Tom Brady has no comment on Donald Trump’s ‘locker room talk’ (Video)

Tom Brady was having none of this question about Donald Trump during his press conference

Only the Houston Texans’ J.J. Watt rivals New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the title of “Face of the NFL,” and for good reason. Brady is indisputably one of the greatest players in the history of the football, he’s good-looking, he seems to have a fulfilling family life, and above all else, he’s a “winner.”

Those traits all make him attractive to advertisers and fans alike. They’ve also made him attractive to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has counted Brady among his close friends ever since Brady was a judge for the Trump-owned 2002 Miss USA beauty pageant. In September of last year, a hat emblazoned with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan was spotted in Brady’s locker.

At the time, the quarterback called Trump a good friend who has done “amazing” things. Though Trump has upped the ante on racist, sexist, Islamophobic comments in the ensuing 13 months, Brady has remained tepidly on the side of the inflammatory millionaire, if not endorsing him outright.

Today, when asked about a leaked video from 2005 – when the the two men were already friends – in which Trump engaged in what he later referred to as “locker room talk,” Brady walked out of his press conference rather than addressing the issue.

Brady, who only this week returned from his suspension for the years-long slog that was “Deflategate,” was likely simply trying to avoid being a “distraction.” But in an era of athlete activism ranging from LeBron James to Colin Kaepernick, refusing to offer even an insubstantial response stands out. The issue of what constitutes acceptable “locker room talk” is one that seems to call directly for the response of athletes, and that call has been met in the form of columns by former players and tweets by current ones.

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Colin Kaepernick’s protest has been dismissed at times because he isn’t a star player. Meanwhile, violence against women is perhaps the NFL’s second biggest PR issue behind concussions.

Brady, arguably the biggest star the game has to offer, had a chance today to use that star power and influence to address that issue. It’s as much within his rights not to do so as it is Kaepernick’s to kneel during the national anthem, but by conspicuously choosing silence,  may have spoken very loudly.