Tom Brady’s Retirement: Capturing a ‘Special Image of the Best of the Best’

Simon Bruty explains how he tries to photograph the all-time-great QB.

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Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

This piece has been adapted from a 2021 edition of the Full Frame newsletter. You can read the original here.

Photographer Simon Bruty estimates that Tom Brady has been “photographed a gazillion times.” But in a low-fi selfie video posted to his social media accounts last week, Brady captured one of his most significant moments: his retirement, “for good.”

A year after calling it quits only to return shortly thereafter, the 45-year-old says he is hanging it up. Bruty has covered Brady throughout his career, and Sports Illustrated spoke with the photographer about the future Hall of Famer in 2021, when Brady was named SI’s Sportsperson of the Year.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

One of the constant things about Brady, Bruty says, (besides the serial winning) is that his face so often tells a story of emotion.

“He has this emotion,” Bruty says, “you don’t know when it’s coming. But when it does come, you have to be on it.”

It happens in bursts and at key moments, too. It seems to come out as a result of Brady’s obsessive preparation that Greg Bishop wrote about last week. Bishop detailed the decision of a player who “fell so deeply in love with preparing to throw footballs.”

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

“You are looking for that emotion that he has because he’s highly charged,” Bruty says. “I’ve found myself not really trying to figure out where the ball’s going; I’ve just been concentrating a lot on him and his reaction.”

One of Bruty’s favorite images of Brady wouldn’t have been possible without the help of his assistant during Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, in which Brady’s Pats lost to the Giants. The assistant helped Bruty carry his Canon 400mm f/2.8L and 600mm f/4L lenses and during a key play yelled in Bruty’s ear that Brady was on the ground.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Bruty pivoted from the downfield action back to Brady, who looked away, somewhat despondently, as a referee offered his hand to the QB.

“As a photographer, you want to come away with a special image of the best of the best. You’re hoping that something will happen and that you’re in the right spot,” Bruty says.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Bruty, who joined SI’s staff in 1998, has covered some of the greatest athletes of all time. And with that comes an added pressure.

“You’re always looking for something special,” he says. “When you photograph these special athletes, you never know when something crazy or wild will happen because they have the ability to pull something off that is totally out of the norm.”

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated