The Latest on Brady & Gisele: They Haven't 'Patched Things Up' as He Struggles With Being a Working Dad

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Last night was my Fantasy draft. By way of background, my league is more of less made up of the same group of Weymouth guys I grew up with who formed this league in the mid-80s. I am not joking. In our first iteration, the stats were all done by hand based on the box scores in The Boston Globe sports section. Eventually we evolved into spread sheets, and finally online. I mention this because Tom Brady was taken 62nd overall. Which is still relatively high compared to all the other drafts in the country (who had him barely cracking the Top 10 at his own position). But preposterously low for a collection of Massholes who lived and died with everything he did for 20 years. 

Even in a league that's based on cruel, heartless math and motivated by victory and money, it's hard to remove your heart from the equation altogether. And yet, despite the fact Brady's coming off yet another career year on a team that is stacked with talent, that's precisely what even we did. And I for one am chalking that up to concerns over where his heart is at:

Fantasy football can be all about the calculus. Tackle football cannot. The last several days have brought a relentless series on reports, allegedly coming from Brady-Gisele family insiders, who are spilling about trouble in the the private parts of their very public lives. And today is no exception:

Page Six - Gisele Bündchen still hasn’t patched things up with Tom Brady, despite her return to Florida from Costa Rica.

A source told us, “Gisele isn’t back with Tom.

“She flew back to Florida to be with her kids but hasn’t been to their home in Tampa.

“Tom is still hoping they can reconcile. Gisele has told him she’s leaving him before, and they always made up when she cooled down.”

Bündchen is believed to be staying in Miami.

Also - “You can’t stop your life even though sports is happening,” the NFL player, 45, said on Monday’s episode of his “Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray” podcast …

“Even though I’m playing in my 23rd year, I have a freshman in high school that is playing football, too,” Brady continued. “I have a 12-year-old that is going through his life. I have a 9-year-old that is going through her life. And I have parents. …

“Once football season comes, I really lock in on what I need to do and how I need to focus and the kind of commitment I need to make for the organization,” he said, adding that he does not want to “cheat” fans.

In other words:

You have to feel for Brady and Gisele both. If you have even a drop of the milk of human kindness, you really do. Marital strife is difficult for all involved. Even in the best of situations. No matter how amicable it is. 

And yet, in this case, there's something almost romantic about The Brady Bundchen situation. Because, like with so many other couples, there's a love triangle involved. But in a good way. The woman he's been cheating on her with is a lovely lady we call pro football. Whose beautiful siren song has lured many spouses, and caused riffs in many a great relationship. And Brady and Gisele are no exception. Except in his case, that attraction is not limited to Fantasy Draft Night, Thursday and Monday Nights, and all day Sunday from September to February. For him, it's his life's calling. 

My first ever hero (so long before Brady came into my life) was Captain James T. Kirk. And my favorite episodes where those ones where he'd fall in love with some gorgeous alien (always very humanoid, because he had a type), but eventually would have to leave her because his one true love was the Enterprise. Like the one where they went back in time to the Depression Era United States and he had to let a young, hot, Joan Collins die because saving her life would alter the future and his ship wouldn't exist. Or the one where he touched the tears of this smokeshow princess, which contained a love potion that would render him incapable of ever resisting her. But he did. Because his duty to his ship and crew demanded it. I loved these for a couple of reasons. One, because I was still at the age where girls have cooties. (Note: When you get to about age 30 or so, their cooties grow back.) And two, because there's something noble about having to sacrifice everything - even your personal happiness - for some worthy cause. To be that loner who can't be tied down by any attachments other than your mission. Your responsibility to those who need you. 

Of course, that's not the case here, because there are kids involved. Not just the ones in the Bucs uniforms who are counting on him, but the ones Brady brought into the world. So even at the age of 45, he's finding out the hard way he's only been granted the same 24 hours in a day given to every dad. And the woman he's committed to is done sharing him with his career. It's a sad and difficult situation. But also strangely, profoundly beautiful. His only sin is loving football too much. Can we blame him?

And under the circumstances, if he can put together a season even remotely close to his previous two? It might be the greatest accomplishment in Brady's unparalleled career.