It’s easy to wonder whether the incredibly successful quarterback has a brother, after all, it’s estimated that around 80% of Americans have a sibling.

Tom Brady has no biological or adopted brothers. In fact, he’s the only son out of four children, and the family he grew up with has been instrumental in shaping who he is today.

Continue reading to learn more about Brady’s relationship with his siblings, his family life, and how his and Kyle Brady’s athletic careers couldn’t have been more different.

The Only Son

Tom Brady grew up with three older sisters – Julie, Nancy, and Maureen. He is the youngest child only by about one year.

His story is a pretty typical youngest-sibling narrative. He felt somewhat overshadowed by his busy and successful sisters, and he struggled to find his own identity.

In 2016, Tom Brady dug up an essay he wrote in high school titled “The Way My Sisters Influenced Me” and posted it to Facebook. 

In the essay, Brady opens up about how his experience as a baby brother shaped him, how important his sisters are to him, and his future aspirations to create his own identity. Ironically enough, he mentions “breaking records” and that he will “continue to flourish in life as well as athletics” in the essay – an excellent prediction of what was to come.

An Athletic Family

Each of Brady’s older sisters was extremely talented at the sport they pursued. Maureen and Nancy were both stand-out softball players. Julie was a star soccer player. Brady’s father, Tom Sr., comments on the family: “We were kind of the ball park, gym rat type of family.”

But no one predicted that Tom would be the family member to become the household name in athletics. Brady’s high school football coach Tom Mackenzie even shares, “The girls growing up sort of took center stage as to ‘Who is the athlete in the family?’ There was Maureen, Julie, and Nancy. Then, there was Tom growing up. I’m not sure anyone would have pointed and said, ‘That’s going to be the star.’” Almost in spite of everyone’s predictions, Tom ended up being the sibling to bask in the highest glory.