Originally appeared on E! Online
Ruling on the field says this Thanksgiving shoutout is so sweet.
Tom Brady may have spent the holiday at work — following his retirement from the NFL, the 47-year-old locked in a 10-year commentating gig with FOX — but that didn’t stop him from making sure he celebrated the things he’s grateful for.
Top of the list being his children: son Jack, 17, whom he shares with ex Bridget Moynahan, as well as son Benjamin, 14, and daughter Vivian, 11, with ex Giselle Bündchen, who is currently expecting a baby with boyfriend Joaquim Valente.
“Thankful for this crew,” Tom captioned a photo posted to his Instagram Story of his three kids. “Happy Thanksgiving.”
Since his 2022 split from Gisele, Tom has been candid about the ups and downs that come with parenthood. And he knows that not every play earns a touchdown.
"Being a parent is probably the hardest job all of us have," the Patriots alum admitted during the Fortune Global Forum in New York City Nov. 12. "And we screwed up a lot, and I've screwed up a lot as a parent."
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He continued, "I don’t want to seem like I’m some expert in parenting, because I’m certainly not that.”
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Yet, there are certain things Tom strives for, including being “dependable and consistent” as a parent, and being supportive of whatever they want to do in life.
And, he had a great playbook to build from in parents Galynn Brady and Thomas Brady, who supported his dream of heading to the NFL.
“When I was that long shot as a kid, who was the backup quarterback on a freshman team," he recalled, "they never said, ‘Man, don't do that. It's gonna be too hard. Let's do something different. Let's think about another backup plan.' They kinda said, ‘You know what? Go for it. Whatever you wanna be, go for it.'"
So when it comes to son Jack, who Tom says at 6-foot-5 has his sights set on basketball, the proud dad will never say it’s too high of a goal — even if Jack still has some skill building to do.
"Unfortunately he jumps as high as I do," Tom joked of Jack. "But I tell him, ‘Dude, you're gonna be a stud.' I said, ‘Wait till you hit your growth spurt, you're gonna be jumping higher, you're gonna be dunkin'.' And whether he does or not, who cares? But I want him to know that his dad's got his back."
The seven-time Super Bowl champion — the most of any NFL player ever — is also cognizant of the pressures his kids, especially his sons, might feel as they head into sports. As he noted, “As a boy, man it sucks to be Tom Brady’s son, in so many ways.”
"My kids naturally are gonna be faced with their own challenges, and they gotta figure out how to overcome them, too," he continued. "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."
