Teammates Remind Tom Brady Of His 'Very Old' Age On 40th Birthday
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady received plenty of love on his 40th birthday.
Fans sang "Happy Birthday" to him while he was on the practice field, and the team even had five actual goats in Brady jerseys to celebrate the G.O.A.T. turning 40. Heck, there was even some avocado cupcakes as a healthy treat.
But just because it was Brady's big day doesn't mean his teammates were going to let it pass without a few friendly reminders that Brady is getting, well, pretty old.
"Very old," Patriots safety Devin McCourty told reporters after practice. "I think he has a lot of fun with it. A lot of guys sung 'Happy Birthday' in the locker room."
While a good ribbing is always warranted on someone's birthday, McCourty said Brady turning the big 4-0 is also a great reminder of just how great No. 12 actually is.
"[He's] 40 years old, still our best player, most professional player, leader, a guy everyone follows in the locker room," said the Patriots captain. "Even though it's his birthday, and everyone has birthdays, it's just a reminder in training camp, probably one of the toughest times of the year for us, to see a guy like that still continue at a high level and really take every day like he's a rookie. It's really a good example for guys here."
While Brady's veteran teammates made sure to razz him a little bit about his age, the rookies knew it was best to keep their jokes to themselves.
"He's so much older than the rookies, there's not much they can say," McCourty added. "It's like making fun of an uncle. You've got to be careful."
In addition to McCourty's kind words, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said on Thursday morning that he's still amazed at what Brady does on the field every day.
"He's had a great career, he works hard, comes to work every day. It's been like that for a long time. So, I mean, I don't want to say you take it for granted, but I mean, I wouldn't say it's like a big shock that he's going to walk in here today and be prepared and go out and perform and give us his best," said Belichick. "That's what he's been doing, so we all expect that. He expects that out of himself. I'm sure he expects it out of me. We all expect it out of each other.
"But, the level of consistency and the longevity of it is obviously very, very impressive," the coach added.
Many of Brady's current and former teammates took to Twitter to wish him a happy birthday as well. Julian Edelman's slideshow of Brady's life is a must-watch for any Patriots fan:
