Tom Brady’s dad says both he and his wife competed with COVID-19 last year, which the star’s quarterback “highlighted” when he started his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Tom Brady Sr. said in an interview with #Greeny of ESPN Radio on Monday that he was hospitalized for three weeks at one point last year and that both he and his wife, Galynn, were “sick as a dog”.
Brady Sr. noted that the couple, both 76 years old, had not watched the Bucs’ first two games this season due to his hospitalization and said it was the first time in their son’s football career that they missed a game.
“We’ve never missed a game in Michigan or New England or anywhere,” he told ESPN. “For the first two games when I was in the hospital, I didn’t even care if they played – let alone miss the game. It was a matter of life and death, just like everyone who goes to the hospital. things. “
Tom Sr. said Galynn, who is a breast cancer survivor, did not require hospitalization because of the virus. Their daughter, who is a nurse, took care of Galynn while Tom Sr. was in hospital.
“We’re just a representative of 25 million Americans who’ve had this stuff so far, so it’s nothing to stop it,” he said.
The older Brady also described how difficult it was for his son to balance football with his concern for his parents, saying that the six-time Super Bowl champion would ‘give me FaceTime every day on the way to and from practice’ and was ‘stressed’. worry about them.
“Tommy fought his way through it, so it’s in the rearview mirror now,” he said. “We are healthy, we are happy and everything is fine.”
Brady Sr. made the comments a day after his son led the Buccaneers to an upset for the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game and the team’s first Super Bowl appearance since the 2002 season.
Brady, 43, will play for the 10th time in his storied Super Bowl career on February 7, when the Bucs take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Tampa.
“This year has been incredible,” said Brady Sr. “Not knowing where we’re going to start the season, and where we’re going to end the season, is just an amazing development to me. … Going to the 10th Super Bowl in 19 years of play is beautiful – it is actually incomprehensible. It goes further than we could ever imagine. “