Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field star in "80 for Brady" as they try to get into Super Bowl LI to watch Tom Brady play. In theaters Feb. 3.

Lily Tomlin was surrounded by pro sports teams while growing up in Detroit in the 1940s and ’50s. She even went to grade school with a couple of Tigers pitcher Paul “Dizzy” Trout’s sons, who charmed her with their magic tricks. But she was far more interested in her own competitive pursuits.

“I was very athletic myself,” the actress and comedian told Newsday, “but I thought the world sort of revolved around my team or my playing. The big guys, I didn’t pay any attention to them.”

Tomlin was a softball pitcher as part of a police program to keep children out of trouble on the streets.

“I lived in kind of a tough neighborhood, although I didn’t know it was tough,” she said. “So I pitched.”

A lifetime later, Tomlin finds herself starring in a new film about one of the most accomplished athletes in American history, joined by three friends and fellow A-list actresses of a certain age.

In “80 for Brady,” which debuted on Friday, she joins Jane Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno in an inspired-by-truth story about four women who plot to attend Super Bowl LI in Houston to cheer on their favorite player.

Tom Brady is a producer for and appears in the film, a lighthearted romp complete with plenty of actual game footage from (spoiler alert!) the Patriots’ comeback from a 28-3 deficit to beat the Falcons, 34-28, in overtime.

Tomlin and Brady have a scene together late in the film. She came away impressed.

“We were modestly enthusiastic [about meeting Brady], because we’re not going to go overboard,” Tomlin said. “Then we saw him and we kind of went overboard because he’s just such a darling guy.

“And he’s very sweet. He was very sweet to us and made it very easy to work with him. He’s a very good actor, a very natural actor. He’s a better actor than I am a ballplayer.”

Tomlin said Brady sought feedback on his acting work.

“He wanted to make sure that what he was doing was OK,” she said, “and we were doing fine together.”

Brady’s decision to retire last winter and then un-retire prompted the addition of a late, updated scene. It also caused Tomlin and her co-stars to pay far more attention to the Buccaneers’ 2022 season than they would have otherwise.

“Definitely, very,” she said. “I think all the women were a little set back when he lost that last Bucs game [against the Cowboys in the playoffs].”

That concern went beyond football.

“We worried about him getting separated from Gisele [Bundchen],” Tomlin said. “You worry about your fellow actors. You worry about how their careers are going, how they’re doing. You want to help them over a tough spot.”

Tomlin enjoyed spending time with the other stars, to the point she said they had to be reminded to pay attention when cameras were rolling.

“We’d be talking and carrying on with each other,” Tomlin said. “We had to try to settle down and get to business.”

At 45, Brady — who on Wednesday announced he is retiring “for good” — was an active player far beyond the normal lifespan for such pursuits. Moreno, 91, Fonda, 85, Tomlin, 83, and Field, 76, still are working at an age when women in Hollywood once were ignored and still are marginalized.

“It’s always hard for actors to get decent roles,” Tomlin said. “And then when you add our age on to it, my God.

“If it was 40 years ago, we wouldn’t have done a lick of work. We would have been put out to pasture 40 years ago. Gorgeous stars were negated at that time, female stars.”

As for her old-in-football-terms co-star, Tomlin said she has no idea about Brady’s future plans.

“He doesn’t confide in me,” she said. “Maybe he confides in one of the other women.”

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