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Earlier this week, Tom Brady appeared in a new Foot Locker commercial that featured the Patriots quarterback mocking Deflategate in a thinly-veiled manner. It was rather humorous and delightful.

In the ad, Brady gets all fired up about talking to a pair of fans in a diner wondering why Foot Locker is able to keep its "Week of Greatness" going.

"Just because something is great year after year doesn't mean anything is going on," Brady says rather enthusiastially. "Why can't some things just be great? It starts with questions, and then questions turn into assumptions, and then assumptions turn into vacations. So why would you punish [the shoe store's] Week of Greatness for something that never even happened?"

Good stuff.

Asked this week what "went through his mind" when he decided to appear in the ad, Brady remained very vague.

"I don't know exactly what was going through my mind when I made the decision," Brady told reporters on a conference call.

But then he gave a very specific reason: he had lots of time!

"I've had a lot of different opportunities over the years and some I've chosen to do, and some I haven't," Brady said. "I've been in a very fortunate position to be able to choose the things that I do. I had a lot of free time on my hands at the beginning of the year, so I had to find ways to fill it."

So really the whole thing is a double win. Not only does Brady get to make fun of the whole Deflategate scenario during the ad, but he gets to double down and make fun of his suspension while talking about doing the ad.

The Boston Herald noted that Brady had a "tinge of regret" while providing his answer to the question. It's possible Brady recorded the ad when he was heated at the NFL, got an opportunity to vent his feelings and now that he's marching along in the middle of the season and the ad is finally airing, he wishes he'd passed.

Either way, this shouldn't linger as long as other controversies Brady's been involved in lately. Like, you know, Deflategate.