Tom Brady: Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl ‘Nipplegate’ was ‘good for the NFL’
“Nipplegate” discourse surrounding the infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.On a recent episode of his podcast, “Let’s Go!” with Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray where the co-hosts were discussing Rihanna’s halftime show from Super Bowl 2023 — which saw the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles — Brady was asked whether the NFL players participating in the big game are able to watch the show.Brady, 45, admitted that the players are typically too focused on the game to pay attention — and brought up Jackson’s areola-flashing wardrobe malfunction as an example — saying that it was “probably a good thing for the NFL.”“[Reporters] were asking me about that, and I couldn’t even understand what they were telling me about,” Brady recalled. “They were like, ‘Did you see the halftime show?’ and I said, ‘Nah, I didn’t see anything.’ I was thinking about the game and was trying to figure out halftime adjustments.”“It took a while for us to figure out what had gone on. That’s for the fans and not for the players,” he added.The recently retired quarterback led the New England Patriots to victory over the Carolina Panthers at the Super Bowl XXXVIII and won the game’s MVP award, but what’s remembered most was the halftime performance featuring Jackson, Timberlake, Diddy, Nelly, Kid Rock and Jessica Simpson.AdvertisementThe halftime show ended with an infamous moment when Timberlake exposed Jackson’s breast while performing “Rock Your Body.”“I think, in the end, it was probably a good thing for the NFL because everyone got to talk about it, and it was just more publicity and more publicity for halftime shows,” Brady said.