Tom Brady talks about how he got involved with the E1 series of electric race boats
The E1 Electric Raceboat Championship is in its second season, and Tom Brady is the owner of “Team Brady.” He explains how he started playing sports.
Tom Brady may have won seven Super Bowls, but he says raising a family requires knowing when to take the lead and when to fall in line.
“Sometimes it’s a coach, sometimes it’s a teammate,” Brady says.
The NFL quarterback-turned-analyst is preparing to travel to Santa Clara, Calif., to be closer to his hometown of San Mateo for Super Bowl 60. The Seattle Seahawks are scheduled to face the New England Patriots, the team for which he won six Super Bowl rings and four Super Bowl MVP awards. He won another Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won the MVP award.
It’s a gorgeous life. But in a Jan. 28 phone call with USA TODAY, Brady looked like any other father, speaking from his car on the way to his 18-year-old son Jack’s basketball game. He has a son, Jack, with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan, and two children, Vivienne, 13, and Benjamin, 16, with ex-wife Gisele Bündchen.
The 48-year-old says he’s the type of parent who wants to “lead by example.” And that same rule applies to Brady’s use of social media, as he works to cut down on his screen time.
“You can’t say, ‘Hey, don’t do this, don’t do this,’ and then you’re the one breaking all your own rules,” Brady says. “Then you’ll be a hypocrite, and your children will see through it.”
How Tom Brady is stopping ‘Scrolls of Death’ from appearing on his children’s phones
Brady tries to limit her kids’ “exposure time” to social media and entertainment apps to 30 minutes each day, and limits her own non-work screen time to one hour a day.
“If you just do things without thinking, you can start reading the scroll of death and end up wasting minutes and hours in many aspects of your day and week. That’s what I’m really trying to prevent,” Brady says.
This is the approach recommended by social media experts. Over time, technology addiction rewires the brain to expect instant gratification, depleting the brain’s cognitive patience and threshold for tolerating frustration in the process.
For Brady, the key is teaching balance. He and his teenage son Benny partnered with Instagram for the second episode of Instagram’s new “Carversations” series, highlighting how famous parents and their teens talk about social media. In the video, the two talk about the memes they send each other, and Benny jokes about Tom’s age while his father talks about how football recruiting was done in the pre-social media era of VHS. The first episode featured Usher and his sons Cinco and Navid.
The series comes as Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, is scheduled to defend in Los Angeles County Superior Court against claims that its platforms are designed with features that hook children and teens and contribute to poor mental health. Similar claims were filed against YouTube, Snap Inc. (Snapchat), and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
Brady recognizes that children’s smartphones are connected to their lives and are where they turn in homework, order food, and get directions. But he says he doesn’t want kids to become obsessed with algorithms.
“The online ecosystem is a real challenge,” Brady said. “You’re always connected, you’re always under scrutiny. There’s a lot of unfairness, unwarranted criticism, and unwarranted messages in the online world. The challenges are very different than when[I]was growing up.”
Brady says as her children grow up, it’s become more important to explain the “why” behind her decision-making process, including the rules of social media. By becoming a better listener, he became a more empathetic and caring parent.
“When I was a parent, there was a part of me that was like, ‘Do it because I said so,'” Brady says. “I think there’s a time and a place to say that, but I think there’s a time and place to say more. That’s why we believe it’s the best decision for you.”
Tom Brady talks about co-parenting with Gisele Bundchen
Brady said her biggest advice to parents is to “go where the kids are.” He says that’s something he learned from his time at quarterback, when he had to interact with the team’s younger players a lot.
“If you want to build a relationship with someone, instead of telling them what you watch or listen to, go ask them what they like or what they listen to, and then go along,” Brady says.
He says his closeness with his children is the “most important” thing in his life, and that means supporting their interests through sports and music. All three are active in sports, but the eldest son focuses on basketball, the second son is into piano and singing, and the daughter is a volleyball player.
It’s something he and ex-wife Gisele Bündchen will overcome together. Their co-parenting dynamic further expanded when the 45-year-old supermodel gave birth to a baby boy with husband Joaquin Valente in early 2025.
“As a couple, we always try to stay on the same page because we’re always in the same house, and even when we’re not in the same house, we try to stay on the same page when it comes to our kids,” Brady says.
“We both love our children more than anything in the world, and we do our best to be the best role models we can be, knowing that neither parent is perfect,” Brady continued.
On Sunday, Brady will be watching closely to see who wins the Lombardi Trophy. But today, Jack and I are going to enjoy the hour-long car ride home from the game. He’ll let his son blast a playlist of his own choosing (he’s a big house music fan) and enjoy having “nowhere to go.”
“The important thing is to be present in the moment with your kids, not necessarily the moment you think is important,” Brady says. “Just by being there for them, they can open up and express what they’re going through in life.”
Rachel Hale’s role covering youth mental health for USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Contact her at rhale@usatoday.com. @rachleighhale With X.
