Jay Feely taken orders from Gisele Bündchen over the offseason, Tom Brady might not be on his way to play for a sixth Super Bowl ring.
Bündchen, Brady’s supermodel wife, tried to get Feely, the retired kicker and a former Michigan teammate, to convince the Patriots quarterback to retire, according to a feature in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.
“She was dead serious,” said Feely, who was on a vacation with Brady and his family.
Instead, Feely looked at Brady and said, “Play as long as you can.” Brady responded with a smile and a wink.
“For years he wanted to prove he belonged in this league,” said Feely, who kicked in the NFL from 2001 to 2014, including stints with the Giants and Jets. “He won three Super Bowls and still used perceived slights to motivate himself. And he’s still finding ways to motivate himself.”
Bündchen has not been afraid to voice her concerns about her 40-year-old husband playing football. She may have spilled the beans last May, when she claimed that Brady had a concussion in the previous season that went unreported — which the NFL denied.
Brady, meanwhile, has been equally vocal in maintaining he wants to play well into his 40s. After winning his fourth Super Bowl MVP last February, he told Sirius XM Radio, “If it was up to my wife, she would have me retire today.
“She told me that last night three times,” Brady said. “And I said, ‘Too bad, babe, I’m having too much fun right now.’ You know, I feel like I can still do it. If you love what you do and you’re capable of doing it, then I might be so bored if I wasn’t going out there knowing that I could still do it. So I’m going to work hard to be ready to go, and I still plan on playing for a long time.”