Finding his way. Tom Brady may have football down to a science, but being a dad sometimes poses challenges.
“I love playing football. I love coming to work every day,” the athlete told ESPN in December 2012. “But also, being at home, and giving those boys my attention, and my affection, and my discipline, and being a good parent is so important, because I grew up with two of the best parents a son could ever ask for.”
Brady cemented himself as the GOAT of the NFL after playing for the New England Patriots for 20 years. He won six Super Bowls as the quarterback of the Massachusetts-based team before he joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.
The 199 Productions owner went on to win Super Bowl LV with the Bucs in February 2021, and fans began to wonder whether he would take a step back from the sport to be with his kids.
“Beyond [next year’s season], I don’t know,” Brady told the Wall Street Journal Magazine in September 2021 of his future in the NFL. “Maybe it’s another year after that; maybe it’s two. I’ll have to see where I’m at with my family. That’s probably the overriding factor — what I’m missing out on.”
Brady briefly retired in February 2022 but changed his plan weeks later. Through all of his career highs and lows, his wife, Gisele Bündchen, and his three kids have been Brady’s biggest fans.
The TB12 cofounder shares Benjamin and Vivian, born in December 2009 and December 2012, respectively, with the supermodel, whom he wed in February 2009. Brady is also the father of son Jack, whom he welcomed with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan in August 2007.
Brady reflected on his own upbringing in August 2019 while speaking about his sons in an interview with Men’s Health, noting that Jack “loves” sports, while Ben has different passions.
“[Jack] wants to try hard, and he never wants to disappoint his dad,” the quarterback told the magazine at the time. “That was me. I’d wake up early on the weekends to do stuff with my dad. That’s why I didn’t party a lot. If Dad wanted to golf, I wanted to be there with him. And if I ever missed those things, it would crush me.”
Scroll down for some of Brady’s most heartfelt parenting quotes:
