Tom Brady's reflection on mental health is nothing short of a touchdown.
In honor of World Mental Health Day, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, 45, got candid about how he deals with the pressure on and off the field.
"Everyone has different situations in their life and children, and, you know, you worry about their mental health, you worry about your parents, obviously yourself," he said on the Oct. 10 episode of the SiriusXM podcast Let's Go! With Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray. "I think I've had to learn a lot of things over a long period of time in sports. I think there's an intense amount of stress that we all deal with, and how do you relieve stress so that you're not inflicting so much damage on yourself through kind of stress response?"
The answer for Brady has been looking after not only his body but also his mind.
"I think there was a part of us where we felt like, you know, 'Suck it up and deal with it,'" the athlete continued. "And I think you realize that there's a lot, especially in today's day and age, with how fast things are happening in life for all of us and the amount of responsibilities we have."
He added, "And also, I think there's part of us that are held to a certain standard that we're almost inhuman. You know, you hear this a lot from people that say, ‘You know, I'm only human.' We are only human. We're not inhuman. We're not immune to a lot of the things that just life brings us."
That's why he thinks it's important to take things one day at a time. "We're not robots," Brady noted. "You wake up every day trying to do the best you can do, understanding that life has its stresses and to deal with them with a great support system and understanding and having some introspective in your life where you can look at yourself and say, 'Where do I need to commit my time and energy to? And how can I lessen some of the stress and lessen the burden on me so that I can be good for people around me?'"
Doing so, he suggested, is a journey, citing how he's adjusted his mentality through different stages in life. "I worked at them when I was 20. There was a lot of things that I was going through at 20. There was a lot of things I was going through in my 30s. There's things I'm going through in my 40s. And it's life," Brady shared. "And you learn to grow up and you learn to deal with life. And that's what we're all trying to do. We're trying to do it the best way we can."
While Brady didn't cite any specific stresses in his interview, there has been a lot going on for the seven-time Super Bowl winner. On the field, he came back from a two-game loss on Oct. 9, with the Buccaneers beating the Atlanta Falcons after losing to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers.
Off the field, there's been rumors about the state of his marriage to Gisele Bündchen, 42. A source recently told E! News the sports star and the supermodel—who share kids Benjamin, 12, and Vivian, 9, in addition to Tom having son Jack, 15, with ex Bridget Moynahan—have retained divorce attorneys. Neither Brady nor Bündchen, who wed in 2009, have commented on the split speculation.
"There has always been a lot of love and passion between them," the source told E! News. "But now that they have been apart, it seems like this is better for everyone."