Tom Brady, NFL football star, opens up to Detail magazine about fatherhood, football, and marriage.
On modeling being harder than playing football: “When I’m out on the football field, I have so much confidence in what I’m doing. With [the modeling], I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m at the whim of the photographer and the crew.”
“Yeah, I should probably ask for some help. She does tell me to have fun, and to approach it in the third person, almost like acting. She makes it look so easy.”
On why he chose to live in Manhattan vs New Jersey, where all the other pro-athelets live:“You blend in very easily here. You can kind of disappear here, and that’s a good thing. There aren’t too many places where I’ve found that’s the case lately.”
On photos of his wife Gisele Bundchen hand- feeding him food while on vacation, with headline reading-worthy evidence of crippling softness:“It’s entertaining. You know, it’s very—I don’t take myself very seriously. I’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me. So when people criticize me, and they should—that’s what you do as an athlete. You go out there, and that’s what happens. You deal with it and laugh with it and hope they sell a lot of newspapers. Because there’s going to be the next article the next day, and the next article the next day.”
On his fashion choices:“Is that a man purse he’s romping with, or a feedbag for a horse?” asked the Boston Herald earlier this year. “Maybe my creativity comes out a little when I dress.”
“I’m not a very creative person, you know? I’m not really an art person. I’m not a great reader or writer or artist or musician. Hopefully I encourage my teammates, a little bit, to get their wives or girlfriends excited when they walk through the door.”
On his thoughts of fame:“This isn’t what you think about. You love playing, and, you know, it’s pretty cool when you’re younger and you go up to a bar in Boston and they let you in because you’re the quarterback and it’s like, hey, bring all your friends in. That was great.”
On being photographed by the paparazzi:“I know there’s probably somebody watching, with a camera phone or something. And it doesn’t feel good.”
“I’m glad they didn’t have those camera phones seven or eight years ago. When I go out now, I just watch what I’m doing.”
On being set-up on a blind date with Gisele: “This friend told me he knew a girl version of me.” (Gisele adds, “And he said to me he’d found a boy version of me.”)
On life and having a child out of wedlock:“It’s what happens. And that’s forced me to grow up in a lot of ways, and in a lot of ways I’ve learned about the people around me, learned about my wife and about how important she is in my life, through this. You see what she’s really about. Because that’s not what she wanted either. But once again, it’s…I just don’t think…life is not what everyone…” Here Brady stumbles momentarily, searching for the words. “Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That’s not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that’s what life needs to be—and that if it’s not that, it’s all screwed up. It’s not. You go through life and you try the best you can.”
On his son Jack:“It’s like, an hour commitment used to be a big commitment, and now you chase a little boy around for eight hours a day, waiting to catch him if he falls and changing his dirty diaper. You think, How crazy is this?
On wanting more kids:“I want a lot of kids. I’d love four or five. We’ll see. It’s not always my decision.”
On the need to prove himself: “Because nobody cares—I mean, at least I don’t—about what happened two years ago in my career. It’s great that we won the Super Bowls—hey, I’ll show you the rings. But get over it. Move on. Move on.”
To read more of the interview go to details.com.