Tom Brady Says He Tested Positive for COVID-19 After Super Bowl Parade

Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said he tested positive for COVID-19 in February after the team's Super Bowl parade, he told the Tampa Bay Times on Saturday. He shared he tested positive after the festivities just two days after coach Bruce Arians announced the Bucs are 100% vaccinated ahead of the 2021 season. 

The infamous Tampa Bay boat parade saw headline after headline after the Bucs won their first Super Bowl since 2003. Brady went viral not just for tossing the Lombardi Trophy from his boat to another, but a video of him visibly wobbly and needing help walking also made the rounds. 

Now looking to go back-to-back, Brady stressed the importance of dealing with COVID-19 given how restrictions are beginning to loosen.

“I think it’s [COVID-19] going to be challenging this year,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “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.

“It’s not like last year, although we’re getting tested like last year. It’s going to be, I definitely think guys are going to be out at different points and we’ve just got to deal with it.”

The Bucs were able to steer clear of any major COVID-related roadblocks in 2020 largely due to Arians's strict protocols, and given the fact that the Bucs and Falcons are the only two NFL teams to reach 100% player vaccination, more of the same can be expected. 

“He [Arians] dog-cussed them," quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen told the Tampa Bay Times. "If he thought there was any slack whatsoever in us taking that thing for granted or letting down our guard, he snapped the team back to attention.”