Brady on D&C: 'It's hard to be social again'

Tom Brady joined Dennis & Callahan for his weekly Monday morning chat, with the Patriots coming off the bye week and preparing for a game against the Bills in Foxboro.

"It will be fun to get back to football," Brady said. "It feels weird, you know, it's hard to stop your mind from thinking about the game. It's impossible to do that when all these other teams are playing. So, you just kind of get a little bit of rest while you can, and we're back to work today. It will be fun to get started on Buffalo."

With no game to discuss, Brady offered some insight into his personal life and thought process. Brady's wife, model Gisele Bundchen, is due to give birth to the couple's second child late this month. Asked what he would do if his wife went into labor on the morning of a game, Brady said he'd address that situation if and when the time comes.

"That's such a hypothetical. That's such an un-Belichick question," Brady said. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. There's nothing more important than that, but there's also nothing more important than my job, and I've got a lot of people that are counting on me. Hopefully, that's not the case."

Added Brady: "Whenever it happens, it's meant to happen. She's prepared. She's got to do all the work, not me."

Touching on his celebrity status, Brady said he understands the pressure of making a good impression on people he meets and noted that it has made him hesitant to go out in public as frequently.

"When you meet people, you don't want to be a jerk," he said. "I remember those experiences when I was a young person. I got to meet [49ers star] Dwight Clark and I got to meet Jeffrey Leonard, the Giant baseball player, and Chili Davis. I remember each of those experiences very well. When you're on the other end of that -- for me, I'm trying to go through just a day, and I feel like I've always felt. But sometimes you just want to make sure you have enough energy to deal with being a nice person. Because you don't always want to be a nice person. Sometimes you just want to be yourself. If I want to be myself, then I just stay in or do something private.

"I don't go out much anymore. I rarely do things. And I think that's probably the only thing -- you get a little bit accustomed to being a little bit of a loner. Because during the football season I need my energy for my teammates and for the game. Some people can go out and do things and be in public a lot and really get a lot of energy from that. For me, it's a bit draining. So, I just tend to be more of a loner. I just don't do much. I wish I could. I wish I could be out there. In some ways you get a bit anti-social and you get in the habit of being anti-social. It's hard to be social again, too. Because you're not used to going out and doing a lot of things."

Tight end Rob Gronkowski has made a name for himself by being a very public person, and Brady said he understands his teammate's behavior.

"There was a time where I enjoyed the things that Gronk enjoys, too -- going out and being a free spirit and traveling around and enjoying a little bit of the limelight," Brady said. "For me, that wears off. Now this is a career and it's a life, and I have a family. There's a lot of commitments that are required of you that I really enjoy, but also, those are the priorities. There's more responsibility now just waking up in the morning than there was when I was 23 or 24. When that's the case for me, then you've got to begin to prioritize: What are the things that are important for me today? Especially during the football season, my job, there's nothing more important than that. As a leader and as a captain of the team I have to bring the energy and emotion to the field every day in practice. And I can't do that and be out at 9 o'clock at night or go to bed at 11 o'clock at night and think that's what I can be. My commitment a lot of the time is to my teammates and my football season.

"As you're a veteran player, you realize every year you're one step closer to the end. So, this is the year, this is the year you've got to think about. Because you don't know if there's ever going to be a next year."

Brady, who will be a part of Monday afternoon's Commonwealth Avenue outdoor concert by Aerosmith, said he knows how fortunate he is to be doing what he does for a living, and he isn't sure what he'd do if professional football had not worked out.

"I don't know," he said. "I was thinking about that this weekend, to tell you the truth. I don't know. I've never been forced to think about those things. Whatever I would have been, I would have [brought] the same characteristics to that profession, I know that. I was blessed with a work ethic. And that's something that is God-given, to me. I'm glad. It's really easy for me to go out to the gym for a few hours. It's really easy for me to go out to practice. I don't ever despise those things. That's something that I really enjoy doing.

"I'm lucky that I've never had to work a day in my life, to tell you the truth. … I got the profession that I wanted to be, and there's not even a close second."

Brady said he will be voting in Tuesday's election, but he did not reveal for whom.

"I'd rather not say," he said. "But I love this country. This is the greatest country in the world. When we're in places like London, and I talk to some of my teammates like [Germany native] Sebastian Vollmer, and I'm married to a woman from Brazil -- this is a great country.

"I hope we make the right decision. I don't know if there is a right decision. I always think that it's starts with us. It's hard to expect one person to change the lives of 300 million. The change starts within all of us. I think that's more the message that I always try to talk to whoever I'm talking to about politics, that we're the ones that make the changes. Don't always look on the outside. At least, that's what I learned from football."

To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page [1]. For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots [2].