[imagesource: Wikimedia Commons]

Professional football or family life, has always been the question for Tom Brady.

His divorce from Gisele Bündchen came after she laid down the law for him, giving him an ultimatum to leave football or spend time with the family or she’s “gone for good”.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback recently opened up about “giving all you can to the team” while dealing with personal challenges at home.

He said he’ll be focusing on his family and football amid a “very amicable situation,” referring to the divorce from his wife of 13 years.

According to PEOPLE, the divorce was filed on Friday and finalised hours later.

 

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He spoke about the situation on Monday’s episode of his Sirius XM podcast Let’s Go! and went on a fair bit about doing the best he can.

In fact, let’s play a fun game and take a sip of coffee every time he says some variation of ‘doing the best you can do’:

“I think there’s a lot of professionals in life that go through things that they deal with at work and they deal with at home,” he said. “Obviously, the good news is it’s a very amicable situation and I’m really focused on two things, taking care of my family and certainly my children, and secondly, doing the best job I can to win football games.

“So, that’s what professionals do. You focus at work when it’s time to work, and then when you come home you focus on the priorities that are at home. All you can do is the best you could do. That’s what I’ll just continue to do as long as I’m working and as long as I’m being a dad,” Brady added.

The game’s not over yet:

He explained that having their divorce “play out in front of a lot of people” presents another level of difficulty, adding: “We all have our unique challenges in life. We’re all humans. We do the best we could do.”

“I have incredible parents that have always taught me the right way to do things. I want to be a great father to my children and always try to do things the right way as well,” Brady continued. “And to deal with things in your life that have challenges, you wanna deal with them in the best possible way. So, I want to always be able to hold my head high on and off the field, and I’m gonna try to continue to do that for as long as I’m here.”

Per CNN, fellow podcaster and sportscaster Jim Gray then asked if there are any challenges compartmentalising between personal and professional life:

“I think that’s what being a professional is,” Brady said. “I’ve dealt with a lot of challenging situations on and off the field over 23 years, and a lot of it does play out in front of a lot of people.

“We’re trying to do our best. That’s how people really have gotten to know me over the years by being on TV, and that is my authentic self that’s out there to compete with my teammates every day and you’re giving all you can to the team.

“Everyone is going through different things. We all have our unique challenges in life. We’re all humans. We do the best we can do.”

Caffeinated? Caffeinated.

 

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Even though the divorce has loosened things up a bit on the family front for the seven-time Super Bowl champ, he has said that his children will remain central to his world:

Both Brady and Bündchen have reiterated that their focus is on their two children, son Benjamin Rein, 12, and daughter Vivian Lake, 9. In their divorce settlement, they agreed on joint custody.

They both spoke about their kids remaining their primary commitment in their Instagram Story posts about their split.

 

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Meanwhile, he has also previously spoken about some of the personal costs of playing in the NFL for two decades:

“I haven’t had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving in 23 years, I haven’t celebrated birthdays with people that I care about that are born from August to late January. And I’m not able to be at funerals and I’m not able to be at weddings,” Brady said.

Despite this, in last week’s episode of his Sirius XM show, Tom reiterated his commitment to football, saying that quitting is not on the cards.

“I’ve never quit on anything in my life. I made a commitment to this team and I love this team and I love this organisation,” he said.

Although there was a short-lived retirement from the NFL in the past, he confirmed that “there’s no immediate retirement” in his future.

Tom is doing the best he can folks, and his choices have been made.

[sources:cnn&people]