As his son is immortalized, Tom Brady Sr. reflects: ‘A celebration like this is beyond anybody's imagination, especially ours'

Boston Globe

21 hours ago

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'That is so far beyond anybody's comprehension. All we were hoping was that he would get drafted and carry a clipboard for a couple of years until he got on with his life,' said Tom Sr., reached Thursday. 'The Lord took him on a different path. A day like this and a celebration like this is beyond anybody's imagination, especially ours.'
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The Bradys were in town for the ceremony. Patriots fans are acutely aware that there's no TB12 without Tom Sr. and Galynn. Forget Sydney Sweeney, Tom Brady has great genes.
'Fans are excited and fans are saying, 'Thanks for your son!' ' They say, 'We love your son,' and we say, 'We love him, too.' It's pretty cool,' said Tom Sr. 'It's a very unique honor, and Patriot fandom has just embraced him so much for the last 20-plus years. This is the culmination, and we as his parents are extremely grateful, and I know he is, too.'
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The appropriately 12-foot tall statue of TB12 is the promised coda to the
Smell that? It's the glorious whiff of nostalgia in Foxborough. Vibes are immaculate with Brady immortalized as a Patriot, and Mike Vrabel, his teammate for half of the six Super Bowl titles the QB guided the franchise to, installed as head coach.
Vrabel ended Brady's Patriots playing career. Vrabes came into Gillette as coach of the Tennessee Titans and schooled Brady, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots in the 2019 season's wild-card round.
'Yeah, I just think he's a great leader,' said Tom Sr. 'The fact that you see him out on the field and
Tom Sr. sounds as sanguine about the team as Patriots fans.
But he can't envision his son coaching. Brady is a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders,
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'He's still in the embryonic stage of his [broadcast] career, and I think he's getting more comfortable and starting to watch the game a little different than the way he's viewed it for so many years,' said Tom Sr.
'He's just going to get better and better, and I know he's having fun. He loves it.'
This statue cements Brady as a Patriot always. Of course, that's not how his CV reads. Not all of his unmatched seven Super Bowl titles and five Super Bowl MVPs came in his 20 seasons in New England. He won both with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the year after he departed. Tampa Tom ended his nonpareil career with the Bucs in 2022.
Brady's exit from Fort Foxborough wasn't without friction and bruised feelings. The Patriots organization would like to purge all that from the collective consciousness.
When Brady returned with the Buccaneers to face Belichick's Patriots in 2021
'Damn right. Belichick wanted him out the door, and last year he threw 56 touchdowns — I think that's a pretty good year,' he told Tom Curran.
That's all water under the old Gillette Stadium bridge. Brady and Belichick have enjoyed a rapprochement.
'Oh, very definitely. There is very much strong mutual respect and appreciation between them,' stated Tom Sr., who added he really hopes it works out for Belichick at the University of North Carolina.
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Such was evident during Brady Night when Brady said there was no coach he would rather play for, and the legendary coach offered Brady the effusive praise he was stingy with during the quarterback's illustrious career.
'Sometimes guys want to go longer than teams want you to go, and there is a parting of the ways. That's kind of what happened in this situation,' Tom Sr. reflected. 'It was not cataclysmic; it was an evolution of a 20-year relationship, really to expect that to go on any longer was unrealistic.
'Bill knew what he wanted. The writing was on the wall when he recruited [Jimmy] Garoppolo. He said at the [2014 draft] press conference that Tom was getting older. It was clear that was what he was angling for.
'I think Tommy got a bunch more good years out of that … Tommy is doing really well. I don't think we need to go back and re-observe all that. It worked out well for Tommy, and, hopefully, [the Patriots] will be able to move on and get back to the promised land with Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye.'
When the hard feelings that Belichick harbors toward the Krafts subside, it would only be fitting if Brady and Belichick, our region's canonized coupling, were reunited in bronze.
'That's an organizational deal, and whatever Robert Kraft does will be fine with Tommy,' said Tom Sr.
Patriots fans always put Brady on a pedestal. Now, he sits on one in perpetuity.
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at