Tom Brady Is a Man Who Thinks Now
You can tell because of his new black-and-white photos
I don’t really know much about Tom Brady, but I know enough. I know that he is a 44-year-old quarterback who has won numerous Super Bowls and is married to Gisele Bündchen. More importantly, I know that he kisses his dad on the mouth, that he has never eaten a strawberry, and that he’s always featured on celeb plastic surgery accounts. Mentally, he seems pretty vacant. Like the Terminator, he has one goal and that’s to WIN.
In a new WSJ Magazine cover story, however, we see Brady’s narrative shift from Man Who Wins to Man Who Thinks. The accompanying photos are all black and white, and in one of them his hands are clasped together under his chin — a classic thinking pose.
I know what you’re asking: What is he thinking? These are just a few of his thoughts:
On thinking:
“What I say versus what I think are two totally different things … I would say 90 percent of what I say is probably not what I’m thinking.”
On turning 44:
“When you’re going to be 44, you feel liberated to say, ‘All right…I feel differently.’”
On his wife Gisele Bündchen’s personal style:
“In the end, I think she’s very much a hippie. She’d just prefer to wear, like, a simple little dress in 80-degree weather and, you know, just chill out.”
On being a person:
“The reality is that I’m very human.”
On owning a boat:
“I literally said, ‘I’ll never own a boat in my life. Never. Who likes boats?’ ” Brady tells me. Now he sees a side benefit of nautical life: enforced family time. “No one can go anywhere,” he says conspiratorially. “They’re captive. I almost want to put my kids on the boat like, ‘You’re hanging with us—that’s how it’s going to go.’”
Lots to think about.
