New England Patriots great Tom Brady has admitted he “screwed up a lot” as a parent as the dad-of-three opened up on his experience of fatherhood.
The former quarterback shares a 17-year-old son with Bridget Moynahan, alongside a son and daughter with ex-wife Gisele Bundchen. Since hanging up his cleats in 2022, he has pursued a number of passion projects – making investments in the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and the English soccer team Birmingham City.
On top of his business activity, he assumed his role as lead color commentator on “NFL on Fox” at the start of the current season, having signed a lucrative ten-year $375 million deal. However, Brady’s most significant role in life arguably has nothing to do with sports.
The devoted father has now opened up on being a parent to three children as he spoke with humility at the 2024 Fortune Global Forum in New York City. Admitting to some shortcomings, he said: “All of the parents of the room know that being a parent is probably the hardest job all of us have.
“And we screw up a lot. And I’ve screwed up a lot as a parent,” he continued, as he revealed the challenges he has overcome as a dad, before adding: “I don’t wanna seem like I’m some sort of expert in parenting, because I’m certainly not that.”
Going into further detail, he confessed that it “sucks to be Tom Brady’s son”, while acknowledging: “The blessing my parents gave me,’ he said, ‘was when I was that longshot as a kid who was a backup quarterback on a freshman team, they never said, ‘Man, don’t do that.
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“‘It’s going to be too hard. Let’s do something different. Let’s think about another backup plan’. They kind of said, ‘You know what? Go for it. And that’s probably my parenting style. I tell him ‘Dude, you’re gonna be a stud. Wait till you hit your growth spurt, you’re gonna be jumping higher, you’re gonna be dunking.”
Providing further details on his son’s ambitions to potentially follow in his father’s footsteps in carving out a professional sporting career, Brady confessed he puts no pressure on his children to live up to his achievements. The seven-time Super Bowl victor said: “And whether he does or not, who cares? I want him to know that his dad’s got his back.”
Speaking about the challenges facing his children in navigating the pressures of having a world-famous father, he added: “My kids are gonna be faced with their own challenges and they gotta figure out how to overcome them too. And I’ll be there to support them a lot like my parents did. And I’ll be learning along the way right there with them.”