Tom Brady is typically a pretty private individual. He even said as much during his SiriusXM interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday when talking about his new home in Tampa Bay -- which was built by Yankees Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter -- being a little too accessible to the average Joe via the water. For years, the six-time Super Bowl champion was the consummate pro at saying a lot of words without actually saying anything that may open the door a bit too wide on either his personal or professional life.
With that in mind, arguably the most interesting part of Brady's nearly two-hour long interview with Stern was him revealing why he elected to skip out of New England's organized team activities over the last few years. As Brady explained, it was in part due to his wife, Gisele Bündchen, telling him she was unhappy with their marriage as he wasn't pulling his weight when he was not playing football.
"At different times, like any married couple, things need to be changed," Brady said. "A couple of years ago ... she didn't feel like I was doing my part for the family. She felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house and then all of a sudden when the season ended I would be like, 'Great, let's get into all my other business activities. Let me get into my football training.' And she is sitting there going, 'Well, when are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school and do that?' That was a big part of our marriage that I had to like check myself because she's like, 'I have goals and dreams too, so you better start taking care of things at the house.'
"So, two years ago, as it even related to football for me, I had to make a big transition in my life to say, I can't do all the things I wanted to do for football like I used to. I gotta take care of things with my family because the family situation wasn't great. She wasn't satisfied with our marriage, so I needed to make change there."
As Brady's absence from OTAs happened in real-time, the narrative out there was that it likely was due to a souring relationship between him and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. From what he told Stern, however, that doesn't appear to be the case.
Brady continued by saying that Bündchen wrote him a letter that expressed her feelings that he needed to do more with the family.
"It was a very thought out letter that she wrote it to me and I still have it," he said. "I keep it in the drawer and I read it and it's a very heartfelt letter for her to say this is where I am at in our marriage. It's a good reminder for me that things are going to change and evolve over time. What happens and what worked for us 10 years ago won't work for us forever because we're growing in different ways and I am influenced by different people and situations and so is she. We're not together all the time. Then when you come back together she may have moved on a opinion or a feeling or a thought. I may have moved on an opinion, on a feeling or on a thought and then how do you figure out a way to get it together?"
It should be noted that Brady is reportedly planning to be with the Buccaneers for their OTAs this offseason, but that point may be moot if such activities are canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
