Tom Brady got weepy while reflecting on family and the bond he shares with his father, Tom Brady Sr.
“When I think about being a dad, I think of him,” a tearful Brady revealed in the latest episode of ESPN’s docuseries “Man in the Arena.”
“I know I’m not as good a dad to my kids that my dad’s been to me,” he continued. “I use him as my example of how to keep a family together and to care, to support, and how to love.”
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, 44, and wife, Gisele Bündchen, are parents of Benjamin, 12, and Vivian, 9. He and ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan share 14-year-old son, Jack.
“I want them to be respectful of people. I want them to be kind,” Brady shared. “I think maybe what I’d wish for my children is to find something they love to do like I have. But I think I’ve taken things to an extreme, too.”
Brady, widely considered the greatest quarterback in NFL history, noted that there are “imbalances” in his life.
“I want them to experience great success in whatever they do,” he said. “But there’s a torment about me that I don’t wish upon them.”
Brady announced his retirement in February. But he soon had a change of heart.
“These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not stands,” he wrote on Twitter in March. “That time will come. But it’s not now.”
In an interview with Complex, Brady said that Bündchen, 41, was “so supportive" of his decision.
“She said, ‘Look, I want you to be happy. I want you to enjoy it and go out there and win,’” he recalled. “Ultimately, that’s why I came back, to win. There’s only one reason to play for me at this point in my career. And that’s to win.”
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