Matt Cassel Recounts an Unwell Tom Brady Wearing Double Jockstraps for the Playoffs After Hernia

Tom Brady is one tough son of a gun. The NFL GOAT absorbed plenty of brutal hits in his playing days. And he got back on his feet after dealing with every single one of them. One of the times Brady stayed on his feet resembled what his predecessor, Drew Bledsoe, experienced when he lost his starting gig to Brady.

Thankfully, Brady’s life wasn’t in danger. But according to Matt Cassel, he was still in a ton of pain. Cassel recalled the incident in question on Tuesday’s episode of The Rich Eisen Show. He told Eisen’s audience, who were being treated to guest host Bobby Jones, that an injury Brady suffered against his future team left him hampered below the belt.

“[Against the] Tampa Bay Buccaneers, end of season, [Brady] comes over. He’s wincing like crazy… I thought he had a stomach problem. Next thing I know, we go into the locker room… he had a hernia, and the fluid had leaked down into one of his testicles. This thing was triple the size, like grapefruit-size. And black and blue,” Matt Cassel recalled.

Cassel continued on, revealing Brady “had to get [his testicle] drained.” But once he did so, he returned to the starting lineup and “played with double jock straps for the rest of the playoffs.”

Meanwhile, Cassel had also shared details of an interesting incident that perfectly reflected the humorous side of the then head coach, Bill Belichick.

Matt Cassel dives into a hilarious story about Bill Belichick

Brady hasn’t shied away or denied the veracity of Cassel’s story. He told it to Howard Stern back in April 2020. With further investigation into things, people discovered the year this happened to Brady was 2005. Had he not suffered the injury, it’s possible he wouldn’t have lost his first career playoff game during that season’s playoffs.

Oddly enough, one of Cassel’s “most memorable stories” about Bill Belichick happened in the same year. In Week 5, New England’s special teams ace – Larry Izzo – thought he was cramping. But what he ended up doing was much funnier: he pooped in a trash can on the sideline.

Belichick, obviously knowing what transpired, got a kick out of it. The next day, according to Cassel, he pulled off his joke.

“On Mondays, we hand out game balls… Bill goes, ‘now this, I haven’t seen any of this type of [stuff] in the 30 something years I’ve been playing.’ He got Larry Izzo a game ball that says, ‘to Larry Izzo, for taking a massive dump on the sidelines,'” Matt Cassel remembered.

Cassel believes the story perfectly encapsulates Belichick’s “super dry sense of humor.” Evidently, fans got an inside look at his personality last NFL season, when he made regular appearances for ESPN and Inside The NFL. If they want any more of that sort of thing in 2025, they’ll have to root on Belichick’s North Carolina Tar Heels. Their season begins versus TCU on Sept. 1.