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With the NFL trade deadline underway, legendary quarterback Tom Brady revealed some interesting personal news: his dog is a clone.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and current FOX Sports broadcaster said in a statement Tuesday from a company he has invested in that his dog, Junie, is a clone of his late dog, Lua.
Colossal Biosciences, a biotech startup, announced the acquisition of animal cloning company Viagen Pets and Equine. Colossal is venture capital-backed, and among its goals is to “fix” extinction.
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Tom Brady is seen with his dog, Lua, while riding a scooter on December 7, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Stickman/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Tuesday’s move marks the company’s first major acquisition, and Brady was involved in it through his statement revealing Junie’s origins.
“I love my animals,” Brady said in the statement. “They mean the world to me and my family. A few years ago I worked with Colossal and utilized their non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw on our family’s senior dog before she passed away.”
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Lua was the deceased dog of Brady and his ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen. After the couple’s divorce was finalized in 2022, Lua died in December 2023.
Tom Brady is seen at a local playground with his son, Benjamin Brady, and dog Lua on January 12, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Stickman/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
But as Brady mentioned in the statement, Colossal’s genetic engineering and cloning technology led to Junie being born. Brady’s dog is a pit bull mix.
While Brady’s cloned dog is a feat in itself, Colossal said its cloning and gene-editing technology also led to the birth of three dire wolf pups — a species previously thought to be extinct.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as other groups, contested Colossal’s claim.
Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady reacts prior to an NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Los Angeles Rams at M&T Bank Stadium on October 12, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
“Combining the science of genetics with the business of discovery, we strive to rekindle nature’s ancestral heartbeat. To see the woolly mammoth thunder on the tundra again. To advance the economics of biology and healing through genetics,” Colossal’s website said. “To make humanity more human. And to reawaken Earth’s lost wildernesses. So we and our planet can breathe easier.”
