Sheesh, how I have I gone this many years without knowing this story?
So, little did I know that back in the summer of 2011, Tom Brady was bitten by a straight up Navy SEAL team 6 dog… INSIDE GILLETTE STADIUM.
When I first saw this headline, I had so many questions.
But luckily, former SEAL Chris Fettes recently sat down for an interview with Outkick, and explained it all.
Fettes recounted:
“The team does an annual exercise before deployment. We were running a hostage rescue scenario in Gillette Stadium. At the end of it, we went down to the field for sort of a meet and greet, and some pictures. Tom Brady was very excited.
He comes over and he’s like, ‘Yeah!,’ and not realizing that the dog handler had just unmuzzled one of the most aggressive beasts of a dog that’s ever existed at that team. He lunged at Tom Brady and clamped onto his thigh.
I think that the reason he clamped onto his thigh is because the handler had the leash and pulled him back because they’re trained to go for necks and vital body parts. If no one restrained the dog or called him off, or there was no handler and it was just a loose working dog, that would’ve been really bad.
It turned out to be OK and he was just like super tough about it and ‘I’m not going anywhere, let’s like finish this, let’s hangout.'”
YIKES.
Little did I know that Tom Brady, the GOAT, could’ve possibly died in Gillette Stadium, had there not been a handler with the dog.
Honestly, props to him for sticking it out and fighting through the pain, because Lord knows that had to hurt like hell.
A few years back, Brady also recounted the story in a press conference before the Super Bowl back in 2018:
“I was walking out to the middle of the field and there’s helicopters flying and everyone is lined up. Some guys were kind of excited to see us walk out, so I kind of was close to all the guys, and didn’t realize there were dogs. Obviously, those weren’t like Labradors.
Those were tough dogs. I raised my arms up over my head, and right when I raised my arms up, the dog jumped up, and I guess was going for my neck and the guy grabbed the dog back down and the dog got my thigh on the way down.
So, I was standing there with a bunch of tough guys. And they all saw it. And they’re like, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course I’m OK,’ but I could feel the cut.
But obviously I couldn’t say anything, like ‘Oh man that hurt,’ because I’m with the toughest guys in the world. So, I just sucked it up for like an hour after we said hi to all the guys and so forth.”
Tough guy, Tom.
So, I just hope ol’ Tom stays away from attack dogs as he enjoys his official retirement.
