Tom Brady’s surprise retirement announcement on Wednesday has been followed by a barrage of love and support from his peers and fans, but one post shows him in a light that people have never really seen before. Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl champion, a cutthroat competitor and apparently an animal lover.
Ashley Bragg Ryan, the wife of Buccaneers safety Logan Ryan, took to Instagram to show the personal side of Brady that he doesn’t publicize.
“I guess I’ll chime in with my Tom Brady story.. but it’s not the one about 7 Super Bowls or being down 28–3 or his last pass as a Patriot. We all know those,” she wrote. “It’s the one about the dad who volunteered at the animal shelter with his kids throughout an entire football season. The one where he bonded with his kids over naming puppies and bottle feeding kittens. The one where he silently showed up every other week to make a difference for his family and his community. The one where 2 dads just got to be dads and beamed with pride every time their kids said ‘Please can we just stay a little bit longer?!’ The one where two little girls built a friendship around their love of tiny baby kittens and did their part in making the world a better place for animals.”
In the picture she posted, the parents and their kids can be seen all smiles holding some puppies while volunteering at an animal shelter. It’s rare this side of Brady is shown, and it’s hard to imagine him in this light. But it’s refreshing to know that behind the most successful quarterback in the history of the sport, he’s just a dad who wanted to spend time with his family.
