No, Tom Brady didn’t threaten to quit if teammates kneeled during anthem

In his more than 20 years in the NFL, Tom Brady has usually avoided making public comments on political or hot-button topics.

That’s why recent social media posts claiming that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback said he would quit if his teammates kneeled during the national anthem looked especially suspicious. 

And sure enough, the quote is fake. It originated on a satirical website.

That didn’t stop people from sharing it in posts without any disclaimers to indicate it was fabricated.

One Twitter user posted the satire story’s headline, "Tom Brady: ‘If Anyone on My Team Kneels, I Quit,’" and then wrote, "Do you agree with him?"

The phony quote originated on the America’s Last Line of Defense website, which contains a disclaimer that says everything posted on it is fiction.

The site is run by a man named Christopher Blair, who has been publishing fabricated stories for years and says his goal is to trick conservatives into sharing false claims on social media.

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Brady, a six-time Super Bowl winner, typically refrains from making public comments on non-football topics, but he told Oprah Winfrey in a June 2018 interview that he respects players who choose to kneel in protest during the national anthem before football games. 

"I think there were a lot of really good, healthy conversations coming out of it in our locker room," Brady said in the interview. "I respect why people are doing what they’re doing, and they’re doing it for different reasons, and that’s OK. You can do things for your reasons, they can do things for their reasons, and you have respect for that. But I thought it was great."

Posts claim that Brady said he would quit football if his teammates kneeled during the national anthem.

He never said that. The quote came from a satirical website and was erroneously copied and shared in posts as if it were legitimate.

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