TAMPA, Fla. _ There are always a few more boats on the water during Memorial Day weekend. This year, one of them is a police boat keeping an eye on Tom Brady's new residence.
Brady has contracted with the Tampa Police Department to have extra-duty officers patrol the waters outside his house. The Bucs' new quarterback is renting one of the most well-known homes in the Tampa Bay area _ former Yankees star Derek Jeter's mansion on Davis Islands _ but Brady would like his privacy.
Taxpayers are not on the hook for the patrols, department spokeswoman Jamel Lanee said Saturday, since extra duty is a supplementary service that allows individuals and organizations to contract off-duty officers. Many officers seen at construction sites, working special events or serving as police escorts are on extra duty. The department's website says its extra-duty office schedules an average of 17,300 a month.
Many boaters and those on personal watercrafts have paused on Hillsborough Bay surrounding Davis Islands for a look at Brady's house, including Lightning wing Alex Killorn on his Instagram Live show.
It's not something Brady is accustomed to.
His 14,317-square-foot home in Brookline, Mass., was set off the round and surrounded by trees. The six-time Super Bowl winner and his wife, Gisele Bundchen, were rumored to own a Cape Cod home off Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich, Mass., but that was never substantiated, so gawkers didn't really have a house to target, plus boats couldn't get as close there.
Now, there's no wondering as to which house is Brady's. The 30,000-square-foot waterfront abode dwarfs the other mansions around it.
"They can pull right up in the back of the house, so Derek did a pretty good job of screening it," Brady said during an interview on the Howard Stern Show in April. "I think part of it is when I come home, I want to be able to let my guard down and relax, but this is a little different when you go out to the backyard, there's a lot of folks that have pulled up and people out front. It's a little different."
