Tom Brady, the longtime New England Patriots quarterback, said that he added weight after last season to better absorb hits he takes during the upcoming season, which will be his 20th in the NFL.
“I wanted to get a little bigger this year and put on a few more pounds and try to absorb the hits a little bit more,” Brady told reporters on Wednesday, July 31 at training camp in Massachusetts, reported ESPN. “I worked pretty hard at that.”
Brady, who will turn 42 on Saturday, now weighs 225 pounds.
If Brady starts all 16 games in the 2019-20 season, he will set a record for his age.
“Football, I love the sport. I’ve loved playing it since I was a kid. It’s hard for me to imagine doing anything else in life,” he said. “I love playing ball, so to still be out here at 41—soon to be 42—it’s a pretty great thing for me.”
He also said he focused on his family during the offseason, helping his wife, Gisele Bundchen, with their children.
“When I’m here doing my thing, my wife’s got to hold down the fort, and she has put a lot on hold over the years to support my dreams. I feel like it’s my responsibility as a husband to do the same for her,” he said.
“She’s happy when I get back to football because she knows how happy I am. It was a great offseason, but now it’s time for football, and I think everyone in our family is prepared for that.”
Brady is facing the last year of his current contract and his first year in a whole decade without tight end Rob Gronkowski.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s as great player. To replace great players, it’s not like you just pick another one off the tight end tree. You can’t just go out back. You’ve gotta find guys that come in and want to put the work in and want to try to contribute,” he said of “Gronk,” reported CBS Boston.
“And between the guys we have out here now—which is Ben [Watson] and Matt [LaCosse], Stephen [Anderson], Ryan Izzo, Lance [Kendricks], who we just got—I mean, those guys are trying to do everything they can do. So, they’re all new players, so we’ve gotta figure out how to get them used to and up to speed to what our expectations are, the level of competition on a daily basis.”
Asked @TomBrady about his contract situation #PatsCamp #WBZ @WBZ @Patriots @wbztv pic.twitter.com/Secq1ICojd
— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) July 31, 2019
Brady said about his contract that he has “a great working relationship” with the team leaders and hopes to keep it going.
Asked if he’d be comfortable going year-to-year with his contract, he added: “I mean, we’re all day-to-day if you think about it. None of us are really promised anything. So, I mean, I’m trying to do the best I can do today and just let those things sort themselves out.”
