'Tom is...committed to it': Matt Damon backs Patriots' QB Brady

Article content

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady might be listed as questionable for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but his biggest fan Matt Damon isn’t worried.

When asked to pick the teams he thinks will make it to Super Bowl LII, Damon simply says: “It’s going to be the Patriots and the team that loses.”

To Patriots Nation, and Damon, Brady has been a constant in the team’s five-Super Bowl wins and nearly two decade-long dynasty.

“Being the greatest ever and being the best he can be is his priority,” Damon says.

With five rings, Brady already has more than any other QB in NFL history. His head coach Bill Belichick has seven.

In his 18 years in the league, critics of Brady have tried to burst the bubble of Patriots fans.

But Damon, who watched the Patriots’ come-from-behind Super Bowl win last year with pal Ben Affleck, marvels at Brady’s work ethic.

“Tom is just completely committed to it. It’s not something where he goes to work and turns it on; he just never turns it off. It’s a lifestyle for him. I mean, look he put a book out about it just last year. It’s an absolute choice.”

I remember being out to dinner with him in 2008 in May with a group of people and someone ordered a bottle of wine and went to pour it in his glass. He said, ‘No,’ and I asked him, ‘Don’t you start training in two months?’ and he replied, ‘No.’

“I remember looking at him thinking, ‘Wow, he won’t even have a glass of wine.’”

Damon will be participating in the Super Bowl in his own way. This year, his charitable organization Water.org and Stella Artois are launching a Super Bowl ad, which touts the two companies ongoing partnership to bring clean water to developing countries.

Customers in Canada will be able to help people in need gain access to clean water through the purchase of 12-packs of Stella or limited-edition chalices designed by artists from countries where Water.org operates.

“It’s amazing that Stella is doing this,” Damon says. “It’s an awesome partnership for us. They’re using their formidable reach to really get this message out.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

Yankees ‘so stacked now’: Damon

When Matt Damon looks at a New York Yankees roster that now includes reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton battling alongside AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge, the lifelong Boston Red Sox fan wants to cry.

“You’re from Toronto, why are you even bringing this up, man?” Damon replies when asked how the other teams in the best division in baseball — the AL East — are going to fare in the upcoming baseball season.

“Why are you trying to depress me? This is going to be horrible — for all of us. The Yankees are so stacked now. This is going to be a long summer — for you and me.”

-Mark Daniell