Tom Brady and his mom Galynn’s cancer battle story (Getty Images)
When the New England Patriots pulled off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history in February 2017, the world was focused on Tom Brady. Galynn was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in the summer of 2016. The Patriots trailed Atlanta 28-3 deep into the third quarter. She is getting out and playing golf and tennis and looks wonderful,” he told the Boston Globe in June 2017. Tom celebrated her birthday at the golf course in 2023, posting family photos that showed her looking exactly like the woman who raised four competitive kids in San Mateo and never once made herself the story.
Brady led the comeback, throw by throw, and won in overtime. By the summer, Brady Sr. confirmed she was healthy.
“I just wanted to be there for Tommy, and I wanted to be there with our family,” she said. Brady later said she was his inspiration that night. It was a quiet, personal gesture that said more than any press release could.
But sitting at home, too sick to travel, was the one person Brady wanted in that stadium more than anyone. His mother, Galynn Brady, had spent the previous five months in chemotherapy, quietly fighting breast cancer while her son was engineering one of the most watched nights in NFL history. That contrast, rarely discussed, is where this story really lives. She underwent two lumpectomies before beginning a grueling five-month chemotherapy course that September, right as the NFL season kicked off. The timing couldn’t have been worse, or perhaps more telling of her character. She didn’t make it to a single regular season game that year. Not one. But she watched every play. “Everybody was going to the Super Bowl and I didn’t want to miss that. So she went to Houston. And what she watched that night was unprecedented. What followed was the kind of football that rewrites history books. His mother was in the building to see it. Not a play. Not a game plan. His mom. Robert Kraft surprised Galynn with her own Super Bowl ring. Not a replica. A real one, matching the one her son earned on that field. “She is doing great.