Tom Brady Ignorantly Compares Football Season To Military Deployments

Y’all, my husband has spent cumulative YEARS on combat and non-combat overseas deployments and TDYs. He’s missed more birthdays and holidays than I can even count. He missed the first 9 months of our daughter’s life. One of my high school friends was blown to unidentifiable pieces on a deployment. Countless military friends are physically and psychologically damaged from their military deployments, many of whom are unable to EVER receive sufficient care and treatment, and ultimately suffer for the rest of their lives from the damage done by deployments. Oh, and the government does every possible thing to avoid paying out benefits for that damage. And these service members sacrifice all this while making barely enough to get by, especially these days when inflation and the cost of living has significantly increased but their pay has not changed.

But Tom Brady thinks that getting paid $15M to travel to weekend football games, while having access to all the best facilities, conveniences, and medical treatment, is basically the same thing as a military deployment. On a podcast he cohosts, he ignorantly said,

“I almost look at like a football season like you’re going away on deployment in the military, and it’s like, man, here I go again.”

I’m curious. Does Gisele sleep peacefully at night when her husband is gone for a game? Does she wake up to every noise thinking it’s a knock at the door to inform her that her husband is dead? Does she sleep with her phone volume turned all the way up and next to her pillow so she doesn’t accidentally miss a call from him that might be his last? Does she start to cry every time someone unexpectedly knocks on the door, again fearing it will be two uniformed soldiers coming to inform her? Does she break down when she looks at the calendar and counts how many days it’s been since she heard from him, wondering if he just can’t call or if he’s dead? Does she record Tom reading to the kids or playing with them so she can play the videos for the little kids so they don’t forget who he is and so they’ll recognize him when he gets home?

Does Tom jump every time he hears a loud noise because his brain is conditioned to equate that with possible death? Does he automatically duck and cover if he hears a siren or loud pop of any kind? Does he sit facing the door with his back to the wall in every social situation for tactical advantage? Does he scope out the exits of every building so he’s prepared? Does Tom walk around for months and years with untreated physical and psychological injuries that impede his ability to live? Does he wait months for sub par treatment? Does he have to fight to be seen by doctors who are protected from liability and often aren’t overly concerned with quality or timely care of injuries? Just curious if that’s how he lives after so many football “deployments.”

Have you ever seen a military deployment goodbye? People LOVE to film heartwarming military homecomings because they’re so touching. But I HATE them because it makes it seem so good and positive, and that’s because the general public has never seen a military deployment goodbye and never experience the months of hardship or the years of lingering effects.

All goodbyes are just a little different, but they’re all hard. For one of my husband’s deployments, I filmed the goodbye. I know my children and I knew how they would react. This wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last. This video may seem cold and heartless, like how dare I film my kids instead of comforting them. But you have to understand that I knew that comfort wasn’t what they wanted in that moment. So instead, I filmed it so that the world could see what a military deployment goodbye really looks like. And I’m not sorry I did it.