There's a reason why former NFL quarterback Tom Brady is one of the most respected athletes of his generation, an attribute he embodied even during his last professional season full of public turmoil off the field.
Former Pro Bowl tight end Kyle Rudolph was teammates with Brady in Tampa Bay during the legendary NFL signal-caller's last season in 2022. He gave a unique anecdote to NBC's Peter King as to why Brady keeps the locker next to him empty.
"Tom had an empty locker next to him," Rudolph said. "I would look over there and every day, guys would put helmets, jerseys, pictures, footballs, all the stuff they wanted Tom to sign for them. There’d be notes on the stuff, a post-it note on a football — ‘Sign this for Jimmy, it’s his birthday.’ At the end of the day, almost every day, he’d sit there and sign everything."
Brady's 2022 campaign came under the cloud of his highly messy and abundantly public divorce from his longtime wife Gisele Bundchen. The latter was apparently upset with Brady's decision to return to the NFL in 2022 after initially retiring at the conclusion of the 2021 campaign.
The Buccaneers quarterback also finally began to struggle with age. He still posted a tidy 4694 passing yards with a stellar 25-9 touchdown-interception ratio, but Tampa Bay slumped to 8-9 as Brady posted the lowest QBR of his career (since the stat became public in 2006).
“The most amazing thing to me was, with all the negativity swirling around his life outside of football, he never carried it into the building," Rudolph continued. "Always positive. I didn’t think it’d be possible when I walked into the team to be more impressed with Tom."
Rudolph, a two-time Pro Bowler during a lengthy stint with the Minnesota Vikings , struggled to get reps with Tampa Bay in 2022. He was relegated to scout team duties during a frustrating season. "He said to me, ‘Keep working, keep working, I’m gonna give you a chance, I’m gonna get you the ball.’ I think he was appreciative of how I went to work," Rudolph said.
"So we’re in Atlanta, last regular-season game of Tom’s career. And on the first drive of the game, I’m on the field, and he throws me the last TD pass of his career, his regular-season career. It was a big catch for me - my 50th touchdown in the NFL. That ball’s painted and in my office here in Tampa right now. It means so much to me."
Brady is ready to embark on a new journey this weekend: the world of NFL commentating. He's not the first ex-quarterback to make the jump in recent seasons, as CBS's Tony Romo is arguably the gold standard in color commentary. Brady will make his regular-season debut in the booth on Sunday, September 8 when he calls the Dallas Cowboys vs the Cleveland Browns.
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