Patriots football hero Tom Brady is GQ’s Man of the Year, and let’s just say that Tom — always a quick study — has learned a thing or two since his last close encounter with Gentlemen’s Quarterly!

You may recall that back in 2005, Brady sat down with GQ for an interview and posed for some rather, er, confusing pictures. Iconic fashion photographer Bruce Weber styled 12 as a cowboy, as a sailor, rolling in the hay with some cuddly Golden Retriever puppies and cradling a baby goat.

In the special 20th anniversary issue that hits stands Monday, the closest thing Tommy comes to farm animals is the shearling coat he’s wearing on the cover. Inside the maggie, we are treated to shots of the QB.

QT coverboy draped over his Chestnut Hill couch in a suit that appears to be made of sweatshirt material, taking to yet another couch with what looks to be an attack of the vapors (but sporting a very stylin’ white and red-striped sweater) and snuggling a Super Bowl XLIX football that, to the naked eye, seems a tad overinflated. …

Speaking of which, the author of the piece, Chuck Klosterman, wastes most of his precious 45-minute phone chat with the GOAT attempting to get Brady to admit that he was “generally aware” of the ball deflation. Tommy, who has learned a few things at the Bill Belichick School of Media Management over the years, repeatedly (but politely) declines to discuss the matter, citing the NFL’s pending appeal. (Back in ’05, at the height of BabyGoatgate, Belichick imparted these words of wisdom to his QB: “Just because they ask, you don’t have to say yes.”)

So sadly, there’s nothing new to reveal on 12’s crazy diet-and-fitness regimen, his controversial health guru, the state of his marriage to Gisele Bundchen or whether he is or isn’t actually going to vote for his pal Donald Trump.

Let’s just say, GQ had more success back in ’05 getting Brady to open up. In that little pow-wow, Tommy admitted to surfing the ‘net for porn and his hatred for his “golden boy” image — which, post-Deflategate, he may now be looking back at fondly!

Also, in ’05, Brady admitted that he would “be ready to kinda delve into” politics if the opportunity should arise. In the current interview, Brady puts that idea to death — no doubt driving a stake into the heart of the GOP.

“There is 0.000 chance of me ever wanting to do that,” he tells Klosterman. “I just think that no matter what you’d say or what you’d do, you’d be in a position where you know, you’re politicking. You know? Like, I think the great part about what I do is that there’s a scoreboard. At the end of every week, you know how you did. You know how well you prepared. You know whether you executed your game plan. There’s a tangible score.

“I think in politics, half the people are gonna like you and half the people are not gonna like you, no matter what you do or what you say… It’s like there are no right answers. If there were, everyone would choose the right answers. They’re all opinions.”

Which is to say that Tom has decided that the only way he wants to be judged is by what he does on the field. And if Deflategate has hurt his rep — or his team’s — he doesn’t really give a goat!

“I don’t really care how the Patriots are perceived, truthfully. I really don’t. I really don’t,” he says. “Look, if you’re a fan of our team, you root for us, you believe in our team, and you believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. If you’re not a fan of us, you have a different opinion.”

File Under: Our Man Of Every Year.