Tom Brady may be the G.O.A.T. – meaning the "greatest of all time."
He may also have the amazing good fortune personally to win three league MVP awards, six Super Bowls, and four Super Bowl MVP Awards.
Or, maybe it is as he suggests. He's married to a practicing witch – one who offers incantations on altars before, during and after games.
"You know I've learned a lot from my wife over the years," Brady said, leaning back in a barber's chair at Gillette's World Shaving Headquarters in Boston about his super-model partner, Giselle Bündchen. "She's so about the power of intention and believing things that are really going to happen."
Brady said Bündchen "always makes a little altar for me at the game because she just wills it so much," complete with pictures of his children.
"And I have these little special stones and healing stones and protection stones and she has me wear a necklace and take these drops she makes, I say all these mantras," Brady said. "And I stopped questioning her a long time ago. I just shut up and listen."
Brady said at first he thought "this is kind of crazy," but it worked.
"About four years ago we were playing the Seahawks and she said, ‘You better listen to me, this is your year, but these are all the things you're going to have to do to win.'" And I did all those things and, by God, you know, it worked."
Bündchen also predicted that 2015 would not be Brady's year, he remembered, and sure enough that season for the Patriots ended disappointingly in the AFC Championship game.
But early this year, the 41-year-old Brady asked if he had a chance to win it all and he got the answer he was seeking.
"She said, 'Yeah, but you're going to have to do a lot of work and you're really going to have to listen to me. So, man, I listen to her," Brady said.
To what does she attribute her own record of success?
"She said, 'You're lucky you married a witch – I'm just a good witch," Brady said.
There may be more to it than that.
Bündchen is also deeply involved in yoga, meditation, crystals, astrology, a dab of Buddhism, Taoism and the Mexican spiritual guru Don Miguel Ruiz. She gave everyone at her 2009 wedding his book, "The Mastery of Love."
She also founded the Luz Foundation. Luz means light in many languages, including Hebrew. It is also connected with Lucifer, the dark angel known as "the light bearer."
Bündchen is a native of Brazilian, a former Victoria's Secret model and an actress. Since 2004, she has been among the highest-paid models in the world, and as of 2007 was the 16th richest woman in the entertainment industry. In 2012, she placed first on the Forbes top-earning models list.
Brady grew up in a Roman Catholic home but admitted in a 2015 interview that he and Bündchen are "into everything" religiously. His answer then was in response to a question about the presence of a menorah in his house.
"We're not Jewish," Brady was quoted as saying. "But I think we're into everything. ... I don't know what I believe. I think there's a belief system, I'm just not sure what it is."
Prior to the Super Bowl in 2012 when the Patriots lost to the New York Giants, Bündchen reportedly sent an email to her friends and family asking them to pray for the Patriots' success in that game.
"My sweet friends and family," the e-mail read. "This sunday will be a really important day in my husband's life. He and his team worked so hard to get to this point and now they need us more than ever to send them positive energy so they can fulfill their dream of winning this super bowl."
"So, I kindly ask all of you to join me on this positive chain and pray for him, so he can feel confident, healthy and strong. Envision him happy and fulfilled experiencing with his team a victory this sunday."
Brady's remarks during the Gillette charity event drew some alarm from Christians – especially about her self-proclaimed witch label. Social media went ablaze with reaction.
"Tom Brady was baptized as a Catholic, but his real religion is paganism," said Father Peter West of St. John's Catholic Church in Orange, N.J., in a Tweet. "He attributes his Super Bowl wins to his wife's witchcraft."
Running back Rex Buckhead told CBN News many of Brady's teammates aren't playing for themselves or the occult.
"Those earthly glories, stats, awards, what not, you play for God's glory!" Burkhead said. "Just out there and glorify Him with the talents He's given you, make the most of those abilities to give all the praise to Him."