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Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady admitted that he "screwed up a lot" as a parent while addressing a crowd at the Fortune Global Forum in New York City on Tuesday (November 12).
“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 via Fortune. “So I don’t want to seem like I’m some expert in parenting, because I’m certainly not that.”
Brady did, however, say that he tries to be "dependable and consistent" for his "three amazing kids," claiming he would support anything his children "want to do in life."
Brady, 47, shares his oldest son, Jack, 17, with his ex-girlfriend, actress Bridget Moynahan, and two children, Ben, 14, and Vivian, 11, with his ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who was recently announced to be pregnant with her boyfriend Joaquim Valente's child. Brady admitted that it "sucks" to be "Tom Brady's son in so many ways," noting the pressures that his children will face.
“There’s a lot of challenges I faced as a kid … my kid naturally are going to be faced with their own challenges,” Brady said via TMZ Sports. “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.”
Brady also praised his own parents, Galynn and Tom Brady Sr., for encouraging him to chase his dreams at a young age.
“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,’” Brady said.
“They kind of said, ‘You know what? Go for it. Whatever you wanna be, go for it’… and that’s probably my parenting style,” he added.
Brady signed a 10-year, $375 million contract to serve as FOX Sports' new lead NFL analyst in May 2022, weeks after he announced his decision to un-retire and return for his 23rd NFL season. The deal was set to take place upon the conclusion of Brady's NFL career, however, the seven-time Super Bowl champion opted to spend a gap year with his children and prepare for the role.
Brady is the NFL's all-time passing leader for yards (84,520) and touchdowns (624), as well as quarterback wins (243), among numerous other records. The San Mateo native spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, leading the franchise to an NFL record six Super Bowl championships (tied with the Steelers), before joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent in March 2020, which resulted in Tampa Bay winning its second Super Bowl in franchise history, becoming the first NFL team to win a Super Bowl in its home stadium, in February 2021.