Tom Brady’s high-profile separation from supermodel ex-wife Gisele Bundchen left its mark on the future Hall of Fame quarterback — both mentally and physically.
A former Buccaneers coach said the crumbling relationship physically affected Brady to the point that he appeared “like a cancer patient” in 2022, according to an except from Lars Anderson’s upcoming book “Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness,” as relayed by the Daily Mail.
“His cheekbones had freaking cheekbones,” one coach says in the book.
“With all respect, he looked like a cancer patient with really good hair. He just seemed miserable, not even close to the Tom we all loved. He was so stressed.”
Brady, 49, and Bundchen, 46, began dating in 2006 and married three years later when he was just entering his peak individual seasons with the Patriots.
The book details how the supermodel asked Brady about retiring in 2017, but he said he was having “too much run right now,” and one year later wrote him a handwritten letter asking him to reconsider.
She opened up about how she felt their marriage was failing and she and their children needed him more.
The couple went to marriage counseling but remained together, and Brady left the Patriots for the Buccaneers begginning in the 2020 season.
He led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl that season and bowed out in the NFC Divisional Round the following year before deciding to retire.
But that only lasted 40 days, with Brady opting to return for what would be his 23rd season.
Those in the Buccaneers organization, though, noticed a new man walking through the doors and “nearly everyone in the building worried he was ill, maybe even battling a serious disasese,” per Anderson.
Teammates estimated he lost 20 pounds and his “vibrancy” had waned.
“For Tom to lose that much weight, on his frame, it was a lot,” former Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians tells Anderson in the book, as relayed by the Daily Mail. “It was very clear that the reason for the weight loss was the stress from the personal issues he was dealing with.”
Behind the scenes, things were not going well.
Brady’s decision to return miffed Bundchen so much that she flew to Costa Rica, leaving the quarterback to take children Benny and Vivian to their first day of class by himself.
In August, Brady asked Arians if he could leave camp for an unspecified amount of time since he and Bundchen needed to discuss matters in the Bahamas, per Anderson.
He told then-quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen he had to take care of some ” personal things,” the book says.
“Tom didn’t know what the heck was going on,” an assistant coach told Anderson. “And we didn’t know if he was ever coming back.”
When he returned, the dissolving of his marriage was hard to ignore.
“Tom was an empty shell of who he was when he got back,” Christensen told Anderson. “There was no joy. Everything was hard work.”
The couple ultimately divorced that October.
The Buccaneers went 8-9 that season but still managed to win the AFC South, with Brady’s final game coming in an unceremonious 31-14 home playoff loss to the Cowboys.
The book details during training camp how center Ryan Jensen suffered a season-ending injury and it truly seemed to weigh on Brady — especially with his home life in shambles.
“It was pretty clear he was asking himself, “Why the f–k did I come back?’” one Buccaneers staffer tells Anderson. “I think that’s when he realized he’d made a horrible decision. He didn’t come back and risk adding more troubles to his marriage to get the s–t kicked out of him!”
