Survey shows 15 percent increase in those
who don't like Tom Brady
By Darren Rovell, ESPN.com Sports Business reporter
For the first time in his career, a poll indicates there are almost as many people who say they
dislike Tom Brady as people who say they are fans of the New England Patriots quarterback.
E-Poll Market Research released findings Friday on a poll conducted this week that asked more
than 1,000 people representative of the U.S. population what they thought about Brady.
The company's E-Score Celebrity index shows that
47 percent of those surveyed now say they don't like
Brady. An E-Poll survey taken in February, a little
more than two weeks after the Patriots' win in Super
Bowl XLIX, showed 32 percent of the respondents
didn't like him at that point.
Patriots QB Tom Brady, despite winning a fourth
Super Bowl, has seen his likeability rating fall to a
career-low 53 percent, according to the latest EPoll Market Research findings. Elsa/Getty Images
Ten years ago, the number of people in E-Poll
surveys who said they liked Brady hovered around
90 percent. By June 2008, the offseason after
Spygate, Brady's positive appeal fell to a thencareer low of 77 percent. Brady hit another career
low with a 68 percent likeability rating in an E-Poll
survey taken Feb. 20, 2015.
The company says the February decline was related to Deflategate and not just spiteful fans of
other teams, as many who took the survey then wrote they were troubled about Brady's skirting
league rules regarding air pressure in the footballs. That's combined with the fact Brady didn't
see a popularity dip at any point during his other three Super Bowl victories.
The average athlete among the more than 1,500 athletes in E-Poll's database is liked by 86
percent of those surveyed. Brady's 53 percent like-to-47 percent dislike ratio is the exact ratio
that those surveyed by E-Poll currently gave Tiger Woods.
Much of the future sentiment about Brady will have to do with how things unfold with his appeal
and any legal action he takes against the league, as well as how he performs when he is back on
the field. But E-Poll CEO Gerry Philpott said it's possible Brady could return to his pre-Super
Bowl numbers (75 percent liked) by the end of next season.
Brady's two biggest sponsors, Under Armour and UGG Australia, have been quiet all week, not
commenting on Brady's situation.