Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born in San Mateo, California on August 3, 1977, the only son and fourth child of Galynn Patricia (née Johnson) and Thomas Brady Sr. He has three older sisters, Nancy, Julie, and Maureen, and was raised as a Catholic. His father is of Irish descent, while his mother has German, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish ancestry. Two of Brady’s great-great-grandparents on his father’s side, John and Bridget Brady, were Irish refugees from the Great Famine who moved to San Francisco from Boston before the American Civil War. They were accompanied by Bridget’s sister Ann and her husband Lawrence Meegan, the parents of the 19th-century American Major League Baseball player “Steady” Pete Meegan. Brady’s great-uncle Michael Buckley Jr. was the first American prisoner of war in World War II.

Brady attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he graduated in 1995; the ceremony was held at St. Mary’s Cathedral. He played football, basketball, and baseball in high school. He played against Bellarmine College Preparatory rival Pat Burrell in both football and baseball. Brady began his football career as the backup quarterback on the Padres junior varsity team. At first, Brady was not good enough to start on the 0–8 JV team, which had not scored a touchdown all year. Brady ascended to the starting position when the starting quarterback was injured. He became the varsity starter in his junior year and held the position until he graduated. By Brady’s senior year, he was striving to be noticed by college coaches. He created highlight tapes and sent them to schools he considered attending. This led to strong interest from many football programs around the nation.

Brady was also known as a great baseball player in high school. He was a left-handed-batting catcher with power. His skills impressed MLB scouts, and he was drafted in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos. The Expos projected Brady as a potential All-Star, and offered him money typical of that offered to a late second-round or early third-round pick. Nevertheless, Brady was determined to play football at the next level. He was always more passionate about football; when he found that there was significant interest in him, he decided to take the road of football. Brady was recruited by Michigan assistant Bill Harris, and he signed to play for the University of Michigan in 1995. He finished his high-school football career by completing 236 of 447 passes for 3,702 yards and 31 touchdowns. He also won All-State and All-Far West honors and the team’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Under Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, Brady battled for the starting job with Drew Henson and ultimately started every game in the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Brady was All-Big Ten honorable mention both seasons, and was the team captain in his senior year.

During his first full year as starter, he set new Michigan records for most pass attempts and completions in a season, for a total of 214. He set a school record for completions in a 31–16 loss against Ohio State in 1998, a season in which Michigan shared the Big Ten Conference title. Brady capped that season with a 45–31 win over Arkansas in the Citrus Bowl.

In the 1999 season, Brady had to once again hold off Henson for the starting job. The two players platooned during the season’s first seven games, with Brady playing the first quarter, Henson the second and Carr then deciding upon a quarterback for the second half. The 1999 Michigan Wolverines started with a 5–0 record, including a 26–22 win over Notre Dame, and a road win against eventual powerhouse Wisconsin. Against Michigan State, Brady was not chosen to play the second half; however, he was reinserted into the game with Michigan down by 17 points, and he nearly led Michigan all the way back before losing 34–31. After a 300-yard passing game the following week, Carr went exclusively with Brady for the remainder of the season. Brady went on to lead Michigan to multiple 4th-quarter comebacks, including a remarkable 31–27 win against Penn State, and leading them out of a close game against Indiana, 34–31, heading into the regular season’s final game, winners of three straight, earning him the moniker of “Comeback Kid”.

Since Brady became their starting quarterback in 2001, the Patriots have never had a losing season and have won 17 AFC East titles. The Patriots played in 13 AFC Championship Games from 2001 to 2018—including eight in a row from 2011 to 2018—and won nine of them. Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick have combined to form the most successful quarterback-head coach tandem in NFL history, winning more regular season games and postseason games than any other such duo as well as appearing in nine Super Bowls. All of these events set new NFL records.

In the Patriots’ fifth game, Brady began to find his stride. Trailing the visiting San Diego Chargers 26–16 in the fourth quarter, he led the Patriots on two scoring drives to force overtime, and another in overtime to set up a winning field goal. Brady finished the game with 33 of 54, for 364 yards, and two touchdowns, and was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career. The following week, Brady again played well during the rematch at Indianapolis, with a passer rating of 148.3 in a 38–17 win. The Patriots went on to win eleven of the fourteen games Brady started, and six straight to finish the regular season, winning the AFC East and entering the 2001–02 NFL playoffs with a first-round bye. In that stretch was a Week 11 34–17 victory over the New Orleans Saints where he was 19 of 26 for 258 passing yards and four touchdowns to earn his second AFC Offensive Player of the Week nod in 2001. In Week 15, against the Miami Dolphins, he recorded a 23-yard reception from Kevin Faulk on a trick play. Brady finished the 2001 season with 2,843 passing yards and 18 touchdowns and earned an invitation to the 2002 Pro Bowl.

During the summers of 1998 and 1999, Brady was an intern at Merrill Lynch. He was inducted into the Junípero Serra High School Hall of Fame in 2003, joining fellow Serra High graduates Barry Bonds, Lynn Swann, Gregg Jefferies, Jim Fregosi, and his older sister Maureen, among many others. When Brady revisited two weeks after Super Bowl XLVI, in 2012, school administrators announced that they had named the football stadium Brady Family Stadium.

In his second season, Brady took over as the starting quarterback after Drew Bledsoe was injured. He led the Patriots to first place in the AFC East and a victory over the favored St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, winning his first Super Bowl MVP award. Despite the Patriots’ missing the playoffs the following season, Brady would then lead them to back-to-back Super Bowl championships in 2003 and 2004, winning Super Bowl MVP honors again in 2003. Along the way, the Patriots won an NFL-record 21 consecutive games (including the playoffs) between the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The 2005 season was Brady’s first to throw for 4,000 yards and lead the NFL in passing. That postseason, Brady would win his 10th consecutive playoff game, another NFL postseason record.

During the 2004 season, Brady helped the Patriots set an NFL record with 21 straight wins dating from the previous year, an accomplishment honored in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (though for official records, the NFL considers it an 18-game regular season winning streak; it does not count playoff games). New England finished with a 14–2 record, equaling their 2003 record and the best regular-season record ever for a defending champion. The Patriots also won the AFC East title for the third time in four years. Brady threw for 3,692 yards and 28 touchdowns, with a 92.6 passer rating, and was voted to his second Pro Bowl.

Playing with an overhauled receiver corps—in the 2007 off-season, the Patriots acquired wide receivers Donté Stallworth, Wes Welker, Kelley Washington, and Randy Moss; tight end Kyle Brady; and running back Sammy Morris—Brady enjoyed what many sportswriters described as one of the best seasons by a quarterback. Brady led the Patriots to the first 16–0 regular-season record in NFL history, outscoring opponents by an average score of 37–17. He also attained numerous career, franchise, and NFL records and milestones in the process. He was named as the AFC Offensive Player of the Week five times that year. In a Week 6 game at Dallas, he had a career-high five passing touchdowns in a 48–27 win. The win tied him with Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach for the most wins ever by a starting quarterback in his first 100 regular-season starts, with 76. The next week, in part of a 49–28 win at Miami, he had another record day, with a career-high six passing touchdowns, setting a franchise record. He also had the first game with a perfect passer rating of his career. Two weeks later, as part of a come-from-behind 24–20 victory at Indianapolis, he threw for another three touchdowns, the ninth consecutive game in which he had done so, breaking Peyton Manning’s NFL record of eight. During the last game of the year against the New York Giants, Brady threw two touchdown passes; his second touchdown was his 50th, breaking Peyton Manning’s record of 49 in the 2004 season.

Brady attended the 2004 State of the Union Address as a special guest of then-President George W. Bush. In 2004, he told ESPN The Magazine that being a U.S. Senator would be his “craziest ambition”.

During the 2005 season, injuries suffered by running backs Corey Dillon, Patrick Pass, and Kevin Faulk forced the Patriots to rely more on Brady’s passing. Brady also had to adjust to new center Russ Hochstein and running back Heath Evans. On October 9, in a 31–28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, Brady had 350 passing yards, three touchdowns, and one interception to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. Brady finished first in the league with 4,110 passing yards and third in the league with 26 touchdowns. At 92.3, his 2005 passer rating was the second-highest of his career at the time, although he equaled his career high for interceptions with 14. He and the Patriots finished with a 10–6 record, winning their third straight AFC East title. He was named to his third Pro Bowl at the end of the season.

Brady has been featured as a guest star on some popular television programs, hosting Saturday Night Live in 2005 and voicing himself in the 2005 The Simpsons episode “Homer and Ned’s Hail Mary Pass” and the 2006 Family Guy episode (“Patriot Games”; both football-themed episodes were broadcast within a week of that year’s Super Bowl. In 2009, he appeared as himself in a sixth season episode of Entourage. In 2015, he had cameo appearances as fictionalized versions of himself in the Entourage movie and Ted 2.

Brady became the fastest quarterback to achieve 100 regular season wins by helping his team defeat the Miami Dolphins 41–14 on October 4. In a 31–28 win over the Indianapolis Colts on November 21, Brady tied Brett Favre’s record of winning 25 consecutive regular-season home starts. having not lost at home since a 17–14 loss to the New York Jets on November 12, 2006. On November 25, in a 45–24 victory over the Detroit Lions, he had 341 passing yards and four touchdowns to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week. In the game, he earned a perfect passer rating for the second time in his career. The next week, in a 45–3 victory over the New York Jets, he had 326 passing yards and four touchdowns to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second consecutive week. The victory over the Jets set an NFL record by winning 26 consecutive regular-season home starts.

Brady began dating Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen in December 2006. In 2009, Brady said they had been set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. Brady and Bündchen married on February 26, 2009, in an intimate Catholic ceremony in Santa Monica, California. Together, they have two children: a son named Benjamin Rein born in December 2009, and a daughter named Vivian Lake born in December 2012.

In 2007, Brady was a model for the Stetson cologne. Brady has endorsed brands including Uggs, Under Armour, Movado, Aston Martin and Glaceau Smartwater. According to Forbes, he earned about $7 million from endorsements alone in 2014. In 2016, he began appearing in a Beautyrest Black commercial campaign for Simmons Bedding Company. In 2016, he launched his own line of vegan snacks.

Brady dated actress Bridget Moynahan from 2004 until late 2006. On February 18, 2007, Moynahan confirmed to People magazine that she was more than three months pregnant with Brady’s child. Brady and Moynahan ended their relationship sometime in early December 2006, around the time Moynahan became pregnant. John Edward Thomas Moynahan was born in August 2007 at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

Brady missed virtually the entire following season due to a knee injury in the season opener. But he would come back strong in the 2009 season to be named the league’s Comeback Player of the Year. In 2010, Brady set the NFL record for consecutive passes without an interception (358) and broke his own record for the highest season touchdown-to-interception ratio (among players who have started a full season) at 9:1, currently the third best TD:INT ratio for a single season by a quarterback. Brady would win his second league MVP award with all 50 votes in his favor. He was the first unanimous NFL MVP since Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor won the award in 1986. He and Joe Montana are the only players in NFL history to win multiple NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP awards. Brady was also named the top player by his peers in the first NFL Top 100 list, released in 2011.

In his first game in nearly a year, Brady threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns in the 2009 season opener against the Buffalo Bills. In the final three minutes of the game, the Patriots were down 24–13 before Brady and tight end Benjamin Watson connected on two straight touchdowns to lead the Patriots to a 25–24 win. Brady was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the 13th time in his career for his performance.

On September 10, 2010, Brady signed a four-year, $72 million contract extension, making him the highest-paid player in the NFL. The extension included $48.5 million in guaranteed money.

In the 2011 season, Brady led the Patriots to their first AFC Championship since 2007 and appeared in the Super Bowl for a fifth time; but the Patriots would lose again to the Giants. Following AFC Championship Game losses in the following two seasons, Brady and the Patriots made their sixth trip to the Super Bowl after the 2014 season (Brady’s 15th as a professional). There, he led the Patriots to a fourth-quarter comeback over the defending champion Seattle Seahawks. He won his fourth Super Bowl trophy and was named Super Bowl MVP for the third time.

In Week 1 of the 2011 season, Brady threw for a career-high 517 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception in a 38–24 win over the Miami Dolphins and earned AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. In the game, he threw a record-tying 99-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker. In the next game, a 35–21 victory over the San Diego Chargers, he had 423 passing yards and three touchdowns to earn another AFC Offensive Player of the Week nod. In Week 16, against the Miami Dolphins, Brady had 304 passing yards and one passing touchdown to go along with nine rushes for 17 yards and two rushing touchdowns in the 27–24 victory to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the third time in 2011. In the regular season finale against the Buffalo Bills, Brady became the fourth quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards in a season, finishing with 5,235; although Brady surpassed Dan Marino’s longstanding record of 5,084 passing yards, he finished the season second in passing yards behind Drew Brees’ 5,476. The Patriots finished the season 13–3 and clinched the AFC’s #1 seed. For his efforts in the 2011 season, Brady was named to the Pro Bowl and was named as the fourth best player in the NFL on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2012 by his peers.

Brady and baseball player Kevin Youkilis became brothers-in-law in 2012, when Youkilis married Brady’s sister Julie. He and his family reside in Brookline, Massachusetts, as well as New York City. They own several homes together and spend time during the summer at the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky, Montana, as well as their home at Silo Ridge in Amenia, New York. When Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he rented a mansion in Tampa, Florida, owned by retired baseball player and Miami Marlins owner Derek Jeter.

Brady finished the season with 4,806 passing yards, 50 touchdown passes, and eight interceptions. It was unanimously voted the greatest passing season of all time by ESPN in 2013. His 50:8 touchdown to interception ratio was, at the time, an NFL record. He became the first quarterback to pass for 50 touchdowns in a season and his 117.2 passer rating is the fifth highest in a single season. His 8.7% touchdown passing percentage is tied for 23rd highest ever in a season. He led the Patriots to the first undefeated regular season since the 16 game schedule was implemented in 1978. He directed an offense that scored a then NFL record 589 points and 75 total touchdowns. The team’s 50 total touchdown passes is the fourth most ever in a season. For his efforts, Brady was named the Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year. He was also honored by the Associated Press as their Male Athlete of the Year, the first time an NFL player has been so honored since Joe Montana won the award in 1990. He was named as a First Team All-Pro and to his fourth career Pro Bowl as a result of his historic season.

On February 25, 2013, Brady and the Patriots agreed on a three-year contract extension, which kept him with the team through 2017. Sportswriter Peter King called it an “amazing” deal, as Brady took just $27 million in new money over the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons, and also noted that it reflected Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s desire to make sure that Brady retired as a Patriot.

On May 6, 2015, the NFL published a 243-page report regarding the deflation of footballs used in the previous season’s AFC Championship Game. The report concluded that, more likely than not, Brady was at least generally aware of the intentional deflation. On May 11, Brady was suspended for four games by the NFL for his involvement based on “substantial and credible evidence” that Brady knew Patriots employees were deflating footballs and that he failed to cooperate with the investigators. On May 11, Troy Vincent—NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations—penned a letter to Brady that stated in part: “Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football.” Vincent’s letter further stated: “With respect to your particular involvement, the report established that there is substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge. Moreover, the report documents your failure to cooperate fully and candidly with the investigation, including by refusing to produce any relevant electronic evidence (emails, texts, etc.), despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information, and by providing testimony that the report concludes was not plausible and contradicted by other evidence.” Brady, through the NFL Players Association, appealed the suspension on May 14.

While there has been speculation that Brady would run for political office, in a 2015 interview he stated he had no interest in doing so.

On February 29, 2016, Brady signed a two-year contract extension covering the 2018 and 2019 seasons. On March 3, the NFL appealed Judge Richard M. Berman’s 2015 decision to vacate Brady’s four-game suspension as punishment for his alleged role in the Deflategate scandal. At the hearing, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit questioned Players Association lawyer Jeffrey L. Kessler and NFL lawyer Paul Clement, with Circuit Judge Denny Chin stating that “the evidence of ball tampering is compelling, if not overwhelming.”

The next week, Brady completed 16-of-32 passes for 188 yards in a 16–3 road victory over the Denver Broncos. With this victory, the Patriots clinched an eighth consecutive AFC East title and a seventh consecutive first-round bye in the playoffs, both NFL records. On December 20, 2016, Brady was named to the Pro Bowl for the eighth straight season and 12th time overall. In Week 16, Brady threw for 17 of 27 passes for 214 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions as he led the Patriots to a 41–3 win over the Jets. In Week 17, Brady completed 25-of-33 passes for 276 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions in a 35–14 victory over the Miami Dolphins in the regular season finale that gave the Patriots home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. Brady’s 276 yards against Miami moved him ahead of former Miami quarterback Dan Marino into fourth place on the NFL’s all-time passing yards list. Brady’s three touchdowns against Miami also gave him 28 passing touchdowns against two interceptions for the regular season. This broke the previous record of Nick Foles’s 27:2 TD:INT ratio which was set in 2013 with the Philadelphia Eagles. Being as Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett threw zero interceptions in the first four games the 2016 Patriots also shattered the NFL record for fewest interceptions in a season with just two. The previous record was five held by several teams, including the 2010 Patriots. Brady was named to the AP All-Pro Second Team, behind Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons, who was named to the AP All-Pro First Team. Brady was also ranked first on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017 as the best player in the league, becoming the first player to be named as #1 twice since the listing started.

On January 20, 2016, Brady announced the launch of his peak performance website TB12Sports.com. The site features information on Brady’s training regimen and includes a store to purchase TB12 equipment and merchandise. Later in the year, on August 23, 2016, the TB12 brand then expanded to offer a snack line. The snacks contain raw, vegan, and organic ingredients that are also free of gluten and dairy. The following month, Brady, alongside Boston Private and Robert Paul Properties, announced the formation of the TB12 Foundation. The purpose of the nonprofit foundation is to provide free post-injury rehabilitation care and training to underprivileged, young athletes. In March 2017, Brady moved beyond his snack line and partnered with meal-kit startup Purple Carrot to offer his own line of TB12 Performance Meals. The meals utilize whole foods and focus on providing nutrients for workout recovery. On September 19, 2017, Simon & Schuster published Brady’s first book, The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance. Within 48 hours, it had become a number one best-seller on Amazon.com. The book also reached No. 1 on The New York Times’ weekly Best Sellers list, to be featured in the edition of October 8, 2017.

On May 12, 2017, Brady was announced as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 18.

In a CBS interview on May 17, 2017, Charlie Rose asked Brady’s wife, Gisele Bündchen, if she wanted Brady to retire, despite the fact that he was playing at a high level. Bündchen mentioned that Brady suffered from a concussion in the 2016 season, saying, “I mean he has concussions pretty much every—I mean we don’t talk about—but he does have concussions. I don’t really think it’s a healthy thing for anybody to go through.”

Brady is a friend of President Donald Trump; in 2017, Brady indicated he had known Trump “for 16 years”. At a political event in New Hampshire on the day before the 2016 presidential election, Trump said he had received a call from Brady, and that Brady told him “Donald, I support you, you’re my friend, and I voted for you.” However, after his wife was asked directly on Instagram whether she and Brady backed Trump, Bündchen answered “NO!” After a Trump campaign “Make America Great Again” cap was photographed in Brady’s locker, Brady said that Bündchen told him not to discuss politics anymore, which he thought was a “good decision”. Brady did not join the New England Patriots in visiting Trump and the White House in April 2017 after their Super Bowl victory, citing “personal family matters”.

Despite missing the first four games of the 2016 season, Brady would lead the Patriots to win 11 out of the 12 remaining regular season games (to finish 14–2) and two postseason games to make his seventh Super Bowl appearance. Brady and the Patriots would overcome a 28–3, 3rd quarter deficit against the Atlanta Falcons to force overtime, winning 34–28 to give Brady his fifth Super Bowl title. He earned his fourth Super Bowl MVP award after setting title-game records for appearances, pass attempts, completions, passing yards and fourth-quarter comebacks. In his eighth appearance, capping the 2017 season, Brady threw for 505 yards, setting a record for most passing yards in a Super Bowl, but the Patriots lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Patriots won Super Bowl LIII in 2018, earning Brady his sixth super bowl title, becoming the first player in history to have won six Super Bowls.

In 2018, he endorsed Republican Helen Brady (no relation), who ran unsuccessfully for State Auditor of Massachusetts, losing to Democrat Suzanne Bump.

On August 4, 2019, one day after his 42nd birthday, Brady signed a two-year contract extension worth $70 million that covered both the 2020 and the 2021 seasons; the terms of the contract allowed Brady to become a free agent after the 2019 season. Against the 2019 Patriots salary cap Brady was the highest-paid player on the team at $21.5 million.

Despite finishing the regular season with a 12–4 record and winning the AFC East title for the 11th consecutive year, the Patriots were forced to start their postseason run in the Wild Card Round for the first time since 2009, where they faced the Tennessee Titans. With his team trailing by a 14–13 score and pinned back on their own 1-yard line with 15 seconds left in the game, Brady’s 37th and final pass attempt of the game – and his last pass attempt as a Patriot – was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by former teammate and Titans cornerback Logan Ryan, which effectively sealed the 20–13 win for Tennessee. The loss ended the Patriots’ chance of advancing to their fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance, which would have matched a feat that only one other team, the 1990–93 Buffalo Bills, had accomplished. In addition, this also marked the first time since the 2010 season in which the Patriots did not reach the AFC Championship Game, ending their NFL record run of eight consecutive AFC title game appearances. The loss to the Titans was Brady’s final game as a New England Patriot; on March 17, 2020, the day before his contract with the Patriots expired, Brady announced that he would not re-sign with the team for the 2020 season, ending his 20-year tenure in New England.

Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on March 20, 2020. The two-year contract was worth $50 million in fully guaranteed money, with up to $4.5 million each year in incentives. The deal also included a no-trade and a no-tag clause. Although his career number of 12 was already taken, Chris Godwin agreed to give it to Brady and switched to number 14.

In April 2020, Brady was reunited with his former Patriots teammate Rob Gronkowski when the tight end came out of retirement and was traded to the Buccaneers. Head coach Bruce Arians stated that it was Brady himself who was adamant for the team to trade for Gronkowski.

In an interview with Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Show in April 2020, Brady talked about how Donald Trump had reached out to him to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention and that he had politely declined, telling Stern: ” It was uncomfortable for me because you can’t undo things, not that I would undo a friendship, but political support is totally different than the support of a friend.” Brady explained that he has known Trump since 2002 when Trump asked him to be a judge in the Miss USA pageant, following Brady leading the Patriots to win Super Bowl XXXVI, that Trump used to come to Patriots games, likewise from time to time Trump would call him, and that the two had golfed together occasionally. That said, Brady just did not see the upside of getting into something so polarizing as a presidential election.