What do Tom Brady and Kevin Youkilis have in common?
Sure, they're both world champions -- Brady seven times in the NFL, and Youkilis twice with the Red Sox. But there's a much deeper connection than that: they're both proud uncles to Maya Brady, the UCLA softball star who smashed her first homer of the season on Sunday in the Bruins' 14-0 rout of San Jose State. (Youkilis is married to Tom's sister, Julie. Maya is the daughter of another Brady sister, Maureen.)
UCLA is ranked No. 2 in the nation among Division I softball programs, and Maya Brady is a big reason why. In 2020, she was named the Softball America Freshman Player of the Year after a big debut collegiate season in which she led the Bruins with seven home runs and tied for the lead with 28 RBIs. She also finished fourth among all Pac-12 players in RBIs and tied for fifth in homers while hitting .356 and slugging .699.
Maya's first homer of 2021 didn't go unnoticed by her rather well-known uncles. One of them even took to Twitter to spread the word -- Tom Brady quoted a UCLA Softball tweet along with a message that read, "Maya Brady, the most dominant athlete in the Brady family ... by far!"
Brady told the Boston Globe the same in 2019, saying that "Maya is already the most athletic person of the family."
You thought you knew who the best athlete with the last name Brady was, didn't you? And who could blame you. But now you know there's a star in the family -- other than Youkilis -- who plays on a diamond rather than a gridiron.Â
It's not that Tom didn't have his chance at baseball -- he was an 18th-round MLB Draft pick by the Expos in 1995 but chose pro football instead.
That worked out for him OK. And his niece carries on the Brady tradition of athletic excellence in the next generation.