Kyle Van Noy had a smile on his face as he watched Tom Brady and Tyrann Mathieu verbally spar during Super Bowl LV.
Van Noy, who played 3 1/2 seasons with Brady in New England before joining the Miami Dolphins last offseason, said he loved seeing the 43-year-old quarterback trash-talk Mathieu as his Tampa Bay Buccaneers rolled to a 31-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I think that’s how (Brady) is the majority of the time,” Van Noy said Friday during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show." “… I think everybody has the same boring jokes as far as, ‘You’re old, you need to retire,’ blah, blah, blah. I’m sure Tyrann probably said some stuff to ruffle his feathers. It started early in the game, you could tell.
"I think the big point was when Tyrann caught the pick and there was a flag and Tyrann didn’t know there was a flag. I think he was talking big cash to Tom, and it caught up to him because (Brady) scored on him and let him know. Me knowing how Tom is, he did it in practice all the time, and I loved it."
Van Noy has been on the receiving end of Brady smack-talk before.
"I’ll tell you a quick story," the linebacker told McAfee. "It was 2018. It was OTAs, and (tight end Rob Gronkowski), there was reports he got traded. He came back, him and Tom in OTAs, and they gave us that business, and they were letting everybody know about it. They were talking big trash to us, and we couldn’t say (expletive) back because it was like, you guys are beating our ass and letting us know.
"So I know how Tyrann felt. You got a little upper hand on Tom. You want to let him know. But he eventually got the last laugh like he always does."
Brady threw three touchdowns with no interceptions against the Chiefs and posted his highest passer rating (125.8) ever in a Super Bowl, earning Super Bowl MVP honors for the fifth time in his career.
Van Noy said the QB's battles with Mathieu evoked memories of the notoriously competitive Michael Jordan.
“It gives me chills thinking about it," Van Noy said, "because it reminds me of Michael Jordan in his documentary where he has the baseball bat and the cigar right before the game and he’s like, 'You can tell a lot about a man when they can talk (expletive) when it’s 0-0 or they’re down. Any man can talk (expletive) when they’re ahead.’ Ooh, I love that (expletive)."
It remains unclear exactly what Brady told Mathieu during their two post-whistle dustups, but he reportedly texted the All-Pro safety after the game to apologize.
