Watch: Tom Brady discusses his letter to grieving family of Calvin Riley
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady addressed the media on Thursday and discussed his letter to the heartbroken family of Calvin Riley, the 20-year-old Patriots fan who was shot and killed in California in August. Brady's letter and his relationship with the Riley family was the subject of Tim Layden's Sports Illustrated piece published on Wednesday.
Riley was originally from Lowell, Massachusetts and graduated from the same high school as Brady (Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif.). Riley was gunned down in San Francisco in August while playing Pokemon Go. Brady reached out to the family after Serra football coach Patrick Walsh contacted the Patriots quarterback to see if he could help.
• An unimaginable loss, an unexpected letter: A heartbroken family’s link to Tom Brady
The contents of the handwritten letter were not revealed but the Riley family said that it provided comfort.
“Well, I think it’s just, everyone faces different challenges in their life and that would be something that would be, like I said, just very tragic,” Brady said on Thursday. “I’ve had different people pick me up at different times and it’s just, you always appreciate those things and you always remember them. I could never imagine having to go through what the family’s had to go through over the course of this period. I think our team does a lot of things and a lot of players in our locker room do a lot of things to try to make positive impacts in the community when we can. You hate for it to be under those circumstances, but unfortunately, some tragic things happen and you just do what you can do to help.”
Watch Brady address the letter below:
Brady and the Patriots await their next opponent with a first-round bye and will host the AFC Divisional Round on January 14.
