MAYA Brady is far more than just Tom Brady’s niece.
The college redshirt senior has made a name for herself as one of the most dominant softball players in NCAA athletics.
The 22-year-old has so far recorded 54 home runs, 178 RBIs and 170 runs scored at the University of California, Los Angeles, leading to the 2023 Pac-12 Player of the Year and Pac-12 Batting Champion awards.
Earlier this summer, she competed for Team USA at the World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s Softball World Cup in Dublin, Ireland.
Her achievements perhaps come as little surprise, with Maya coming from an elite athletic family.
In addition to NFL legend “Uncle Tommy,” as she calls the seven-time Super Bowl champion, her family also boasts her mother, Maureen Brady, and aunt Nancy Brady, Tom’s sisters, both of whom played collegiate softball.
Meanwhile, her other aunt on Tom’s side, Julie Brady, played collegiate soccer and is married to former Boston Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis.
Maya’s younger sister Hannah Brady is also an up-and-coming volleyball player.
The Bruins’ star, who was ranked as the No. 2 recruit in the nation out of high school, welcomes the weight of expectation of being in the Brady family.
This is even with her uncle calling her “the most dominant athlete in the Brady family…by far!”
“Not all pressure is bad pressure,” Maya The Athletic.
“For me, knowing that my family is very successful, I think it puts a lot of good pressure on me, to give myself goals, to try to strive to be the best I can be.
“It’s not pressure like if I lose or I strike out, I feel like my family’s not going to talk to me, or I’m going to put shame on the Brady family name.
“It’s just good pressure. I love bearing the last name. I’m just really proud of it.”
Maya especially cherishes the support of the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, whom she considers more than a father figure.
“We’re very close,” she says.
“We’re a very close family in general, but I have a really special bond with Uncle Tommy, and I’m really grateful that he’s just so supportive of me.
“It’s really special to see him truly recognize the most athletic in the family!”
By the time she was 19, Maya had been to all 10 of Tom’s Super Bowls.
“The first Super Bowl, our family was like ‘This is never going to happen again. We need to totally enjoy this. Just enjoy it,’” Maureen said.
“And it happens again, and it happens again. Every time, we’re like ‘This is the last time. Really enjoy it.’
“And then when it happened [in 2021], it was unbelievable.
“We’d say, ‘Maya, people don’t even go to one Super Bowl in their life. You have been to 10 in 19 years. Fifty percent of your life, you’ve gone to Super Bowls. This is not normal.'”
Maya’s parents, Maureen and Brian Timmons, divorced in July 2010, when she was nine years old.
Following their split, Maureen raised Maya and Hannah as a single mother while working as a traveling nurse.
“Seeing how my mom operates in life is on another level, and I genuinely don’t know if anyone works harder than her,” Maya told ESPN.
“She constantly reminds me of how nothing is handed to you and how hard and unforgiving life can be.
“So I take what she tells me and I try to apply it in my own life, whether that be in the classroom or on the field.”
Maya is currently dating former UCLA linebacker James Dinneen, with the couple posting pictures of each other on social media.
In June, Dinneen wrote a cute message on Instagram on her 22nd birthday.
“Happy 22nd Birthday to the love of my life and my best friend for the rest of time,” he wrote.
“You are such a special person and I can’t wait to experience the world with you.”
