Option Route to Naming Our Son After an NFL Legend
Option Route to Naming Our Son After an NFL Legend
Wife wasn’t easily pursued, but (Tom) Brady came through in the clutch again
My wife Chris and son Brady on his day of birth Jan. 18, 2002 (photo by author).
Naming a child is no ordinary task.
It’s a big responsibility. It can give your new son or daughter a personality or a label from the moment they exit the womb and are shown off to family and friends.
If you want a tough, burly type what about Jack, Mac, Gunner, Maverick, or Harley?
Want a future bookworm or literary scholar? Why not Ernest, Atticus, Gatsby, Holden, or Gulliver?
Lots of options — great and awful — along with lots of pressure.
Kind of like being a rookie quarterback for the New England Patriots playing in his first playoff game in a snowstorm against the always-intimating Raiders.
Oh, the pressure.
It was the fall of 2001.
Three years prior, we had named our first son Bryce, named after former Buffalo Bills linebacker Bryce Paup — of course.
We loved the “B” theme so we made a rough draft for choices of boy names that began with “B” and jotted them down:
Brayden
Beau
Blake
Brody
Braxton
Brady
Ryan*
*I always loved the name Ryan and tried to sneak it through. The head coach vetoed. Didn’t even make it into the baby-planning playbook.
Meanwhile, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots started the 2001 season with a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals 23–17.
The next week, another loss to the New York Jets 10–3. And Belichick’s starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured late in the contest.
He had no choice.
His only option the following week was also a “B” name … as in Brady.
Tom Brady.
This young Brady began his NFL career fast like a Nolan Ryan 100-mile per hour fastball, clubbing the Indianapolis Colts 44–13.