Tom Brady says Marriage and Kids not Affecting his Performance

by Courtside Post Staff Writer

When Patriots quarterback Tom Brady looks back on what was the worst performance of his 18-game postseason career, he refuses to make any correlation between how his personal life has changed and his on field performance.   Sure, Brady was recovering from knee surgery and won the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.  But last weekend, the Patriots got a mugging from the Baltimore Ravens, and critics are questioning if Brady’s “family man” persona is affecting his Quarterback play.

“Hopefully because I got married, that doesn’t affect the way I play quarterback,” Brady, 32, said in his weekly radio interview with the Dennis & Callahan show on WEEI Sports Radio. “That’s not something I’ve thought much about … That my performance as a football player is going to go down because I got married or I had children.”

His four turnovers – three interceptions, one lost fumble – were playoff highs. His quarterback rating yesterday (49.1) was another low in a storied postseason history. And only a late 19-yard completion to Randy Moss at the two-minute warning gave him 154 yards and prevented him from having the lowest total in one of his playoff starts (aside from when he was knocked out of the 2001 AFC Championship in  win versus the Steelers).

Some have questioned if Brady has been distracted this year, but Brady, who married supermodel Gisele Bundchen in two ceremonies in Santa Monica and Costa Rica last year, and welcomed a new baby, Benjamin, in December, disagrees.

“It’s funny for me – there’s not a lot of things going on in my life other than my career and my family,” he said. “I think my life is very focused,” he added.

And there’s no doubt about his priorities. “I prioritized with the things that are important to me. That’s my family and my football career. There’s nothing other than that.”