Tom Brady wouldn’t choose a football path for his children, says there’d be ‘too many crazy expectations’

The NFL is no stranger to family dynasties. On the defensive side of the ball, the Matthews family has spawned generations of pass rushers and other stars. Meanwhile, the Manning family has produced three legendary quarterbacks: Archie, Peyton and Eli. And there may be another on the way in short order. 

But what of the NFL’s most decorated player of all time in Tom Brady? He has a 15-year-old son, Jack, who is a quarterback, so could he follow in his father’s footsteps? If Brady has it his way, he’d like to see him go in a different direction than pursue an NFL career as a quarterback. 

“I hope he finds the things in his life that allow him to get up every day to be internally motivated to work hard at something that he loves to do,” Brady told ESPN when asked specifically about his hopes and concerns regarding his son pursuing football. “A lot of it I wouldn’t choose for him to do that because there’s too many crazy expectations that people would put on him. Most of them probably very unfair actually.”

Brady isn’t wrong in his assessment that there’d be seismic expectations with his son possibly pursuing a football career, particularly at the quarterback position. He’d naturally be compared to Brady in a similar fashion to how USC commit Bronny James is compared to his father LeBron James as he turns himself into an NBA prospect. Both Brady and James are in the pantheon of their respective sports and setting that type of bar for the next generation is, as Brady put it, very unfair.   

Brady continued by saying that whatever any of his children — including his other son Benny or daughter Vivi — decide to do he’ll be there to support them similarly to how his parents supported him with his football career. 

“I was very lucky to find something that I love to do,” Brady said. “I grew up in the Bay Area and I looked up to those great 49er teams of the ’80s and ’90s and they were a big part of the reason why I ended up falling in love with the sport. I had parents there to support my football journey by bringing me to camps and bringing me to throw at the football field late at night and early in the morning and bringing me to workouts to support my dream. That’s what we as parents should do — support our children’s dreams whatever they may be.” 

He added: “It doesn’t need to be sports. It could be whatever. It could be performing arts. It could be music. It could be science. It could be law. It could be medicine. So, I think that’s part of being a parent. It’s supporting your kid’s dreams. Now that I’ve got more time on my hands, I’m very much looking forward to doing that as well.” 

Brady reiterated this week that his playing days are over, so he will have plenty of time to zero in his focus on helping his children pursue whatever their ambitions are.