Tom Brady Excited To Have Big Crew At Super Bowl Following 'Challenging Year' For Family
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's been a trying year for Tom Brady on a lot of fronts, and it goes much deeper than sitting out the first quarter of the season.
It goes much deeper than football in general. Brady's talked about the support he's received from his family throughout his career, and he was brought to tears at Monday's Opening Night ceremonies when talking about his father being his hero. At that time, he wasn't sure if his parents would be there on Sunday when the Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
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But the Brady crew will be in Houston in full force this weekend, the quarterback revealed on Tuesday. While he's excited to have that support system in place for the next big game of his career, Brady admitted that this year has been a challenging one for he and his family, for undisclosed reasons.
"It's been a challenging year for my family, just for personal reasons. It'll be nice to have everyone here watching us this weekend. My mom and dad have just been so supportive my entire life. It's nice to be here to show them, just try to make them proud," he said.
"My mom hasn't been to a game this season. My dad has been to one. That's very atypical," said Brady. "They'll be here this weekend, which I'm excited about. I have a big crew coming."
While his family may be across the country in California, Brady has found great support throughout the Patriots organization. That starts at the top with team owner Robert Kraft, who Brady said is like a second father to him.
"I'm a long ways from home," he said. "He knows how I feel about him. They provide us with a lot of support and encouragement. He's always opened his home to me and my family. I've shared a lot of meals and a lot of conversations with him.
"Football is something I love, but the relationships of football are what's most gratifying," added Brady. "After it's all said and done, that's what you have."
Brady will always have his legacy, and he'll go down as one of the greatest players of all time. But that's not something he's thought about at all over his Hall of Fame career.
"I don't think anything about personal legacy. Those words would never come out of my mouth, unless I just repeated them. Those have never been important to me," said Brady. "I never thought I'd play pro football. I had dreams and hopes like a lot of kids, but I would never imagine sitting here after 17 years of doing this.
"It's still going," said Brady. "There's no time for me to look back or ahead."
