Brady’s parents headed to Super Bowl after COVID battle
Shortly after beating the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, Bucs quarterback
excused himself from the on-field celebration to climb the railing and hug his oldest son, Jack, who was at the game.
Brady has always been a big family man, so he was shaken by news at the start of the 2020 season that both his parents had COVID-19.
In fact, his dad, was so sick that he was hospitalized for three weeks with Brady unable to see him.
“You know, I think one thing as you get older as an athlete, one thing about me experiencing a lot of different things and over the course of my career, there’s a lot of different family things that take place,” Brady said Thursday. “My situation, it could be my parents, but also I have kids.”
Tom Sr. said during interviews that because he was extremely sick he didn’t get to watch several of Brady’s games.
“When the season started this year I was in the hospital with COVID for almost three weeks, and my wife was sick with COVID at the same time,” he told ESPN. “We didn’t even see the first two games of the year. It was the first two games I ever missed of his career, because I was sick as a dog and my wife was as sick as a dog.”
He added: “I didn’t even care if they were playing, much less missing the game. It was a matter of life and death.”
Brady’s mother, , is a cancer survivor. She was able to attend Super Bowl 51 in February 2017, when her son led the Patriots to a 34-28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
“I’ll be very excited to certainly know my parents will be in the stands for the game on Sunday,” Brady said. “They only made it to one game this year. It wasn’t a very good outcome, the Saints game at home, which was pretty rough for all of us. But I’ll have a full contingent all coming in, I think, on Saturday afternoon and ready to watch the game and to cheer us on.”
NBA CHANGES
The NBA rescheduled four games Thursday, along with making several time changes to upcoming contests.
Toronto’s game in Boston will now be Feb. 11, moved up from Feb. 12. Detroit will play at Boston on Feb. 12, moved up from Feb. 14.
And on Feb. 14, Boston will go to Washington while New Orleans will visit Detroit. Both of those games were intended to have been played sometime in the season’s second half, which will take place between March 11 and May 16.
Also Thursday, the league pushed back the start times of 16 upcoming contests. That has happened to about three dozen games so far in order to allow for more time to process COVID-19 tests before players take the floor.
The NBA said Wednesday it would begin rescheduling some games because of the postponements that have occurred this season for virus-related reasons.
REED, NOREN LEAD
birdied his first three holes and finished with a bogey-free 8-under 64 on Thursday for a share of the lead with after the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. Reed, Noren and
— who was one stroke back — all played Torrey Pines’ easier North Course and will play the South Course on what could be a wet Friday. Heavy rain was forecast for overnight and into the second round at the municipal course overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
and each shot 66 for the lowest scores on the South Course and were in a group of 12 at 6 under. Malnati capped his round with an eagle on the par-5 18th.