Tom Brady has just issued an apology for comparing the NFL season to military deployment ... admitting Thursday afternoon that it was all a "poor choice of words."
Brady actually interrupted a reporter at the beginning of his Buccaneers press conference to deliver the mea culpa -- saying he wanted to express to everyone who "may have taken it in a certain way" that he was sorry.
Brady initially made the war-themed comments during his "Let's Go!" podcast on Monday ... while talking with Kevin Durant about the struggles he's encountered when trying to balance work and pleasure in the middle of a season.
"I almost look at like a football season like you're going away on deployment for the military," Brady said. "And it's like, 'Man, here I go again.'"
The remarks were hit with backlash almost immediately, with many on social media calling them tone-deaf. Army veteran Brad Thomas, who fought in Black Hawk Down, even took to his Instagram page to blast the quarterback over it all.
"Hey @tombrady - this statement is naive and offensive on many levels," he wrote. "You play a game, for entertainment, and seem to have lost your perspective."
Brady clearly felt bad about everything ... looking downtrodden as he delivered his apology Thursday.
"I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for everyone who served," he said. "And, in the end, we play a game, and the military is defending our country. It's two different things and I shouldn't have made the comparison."