Tom Brady and the Humanity of Professional Athletes
Throughout his legendary career with the New England Patriots, Tom Brady became known for his tireless work ethic, his insatiable dedication to sharpening and perfecting his craft, and demanding excellence from everyone around him.
It's that unwavering commitment that helped Brady go from a draft-day afterthought to arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play the game.
That's also why it struck a chord with many, particularly in the Patriots universe, when Brady started opting out of offseason workouts with his team over his final few seasons in New England.
Did he just not care anymore? Was Brady deciding that after nearly two decades of dynastic domination on the gridiron, he could just mail it in?
As it turns out, Brady made that decision with the best of intentions, challenging the narrative that the game's most successful players always have to prioritize their job over off-field life.
Appearing on the Howard Stern Show earlier this offseason, Brady opened up about what led him to make the decision to put his family ahead of his profession. His wife, Gisele Bündchen, told Brady she didn't feel like he was doing his part for the family, and he decided that required a big transition in his life to focus more on home and family life.
“She felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house, and then all of a sudden when the season would end I’d be like, ‘Great, let me get into all my other business activities, let me get into my football training,’" Brady told Stern. "And she’s sitting there going, ‘When are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school and do that?’”
“And that was a big part of our marriage," Brady continued. "I had to check myself, because she was like, ‘I have goals and dreams too. ...So you’d better start taking care of things at the house.'”
"I had to make a big transition in my life and say, 'I can't do all the things that I wanted to do for football like I used to,'" Brady said. "I've got to take care of things in my family, because my family situation wasn't great. She wasn't satisfied with our marriage, so I had to make a change in that.
“Her point was, ‘Yes, of course this works for you. It all works for you. But it doesn’t work for me,’" Brady recounted. "You can get caught up in your life where you think a relationship is great, because it only works for you. And the point of a relationship is that it has to work for both.”
Family also played a big role in Brady choosing to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency this offseason, per NFL.com's Jim Trotter:
The importance of prioritizing family life over football resonates with Bucs head coach Bruce Arians.
“If you miss a football game or a recital, anything to do with your children, I’ll fire you,” Arians told NBC Sports' Peter King last year. “Because I missed a lot of [my children’s], and those years don’t come back. There’s plenty of time in this office to work — you can come back at midnight if you want to. Don’t miss that recital, don’t miss that game, because it means so much to your children. And it means so much to you.”
As far as those last few years in New England, it's hard to blame Patriots fans for seeing Brady's reduced commitment to offseason workouts as any number of negative things: A sign of his distancing from the team he would eventually leave, a lack of interest in helping his young teammates develop chemistry with the future first-ballot Hall of Famer, or proof that Brady thought he could just show up whenever he wanted instead of putting in the work with the rest of his team.
But in reality, it was a sign that Brady was making a positive change in his personal life, something that appears counter-cultural in today's world of professional sports.
It's easy to look at professional athletes as these larger-than-life figures, something greater and separate from the rest of us "regular" human beings. But Brady's recent decisions illuminate the truth that under the pads and helmet, even the NFL's greatest legends are simply people, just like you and me, trying to do what's best for their lives.
Sometimes, that means devoting every waking moment to their job, their craft, and their team. But when someone decides that it's important to tip the scales in the direction of home and family life, even if they're a world-famous professional athlete, that should be celebrated, not criticized.
Brady helped build one of the greatest dynasties professional sports has ever seen, winning six Super Bowls with the Patriots, and dominating the NFL for 20 years. To say he'd earned the right to make the decision to focus more on his wife and kids is a colossal understatement.
Yes, it will always be difficult for fans to see any reduction in commitment to their favorite team as a reason to be angry with a particular player. But even when it's not someone like Brady, whose list of accomplishments could fill a CVS receipt, fans would do well to recognize the humanity in every professional athlete, and celebrate when they make decisions that prioritize family life.
It's all about perspective, and Tom Brady has proven over the last few years that his is changing for the better.
