Tom Brady’s life has always played out in the spotlight—be it seven Super Bowl rings, sideline breakdowns, viral memes, or heartfelt retirement videos. But in a recent post on his personal blog, The 199, the NFL legend reminded fans that behind the glory of the gridiron lies a man with quiet grief and deeply personal dreams. One of those dreams, as it turns out, is to bring back a lost family member—his beloved dog Lua.

While the blog entry also explored the Augusta Masters and the NCAA basketball championships, it was Brady’s musings on biotechnology that stirred hearts and headlines. The centerpiece of his post? A company he’s been invested in for years: Colossal Biosciences. The Dallas-based genetic engineering firm recently made headlines after announcing a scientific breakthrough—successfully mapping the genome of the extinct dire wolf using DNA extracted from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old ear bone. “The scientific team at Colossal were able to map the dire wolf genome,” Brady wrote with admiration. And while the thought of bringing prehistoric animals back to life seems like Jurassic Park fodder to most, Brady’s first instinct was more personal.

Recounting his first conversation with Colossal’s co-founder and CEO, Ben Lamm, Brady shared a surprising anecdote that gave fans a rare look at his softer side. “I first met Ben Lamm through a friend who’d heard him speak at a conference a few years back about cloning, gene editing, and the possibility of de-extincting animals,” Brady wrote. “Ironically, my first question for Ben had nothing to do with extending or expanding human life. I asked him, half-jokingly, whether they could clone my sweet old dog Lua.”

Lamm’s reply struck a chord. “He indulged me and said that’s not really what they’re trying to do, but yeah, technically, they could clone her.” The idea of cloning Lua might have started as a half-serious comment, but Brady’s tone in the post suggested otherwise. He acknowledged the awe he felt at how far science had progressed—that the very notion of bringing back a loved one from even the smallest trace of DNA was no longer fiction, but reality.

Tom Brady didn’t go into detail on whether he’s pursued cloning Lua since that conversation. But the memory clearly lingered. His interest in Colossal’s mission isn’t just professional; it’s deeply personal.

The bond between Brady and Lua 

Tom Brady’s grief over Lua’s passing wasn’t just a passing post. In December 2023, just two days before Christmas, he announced his four-legged friend’s death with two heartbreaking Instagram stories. “We love you Lua. RIP,” he wrote. “Forever in our hearts.” Lua passing away hit Brady hard. Because she had been there for him through everything. He and Gisele adopted her back in 2014 from a local shelter. It wasn’t long before she was part of the family—really part of it. Through the Patriots years, the move to Tampa Bay, the Super Bowl win, even the divorce… Lua was still there, tail wagging, always around.

After she passed away just before Christmas, both Tom and Gisele said goodbye in their own way. “Our little Lulu, our guardian angel is gone to heaven,” Gisele posted. “She will forever live in our hearts. We already miss her sooooo much! #unconditionallove RIPLua 💔” Lua was the friend who saw them through some serious highs and lows. For Brady, especially, she was a constant when not much else was.

For the Las Vegas Raiders minority owner, Colossal isn’t about science for the sake of science. It’s about hope. They’re trying to bring back dire wolves, dodos, woolly mammoths. Big, wild stuff. But underneath that is something else: the emotional connection people have with animals. The ones that were there when no one else was. That’s what Brady sees. “I’m amazed by what Colossal is doing,” he wrote. “It’s a reminder of what science can achieve when we pursue the impossible.” And you can tell—he means it. This is a guy who made a career out of doing stuff people said couldn’t be done. Playing at 44, winning after leaving Belichick, getting drafted 199th and turning that into one of the greatest resumes in NFL history.

Rings are cool. Stats are cool. But there are some things that even time and success don’t fix. Loss is loss, even for the GOAT.