“It sucks to be Tom Brady’s son in so many ways”: 7x Super Bowl champion opens up on challenges of parenting
Tom Brady was a great NFL quarterback during his 23 seasons in the NFL, but he's also always strived to be a great parent to his children.
While speaking to a crowd at the Fortune Global Forum in New York City on Tuesday, Brady admitted he hasn't always been the best father to his two sons (Jack and Benjamin) and daughter (Vivian).
The seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback spoke about the challenges of being a parent and said that it sucks to be his son in many different ways. He also spoke about the support he has for his children and said he'll be learning how to be a better parent along the way.
“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," Brady said.
He continued:
"To be a boy, it sucks to be Tom Brady’s son in so many ways. I try to empathize with them. My kids are going to face their own challenges and they gotta figure out a way to overcome them too. 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.”
Tom Brady praised his parents for allowing him to chase his dreams
During Tuesday's panel, Tom Brady also spoke about the impact that his parents, Galynn and Thomas Brady, had on his life. He said nothing but positive things about his upbringing and briefly elaborated on how his parents encouraged him to chase his dreams.
“The blessing my parents gave me 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. 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. Whatever you wanna be, go for it’ … and that’s probably my parenting style."
The rest was history. Brady ended up becoming arguably the greatest football player of all time, winning seven Super Bowls. Now, he is in the next stage of his career as he is in his first year as an NFL color commentator with Fox Sports.