What led the Patriots to select raised fist pose for Tom Brady’s statue

Patriots

The Patriots did not wish to base the statue on a singular play from Brady’s profession, searching for to “embody his life’s work.”

By Conor Roche

August 9, 2025 | 4:15 PM

4 minutes to learn

There have been a number of iconic moments from Tom Brady’s Patriots profession that might’ve been immortalized in statue type. Nevertheless, sculptor Jeff Buccacio opted to take a unique route in making Brady’s statue.

The statue of Brady, which was unveiled outdoors of Gillette Stadium on Friday evening, reveals him elevating his proper fist within the air whereas holding his Patriots helmet in his left hand. Despite the fact that the statue wasn’t primarily based on an iconic second from his profession, Buccacio sculpted the statue primarily based on a picture from certainly one of Brady’s closing seasons with the Patriots.

“This was one of many ones that was type of one of many favorites,” Buccacio stated in a video launched by the Patriots on how the statue of Brady was made, displaying a picture of the quarterback elevating his first and together with his helmet off.

That picture was certainly one of roughly 10 “signature” poses of Brady that the Patriots despatched to Buccacio to sculpt the statue from, in line with Patriots senior vice chairman of selling Ali Towle. Towle didn’t share what the opposite photographs have been, however the video alluded to photographs of Brady’s on-field entrance from warmups and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after their Tremendous Bowl LI win being among the many candidates.

Neither of these photographs, nor the picture the Patriots opted to base the statue on, was of Brady passing a ball. That was by design.

“One other factor we did was have a look at among the different soccer statues that exist on the market on this planet and wished to guarantee that this was totally different from these,” Towle stated. “Clearly, with the quarterback, the custom was a passing movement. We didn’t wish to do this.”

Buccacio additionally obtained the directive to keep away from making the statue of Brady in a sport motion pose.

“The best way it was expressed to me, they wished him to really feel type of stoic and simply after victory,” Buccacio stated. “Type of exhausted, however nonetheless standing tall and proud.”

In a separate interview with MassLive’s Matt Vatour, Buccacio stated the Patriots wished “one thing timeless” and “all-encompassing of the legacy of Tom Brady, not one particular second.”

“Now we have nonetheless a few years of photographs of Tom Brady, and much more than that, so many memorable photographs of Tom Brady — six Tremendous Bowls, AFC Championship Video games,” Patriots director of brand name id and design Dwight Darian stated within the video. “There was nobody play that we may actually single out from Brady’s profession that might actually embody his life’s work.”

Ultimately, Buccacio, Towle, and others introduced the picture they wished to base the Brady statue on to Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft and president Jonathan Kraft earlier than sculpting started.

“All of us gravitated in the direction of this type of victorious pose and this was the inspiration shot we gravitated in the direction of for the presentation,” Towle stated, pointing to the beforehand talked about picture of Brady together with his helmet off and proper fist within the air.

When Buccacio started sculpting the Brady statue, he stated he wished to take the pose from the picture they basing it on and “give it a bit extra grace.”

“We wished it to be emotion, however we additionally wished it to face as a chunk of paintings by itself,” Buccacio stated.

Buccacio, a lifelong Patriots fan and a local of Natick, added in his feedback to Vatour that he listened to Brady’s podcast and outdated interviews he gave with the intention to assist personalize the statue as Buccacio Sculpture Companies spent over 20,000 hours to create it.

“In his podcast, he talked about himself as a person, what he offers with, how he grows. How he views his life on and off the sector,” Buccacio advised Vatour. “Because the work developed, that’s what I used to be attempting to evoke out of the piece. Not only a soccer participant, however the man that he’s.”

Buccacio and his workforce introduced a three-foot model of the Brady statue to the Kraft household in December 2023.

“I feel the determine is fairly particular,” Robert Kraft stated within the video of him seeing the three-foot statue for the primary time. “We at all times like issues excellent, no matter that’s to us, and I feel it actually has the makings of one thing super.”

The closing product wound up being a 12-foot statue of Brady, with a base that’s 5 toes tall to make it 17 toes in whole top, commemorating the 17 AFC East titles he gained. The statue was manufactured from 12,300 kilos of bronze. The determine weighs 1,800 kilos, and the granite base is 10,500 kilos. In whole, it weighs round 6.15 tons. The bottom can be hexagonal, with either side paying tribute to Brady’s six Tremendous Bowl wins with the Patriots.

“Greater than the file and rings, Tom gave us moments that felt timeless,” Robert Kraft stated throughout Friday’s ceremony. ” Sundays grew to become sacred. Households gathered. Generations shared collectively. Tom and the Patriots introduced hundreds of thousands of individuals collectively and introduced nice pleasure to Patriot Nation.

“Tommy, you haven’t solely etched your title in Patriots historical past, you could have etched it in all of our hearts and now your likeness will without end stand tall right here at Gillette Stadium identical to you probably did.”