Tom Brady's Advice to Scottie Scheffler is to Knock Off This Crap About Prioritizing Family Above Your Awesome Career

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You no doubt heard or read about Scottie Scheffler's touching, heartfelt reaction to destroying the competition at the oldest, most revered event in the history of his profession. Having once again reasserted his utter dominance over the finest golfer's in the world, he had the unusual reaction of talking about how utterly "unfulfilling" all this success is:

It was one of those moments that cements your reputation as A Good Family Man with your priorities in order. With the added benefit of making every woman in the listening audience gently bite her thumbnail, cross one foot behind the other and say "Ohhhh!" like he just became Dog Dad to a rescue puppy. 

But there's one aggressively hyper-competitive, impossibly successful Alpha Male who is having none of such talk:

Source -  “This is not a fulfilling life,” Scheffler said. “It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart…[I]f my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or my son, that’s going to be the last day that I play out here for a living.”  …

Like Scheffler, Brady similarly had to balance being a parent and husband while also attempting to be the best at his sport during much of his NFL career. And in his latest newsletter, Brady questioned why Scheffler feels the need to prioritize one over the other.

  

Brady wrote that he places each priority of life into a pyramid, putting himself at the top, followed by his partner, children, work, extended family, friends, hobbies, and the greater community. …

“Scottie said he’d rather be a better father and husband than a good golfer. And my question is: why are those mutually exclusive?” Brady asked. “Sure, they’re different blocks on the pyramid, but they’re part of the same pyramid. They’re connected!

“For instance, I think part of being a great father is being a great example of doing what it takes to take care of your family. I chose to do it by playing football. My dedication to the sport, the hours of practice, the moments when I was laser focused—those were times when I believe I was doing the best possible thing for my family and my kids, by prioritizing my profession and teaching, by example, what it takes to be really good at your job, what it takes to follow through on commitments, what it takes to be a great teammate; and showing them, also by example, that work is a big part of all of our lives.”

Brady went on to explain that your kids pay attention to everything. And for Brady, the way he became a great football player and the work he put in to get better is able to serve as a positive role model for his children.

I can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that the following sentence will surprise no one, but I'll say it anyway.

I agree with Tom Brady. 

Scottie Scheffler says if golf ever "affected" his homelife, he'll walk away from the game?

You know what the best way to positively affect his homelife is? Being Scottie fooking Scheffler, that's what. To keep harvesting souls on the golf course. To keep coldly and efficiently hitting GIRs and dropping one-putts and bringing home huge purses, that's what. 

Yes, his family deserves, like all Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve to know that they are loved. And while it's nice to show it by feeding the baby and changing a diaper so mom can take a nap, that's not nearly as valuable as crushing it on Tour. Any ordinary slob with a soul-sucking dead end job can sit next to a toddler and pretend to be interested in Peppa Pig. The best thing you can do for your children is show them their father is a historic winner. Admired by millions. Feared by all who dare stand between him and his next victory. Respected all around the globe as the best there is in his field of endeavor. 

I don't know when exactly Western Culture made this switch from seeing the role of fathers as Provider and Protector to Caretaker. Though I suspect it was 1974. That's the year Harry Chapin released "Cat's in the Cradle." By the end of that year, it was No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and has never left FM radio or streaming playlists since. That 3-minute guilt trip convinced a generation of fathers that every time they can't play catch with their kid because they have to meet their obligations to put a roof over their heads and food on their table, then they're somehow being Deadbeat Dads. When the opposite is true. Let's not forget at the end of that dreary, angst-ridden tome, the reason the singer's adult son doesn't have time to talk to him is because he's too busy providing for his own family. Which is how this social contract we all sign is supposed to be drawn up. 

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We've devalued fatherhood from being the one who goes out and takes on the world for the sake of the family, to being a child's play mate. Is it any wonder then that a half century later, you can't find a positive father figure in pop culture? In a couple of generations we've gone from TV dads like Andy Griffith and Mr. C on Happy Days to Peter Griffin, Marty Byrd in Ozark, and the ignoramous in the commercial who keep backing the trailer up into the hedges while his wife and teenager stare at him with contempt for being such a pussy. 

Now even the biggest winner in all of professional sports is saying that winning at professional sports is somehow inferior to being home making dinosaur-shaped Mac & Cheese. 

So good on Brady for speaking up for the postive aspects of being incredibly good in your chosen profession. How good it is for your wife and children. It gives her reason to be glad she married you. I gives them something to strive for. Not to mention, it gives you all a first class lifestyle of being in the upper 1% of the 1%. 

And Brady ought to know. He speaks with the moral authority of a man who lost his marriage because he decided to keep doing the thing he's best at for another season. Because what really wasn't "fulfilling" for him, was only having seven Super Bowl rings and every passing record in the book. That's why he's not only at the top of his own pyramid, but everybody's. Including his kids'.