Tom Brady gets candid on his mental health

Tampa Bay Buccaneers star quarterback Tom Brady opened up about his mental health on his SiriusXM podcast, but he didn’t address the elephant in the room.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers star quarterback Tom Brady opened up about his mental health on his SiriusXM “Let’s Go!” podcast, and no, he didn’t address the elephant in the room: the rumors concerning a potential divorce from Gisele Bündchen.

Brady has been an NFL star in the spotlight since 2001 when he became the New England Patriots starting quarterback and stunned the world through a Super Bowl win versus the “Greatest Show on Turf.” Though his football life is full of external success and incomparable accolades, personally, Brady deals with a lot of stress and pressure from being such a high-caliber athlete whose every move is in the public eye. On his podcast with co-host Jim Gray, Brady opened up about the “intense amount of stress” he deals with in regards to his life and his family.

"“Everyone has different situations, you know, in their life and children and, you know, you worry about their mental health. You worry about your parents, obviously yourself. You know, I think I’ve had to learn a lot of things over a long period of time in sports. I think there’s an intense amount of stress that we all deal with, and how do you relieve stress so that you’re not inflicting so much damage on yourself through kind of stress response?”"

Brady was drafted at just 22 years old, and his entire adulthood has been in the NFL. There’s no surprise that over two decades of pressure has had an immeasurable toll on him.

Buccaneers star QB Tom Brady has been under pressure for over two decades

As with most elite athletes, the pressure of fans, media and more adds up and becomes a lot to handle. High-level athletes in virtually every sport have opened up about the mental toll that external pressures can have on their careers. Michael Phelps, Lindsey Vonn, Kevin Love, Serena Williams, Paul Pierce, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka are just a few athletes who have publicly opened up about caring for their mental health.

Earlier this year, Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young spoke with FanSided about why his foundation is focused on supporting mental health and how he cares for his own mental health as a lauded NBA player.

"“I guess I really just try to focus on positive things in the games and moments. I don’t try to get too down. There’s this long season, so you’re gonna have losses, but you try to focus on the positive things, and I’ve had to learn that. It’s not something that was with me since day one, but I’ve had people that I’ve talked to that have helped me with this.”"

As Brady says, the stresses of his life are not uncommon issues, and it’d be less surprising to hear that he wasn’t dealing with any sort of mental health struggle from the pressure he’s been under for the past two decades. He is, however, helping to end the stigma on an extremely serious matter, so his openness on his struggles will help serve to benefit others.