Tom Brady explains why he wrote a letter to a family in the wake of tragedy
"I’ve had different people pick me up at different times."
At his Thursday press conference, Tom Brady discussed the private letter he sent to the Riley family following the loss of their son, Calvin, who was murdered in 2016. The letter was the recently the subject of a Sports Illustrated article by Tim Layden, who described how Riley (a Massachusetts native) idolized Brady, having also graduated from Junipero Serra High School in California.
“It was just something that I thought I could do to maybe raise their spirits a little bit,” Brady said when asked about the letter by reporters.
Sad #Patriots Tom Brady discusses his letter 2 heartbroken family in Calif. who’s 20-yr-old son Calvin Riley was shot & killed in Aug. #wbz pic.twitter.com/lInyXWlDqS
— Scott Sullivan (@sullybunZ) January 5, 2017
Here’s Brady’s full quote:
Well, I think it’s just, everyone faces different challenges in their life and that would be something that would be, like I said, just very tragic. I’ve had different people pick me up at different times and it’s just, you always appreciate those things and you always remember them. I could never imagine having to go through what the family’s had to go through over the course of this period. I think our team does a lot of things and a lot of players in our locker room do a lot of things to try to make positive impacts in the community when we can. You hate for it to be under those circumstances, but unfortunately, some tragic things happen and you just do what you can do to help.
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