Getty Tom Brady has plenty to get excited about over an elite athlete in the family.
Amid all of Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady’s achievements, he doesn’t consider himself the best athlete in his family.
Brady said on Twitter it’s, “Maya Brady, the most dominant athlete in the Brady family … by far!” His niece’s home run video with UCLA softball went viral in the process.
Maya Brady, the daughter of Tom Brady’s sister Maureen, swings a big bat for the Bruins. The redshirt freshman won Softball America Freshman Player of the Year, which goes to the top freshman in NCAA Division I per UCLA’s athletics website. She hit seven home runs, drove in 28, and averaged .356 at the plate in a 26-game 2020 season.
The younger Brady wins often like her uncle, too. The fourth-ranked Bruins started this season 10-1 through Sunday after a 25-1 season in 2020.
Maureen Brady also had a successful collegiate softball career, becoming an All-America at Fresno State per Maya Brady’s UCLA bio.
Maya Brady also has an uncle who played baseball in the majors — Kevin Youkilis, who primarily played for the Boston Red Sox from 2004 to 2012 and won two World Series. Youkilis, who married Tom Brady’s sister, Julie, has been a big supporter of Brady’s NFL endeavors over the years. Youkilis also made it to Brady’s latest Super Bowl win with the Bucs per Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Dave Clark.
Before his NFL days, Tom Brady played baseball in high school drew MLB interest as the Montreal Expos drafted him in 1995.
Competitive Family
Maya Brady shines at the plate and also has a rocket arm. She showed it off in a 2018 Brady family dodgeball match per ESPN.
Tom Brady’s niece, Maya, is a UCLA softball commit and a PROBLEM on the dodgeball court 😳💪
Tom Brady’s family dodgeball battle got competitive and went viral on social media. He called it a “typical way to finish the day in the Brady house” on his Instagram account. His rules for dodgeball include face shots counting, “no crying”, and “boys vs. girls always”.
Brady’s Children in Sports
Brady’s sons unsurprisingly play sports. His oldest son, Jack, 13, plays soccer and “wants to be an Olympic soccer goalie,” Brady said in a 2018 People Magazine interview. Brady added that his second son, Benjamin, 11, “is really into hockey.” What sports Brady’s daughter, Vivian, 8, plays hasn’t been publicized.
Added to that, Benjamin, hasn’t shown as much interest in sports as Jack, which Brady opened up about in a 2019 interview with Men’s Health.
“The reality is that Benny just likes different things,” Brady told Men’s Health’s Ben Court. And it’s great because now I just have to go do what he wants to do. When we do that, we have the best time.”
Brady admitted that it wasn’t easy at first to accept and took support from his wife, Gisele Bundchen, to accept his son’s interests per Court.
All three children cheer for their father on the football field with the Bucs and previously the New England Patriots. Brady also would support his sons playing football with one caveat.
“I would never want for them to be ‘Tom Brady’s son’ playing football,” Brady said on the Howard Stern Show via Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith. “I think there’s something about contact sports that teaches you a lot about discipline, respect, mutual respect for your opponent, that you don’t get in non-contact sports. If your body is taking a physical toll and punishment, you’ve got to respect your body because that’s your insulation, that’s your asset. You have to have even more respect for your body.”
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