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Conservative Christian radio host Rick Wiles, founder of the TruNews channel, raised eyebrows in February 2019 when he claimed that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had admitted he was under the control of his wife, the supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who Wiles said was a witch who was taking him to hell. Wiles' solemn pronouncements came in response to a video recorded in Boston on 7 February. The video showed Brady, fresh from his sixth Super Bowl victory against the Los Angeles Rams, bantering about the dynamics of his marriage to Bündchen at an event hosted by the razor blade company Gillette, during which he had his beard shaved to raise money for charity. Brady discussed the regimen of new-age, superstitious rituals which Bündchen sets out for her husband, including healing stones, mantras and an altar to the couple's children, and shared with the audience Bündchen's self-description as a good witch. On that basis, Wiles and his guests, the broadcasters Kerry Kinsey and Doc Burkhart, criticized the legendary quarterback's purported lack of a spiritual backbone, and warned that the celebrity couple were bound for damnation if they did not repent for purportedly engaging in witchcraft, and should allow themselves to be saved. It's true that Brady did recall a conversation in which Bündchen referred to herself as a good witch, but his tone throughout the anecdote was clearly tongue-in-cheek and in keeping with the lighthearted, storytelling atmosphere of a charity public event. Rather than earnestly admitting his wife's status as a witch, and his own complicity in her pagan rituals, Brady was speaking, as many married people often do, in an affectionate and self-deprecating way about his wife's influence over how he prepares for football games and the keen, if superstitious, interest she takes in his career. During the course of the charity event, Brady was asked: Any superstitions going into the game? Any special thing that you carried into the game on Sunday [Super Bowl 53] that you had tucked away somewhere. Brady grinned and laughed throughout his response: The next day, Wiles hosted a panel discussion about the video on his TruNews show, where he was joined by Kerry Kinsey and Doc Burkhart. The following is an excerpted transcript of their exchange, which can be watched below: After playing the video clip of Brady's anecdote, the panel delved deeper: Brady did recount a conversation with Bündchen in which she described herself as a good witch, and he did outline a regimen of rituals (healing stones, mantras and an altar to his children) that would not be in keeping with mainstream Christianity. For what it's worth, Brady's personal religious beliefs are ambiguous and eclectic. In 2015, USA Today reported that he had a statue of the Hindu god Ganesh in his Patriots locker, and the same year Brady told the New York Times I don't know what I believe and I think we're into everything. However, his remarks in February 2019 hardly amounted to a stunning admission (as Wiles described them) that he and his wife are sincere practitioners of witchcraft. Indeed, Brady did not himself describe Bündchen as a witch. Rather, he recalled, in a lighthearted tone, a moment when Bündchen described herself in those terms. Contrary to the deathly serious warnings pronounced by Wiles and his TruNews panel guests, Brady was sharing what he presented as pre-game superstitions, designed by his wife and dutifully carried out by the superstar quarterback. He recalled, smiling throughout and speaking before a laughing audience, Bündchen's accurate predictions about the outcome of a series of Patriots seasons during the 2010s. He did not, contrary to Wiles' claims, attribute his success to his wife's witchcraft.
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