Tom Brady was one of the fiercest competitors on the football field, which was why a longtime NFL assistant was shocked to see the former New England Patriots quarterback's state during his divorce from Gisele Bündchen.
Brady and Bündchen finalized their divorce in October of 2022 after 13 years of marriage. The former couple still respect each other as evidenced by Brady's reaction to jokes about his family during his Netflix roast special. The future Hall of Famer didn't open up about it during the season, but Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant Tom Moore is set to release a book and a section gave behind-the-scenes details about that time.
"I was very worried about him," Moore said in the book, per Kyle Odegard of SportsCasting. "He was losing weight. I think he lost about twenty pounds. His face was drawn. ... Football is a tough business, and even tougher when you have family strife. There wasn't anywhere Tom could really be happy and where things were going well."
Moore coached in the NFL for over 46 years and is best known for coaching Peyton Manning. He spent three seasons with Brady in Tampa Bay, and the mounting losses during the 2022 season while dealing with the divorce took a serious toll on Brady.
"Everything was coming to a head," Moore said. "We didn't know it at the time, but the next day his divorce would be announced in a joint statement. Brady sat facing his locker in full uniform with his head between his legs for about twenty minutes after the Ravens game. He didn't move. He didn't acknowledge anything being said to him by Blaine Gabbert, our backup quarterback, who tried to console him."
The Buccaneers finished the season 8-9 and won the NFC South. Brady and Tampa Bay were handed a wild-card exit by the Dallas Cowboys, and the quarterback retired months later. And Moore was struck by how Brady stood strong throughout the 2022 season.
"Tom did a fantastic job of functioning at all," Moore said. "A lot of guys would be knocked to the ground. You'd have to be a Tom Brady-type guy to do what he did that year. All of a sudden, you're going home to an empty house. Every day you pick up the paper and they're writing about you and Gisele. You might not read it, but you know the whole world is reading it. It was tough."
Moore's book is titled, "The Players' Coach" From Bradshaw to Manning, Brady and Beyond" and is scheduled to be released Sept. 3.
