Posted on 02/21/2007 4:32:22 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Tom Brady, Mr. All-American, says he's ''excited.'' You bet.
Informed that actress and ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan is three months pregnant and he is the impregnator, the three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and purest man in the world -- or rather, his agent, Tom Yee -- said, ''Tom and his family are excited about the pregnancy.''
Wow.
They're not excited about the mother or a possible marriage or any kind of meaningful union between copulators.
They're excited about the fact their son/brother/relative has active sperm.
Maybe the Brady family also is excited about the late-night talk-show jokes that are brewing as I type this.
Maybe they're excited about Brady's current squeeze, pouty-lipped Brazilian lingerie model Gisele Bundchen, who could become the nanny for the baby, if not the actual stepmother.
Not that Moynahan is giving this child up.
She made no secret of the fact she wanted a baby when she and Brady were hooking up, excuse me, dating.
''I've been on this career thing for so long, and you look at all your friends who are finally getting married and having kids,'' she told Boston Common magazine last fall. ''I believe in balance in life, so I think I can do it all.''
No dad doesn't cut it Never mind the oxymoronic essence of that last statement, the part Moynahan is missing is that pesky part about family. Having a baby is one thing. Having a baby without a legitimate father is another, entirely.
For years that province -- of children born out of wedlock or raised without a married birth father -- has been perceived as the province of the poor and the minority.
Read, at its most vexing, black.
To a degree, this is fact.
Without getting into the sociological and economic elements that create such a trend, know that about 16 percent of white kids grow up without fathers but a stunning 51 percent of black children do.
Brady, 29, named one of People magazine's ''50 Most Beautiful People'' in 2002, is not the marrying kind. At least not now.
Hope that doesn't shock you, Bridget and Gisele.
But the shocking part to the world is that here is Tom Brady of the New England Patriots with those twinkling blue eyes and Cleaver-family upbringing -- Charles Pierce's recent biography, Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything, all but anoints the young man -- and he's just out there sowing seed like every other irresponsible rascal.
We'll leave it to Madison Avenue to decide whether Brady's action will affect his endorsement deals -- with Nike, Visa, Sirius, among others -- that bring him an estimated $9 million a year beyond his large Patriots contract.
The troubling part is not the gossip and all the rest of the giggle-inducing tawdriness of this little scene.
It is that babies in our modern American world have become items and baubles, things to have or not have, depending on the whim, mood, naivete, intoxication level, desperation and silliness of the two people involved.
That Britney Spears is the mother of two children, with her shaved head and utter instability, is about all we need to know of the children-as-accessories mental state.
Moynahan said, via her publicist Christine Papadopoulous (this is how rich celebs communicate, you know), that she is ''healthy and excited.''
Of course, no mention was made as to whether the fetus was equally as thrilled.
It was back on Dec. 14 that Brady and Moynahan announced, through a (what else?) statement, that they had parted ways ''several weeks'' earlier.
It's easy to joke about Doing a little language and math work, I see that several means more than two but not many, so the pair must have broken up sometime around, say, mid to late November. This being late February means Tom Terrific gave three-months-pregnant Bridget a last-fling going-away present.
One could laugh at all this.
Just as one could laugh at fellow superstar -- and equally white and All-American -- quarterback Matt Leinart, who impregnated a fellow student in his last year at USC and never had much interest in her, beyond the obvious.
But the devaluation of children is the real issue, the carelessness with which they too often are brought into the world.
And the current thought espoused by many that little boys don't really need dads in their lives at all -- that loving women and maybe a thoughtful male coach at the rec center will suffice -- is pure nonsense.
As syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts wrote recently, there is this pernicious idea among certain headstrong females and careless males ''that the father is unnecessary, that so long as there's some uncle around to show the boy how to hit the mark in the toilet, everything is hunky-dory.''
It's not.
Witness our jails and our poverty lines. Witness our schools.
Tom Brady has shown that the real issue is not race or wealth at all, but personal responsibility.
If I were a member of black America, I wouldn't exactly be laughing at Brady's sexual mistake.
But I'd be hard-pressed not to smirk.
mailto:rtelander@suntimes.com
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If in doubt wrap it. Sorry to be vulgar but using a condom is not a sure thing but at least you know there's birth control involved.
I too prefer both parents be in the house etc.
But I know a few women who have had children and are not married to now or maybe never were married to the father.
If it can be worked out you can parent a child together without being together.
That story was about athletes who ignore and don't support their children.
We don't know what Brady will do.
I have a friend who had a baby with a former Cub. They are raising him together but they aren't together. Every major decision is made as a team. They are both married to other people and actually the kid is pretty lucky. He has 4 parents who love and care about him.
The mom has primary custody and the dad who is now retired but coaching has him kind of on a goofy schedule based on the season but she has moved (with his help financially) to near him twice.
I'd add politicians to that.....
BWDIK??
Every situation is different.
If Tom and Bridget aren't together but they are both active and loving parents in the baby's life there's no problem. It's not ideal.
And if they both marry other people down the road and those people aren't stupid and scumbags they will become very important people in the child's life as well.
My parents divorced when I was 4. They both remarried. My stepmother and stepfather both took on their responsibilities as part of the team to raise my brother and me. Their jobs was not in place of my real parent but with my real parents.
When I married my stepfather had passed away but there was not a dry eye in the house at the reception when my Dad included a tribute to my stepfather in his toast. My stepmother was escorted down the aisle as a special part of the wedding.
My dad and stepmother are now divorced but she is still a part of my life and always will be as she is mother to 2 of my brothers and was married to my Dad for 25 years.
Stop being ridiculous. This baby hit the genetic and economic lottery, and I'm positive he or she will be raised in a loving household, surrounded by legions of people who care very much about his or her well-being. Do you suspect otherwise?
Some around here are merely using this episode as a soapbox to sound off about race or the nuclear family, shamelessly using child as a prop for their argument.
Again unless either man was raped he has just as much responsibility as the woman does.
As Reagan said "Trust but verify" the verification they could have used was a condom.
I know you hate women but while he is richer she does not hurt for money.
I don't know where you got that. Of course, I don't know how you come up with half of what you post.
I was reminded of that old joke... my drift, eh?
I didn't even read the article and it seems clear to me. The issue is that black professional athletes are constantly scorned for fathering numerous babies out of wedlock. Freepers call the NBA thugball all the time. But now a white, good looking, NFL star does the same thing and there's hardly a peep. Matt Leinart did the same thing. I'm a big SC fan and I was really disappointed about that, as I see no reason why anyone should have an unwanted pregnancy these days, aside from the gold digger syndrome others have mentioned.
who can say, "Be wary of strong drink. It may cause you to shoot at the tax collector... And miss."Please don't take Rick Telander too seriously.
I live in Chicago and we have become accustomed to ignoring his incoherent screeds. Don't try to read any logic into what he is saying; There is "no there, there".
Anna Nicole Smith!
Or not?
This article sure got some posters overexcited.
Any man not married should ask for a DNA test. Heck, from what I have read on divorces, it should be standard operating procedure for every divorce case! Shame to say...
So when does Tom go in for the complete Negroplasty?
The Pats were EXTREMELY lucky to beat them. The Colts simply outcoached them.
He is calling for equal contempt. Black athletes are notorious for having baby mommas in every city. Telander is showing that All America Tom, Mr. GQ himself, is no better.
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