Tom Brady Gets Emotional About Fatherhood: 'I'm Not As Good As" My Dad
In the latest episode of 'Man in the Arena' the quarterback reflected on his shortcomings as a father.
Tom Brady might be one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history (depending on who you ask and their views on #DeflateGate) but there is one area of his life the star athlete feels like he isn’t as successful in: parenting.
In episode 10 of the ESPN+ series Man in the Arena: Tom Brady, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback got teary-eyed when reflecting on how important his relationship with his father was, and how he feels he is “not as good as” a father to his kids.
"There's a big commitment that your parents make, and my dad made every commitment to me that was, you know, an amazing dad," he said of his father, Tom Brady Sr. "There was never a moment where he didn't have time to support what I wanted to do and try to achieve because it's a hard thing to do."
He later reflected on how he has handled fatherhood. Brady has two children, Benjamin, 12, and Vivian, 9, with wife Gisele Bündchen. He also shares a son, Jack, 14, with ex-wife Bridget Moynahan.
"I'm 44. I've got a family that I'm a dad to some amazing children," he said with tears in his eyes. "When I think about being a dad, I think about him because of what my dad meant to me, and I know I'm not as good a dad to my kids that my dad's been to me. And I use them as my example as to how to keep a family together and to care and to support and to love."
Ultimately, like every dad, Brady truly just wants the best for his kids and for them to be happy, respectful, kind people who make the world a better place. But he also wants his kids to learn from his experience.
"I think maybe what I'd wish for my children is to find something that they really love to do like I have, but I think I have taken it to an extreme too, you know?" he explained. "There are imbalances in my life. And you know, I hope they don't take things as far as I've taken them."
"I want them to experience great success in whatever they do, but there's a torment about me that I don't wish upon them," he added.
Brady does have a penchant for working — a lot. The man makes more than $25 million with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and that is with the salary cap.
On top of that, he has seemingly endless sponsor deals, the “performance lifestyle brand” TB12 that is a bro version of Goop, and a documentary, film, and television programming business called 199 Productions. He’s jumped on the NFT train as well.
Six months ago, Brady called being a working father “difficult to reconcile,” on an episode of the podcast Let’s Go!
“I don’t want to miss any of the kids’ stuff. … It’s a little teeter-totter from time to time, and I’m trying, like all of us, to do the best we can do based on the circumstances.”
See! Serial entrepreneurs/professional athletes are just like us and worry about that work/life/kids balance — although a lot of us don’t have a wife with a $500 million net worth and an even larger one of our own.
One might think that if the guilt was too much, he would take a step back from his many ventures to make more time for family — but at least for this year, that won’t be the case.
