Julian Edelman Reveals Tom Brady’s Sad Go-to Cheat Meal

Julian Edelman revealed Tom Brady’s rather measly “cheat meal” in an exclusive interview with People.

"He used to love chicken wings once in a while," Edelman said of Brady’s preferred cheat dish. "We used to have the same team meals every night before the game because we would stay in hotels and usually we'd cater the same types of foods, and there'd always be some sort of chicken wing."

Edelman shared Brady’s rather amusing post-dinner, pre-game ritual of stealing an extra chicken wing for his trip upstairs. “Tom would always have one chicken wing for his guilty pleasure before we would huddle off to bed," Edelman recalled.

“A single chicken wing,” he reiterated with amusement.

Edelman confirmed that Brady “really does” adhere to his infamously restrictive diet, which is 80 percent vegetables and whole grains topped off with 20 percent fish and lean meats. "He does live by that diet. I'm not going to lie,” Edelman said. “He does practice what he preaches. We used to get in arguments all the time about it."

Brady is all-in on his diet, having written a 2017 book, The TB12 Method, with his long-time trainer, Alex Guerrero. In the book, Brady revealed that his diet eliminates all dairy, sugar, gluten, refined carbs, caffeine, and processed meats, as well as fruits and vegetables like strawberries, eggplant, and tomatoes.

On his Let’s Go! podcast back in 2022 (via Business Insider), Brady said he allows himself to say “screw it” just one day each year: Thanksgiving. "Just like everyone else," Brady quipped. "That's the one meal where I'm like, screw it, let's go for it. And we all get to enjoy it."

The regimen seems to be paying dividends for Brady. The newly anointed Hall of Famer recently revealed that he’s lost 10 pounds since leaving the NFL.