Tina Fey Recalls Working with Tom Brady on “Saturday Night Live”, Explains Why Athletes Make the Best Hosts

Meredith WilshereSun, April 26, 2026 at 8:29 PM UTC

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Tina Fey and Tom BradyCredit: Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty -

Tina Fey says athletes like Tom Brady are great Saturday Night Live hosts because they are coachable and relaxed under pressure

Fey reflected on Brady's hosting experience, sharing how athletes take direction better than Oscar-winning actors

Brady hosted once in 2005 for the 30th season

Tina Fey says that athletes make the best Saturday Night Live hosts.

During a conversation with Damian Holbrook at HISTORYTalks in Philadelphia on April 18, Fey reflected on working with Tom Brady, who hosted an episode of the beloved sketch comedy series in 2005.

“The thing about Tom and so many other athletes, we always would say at SNL that athletes make the best hosts because one, nothing is at stake for them, like they don't care if it goes well, they're not trying to get a movie out of it, two, they're coachable,” the 30 Rock actress explained.

Fey began as a writer on SNL in 1997 and joined the cast in 2000, staying until 2006.

The 55-year-old explained that athletes are used to being told what to do, whereas some Hollywood stars don't respond as well to feedback.

Tom Brady on 'SNL'Credit: Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

“You can go up to an athlete host and be like, ‘Yeah, do that faster.' They're like, ‘Yes, ma'am,'" she said. "You can't go on to like an Oscar-winning film actor and say like, '[Be] faster.' "

"I'm like, ‘Stand here and put your arm like this,'” she continued, mimicking putting an athlete into a certain position.

She noted that athletes also "understand that state of relaxed readiness" that helps during a live show.

"So like they're just kind of chill," Fey said, noting that the same way athletes game-plan for big games is like how comedians prepare for the show.

“In my mind, I’m Tom Brady," she told the audience.

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One of the sketches Fey and Brady did together was a 1950s-style PSA about appropriate behavior in the workplace. At the time, Fey was a head writer and co-host of Weekend Update with Amy Poehler, but would occasionally appear in a few sketches.

"I actually got to be in a video with him because I was hardly ever in sketches, but there was a really funny Robert Smigel sketch that was like an old 1950s workplace video of like sexual harassment in the office," she explained.

In the skit, Fred Armisen was repeatedly reported for sexual harassment in the workplace, while Brady successfully courted several female coworkers despite making inappropriate comments and gestures. The joke was that you had to "be handsome," Fey explained.

"So like, like Tom would be like, 'Hello, would you like to go to date with me?' And I'm like, 'Okay.' It was like, 'Don't not be handsome,'" she shared.

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Tom BradyCredit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

In 2022, Brady admitted to SNL cast member Kenan Thompson that he felt a little pannicky before the show began after seeing skits being scraped right before showtime.

"I remember when we did Saturday Night Live together and we did all the skits on that pre-show, the live one before the live [show]. And then afterward, we went up to Lorne [Michaels] office," Brady recalled, noting that Michaels is "a lot like [Bill] Belichick," his former coach from the New England Patriots.

"You know, [Michaels] was eating his popcorn or whatever the hell he was eating, and he was like, 'No, scratch that,' and 'Not that, and not that.' And I'm sitting there like, 'Man, we go on in 10 minutes!' "

Brady remembered thinking, "I need tequila, I gotta get down, I gotta get changed. I need two shots of tequila before I go on. Like, let's get this thing going, you know?"

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”