Quarterback Tom Brady, right, gives directions to receiver Wes Welker (83) during practice yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

FOXBORO — Tom Brady is much more comfortable talking about football than fatherhood.

“I don’t want to talk much about that,” Brady, clearly uncomfortable about answering the question, said yesterday when asked his feelings about soon becoming a dad.

Brady was more than willing — indeed, eager, given the alternative — to talk about the prospect of passing the football to new receivers such as Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker and Randy Moss this season. What he quite obviously was not interested in talking about was the prospect of passing out cigars when his first child arrives this fall.

Who’d ever have thought that, when Tom Brady was about to have a baby, he’d prefer to talk about the arrival of Randy Moss rather than the impending arrival of his first born?

Then again, who ever thought Tom Brady would have a baby out of wedlock?

If image is, indeed, everything, then Brady’s was everything anyone could ask for. He was the young, star quarterback of the three-time Super Bowl-champion New England Patriots, and twice a Super Bowl MVP. Intelligent, articulate and thoughtful, he also was blessed with a charismatic personality and movie-star good looks, complete with sparkling eyes and dimpled chin.

Which was one of the reasons he wound up dating Bridget Moynahan, a beautiful movie actress who is pregnant with his child.

The problem is that they broke up late last year, around the time Moynahan became pregnant, as Brady moved on to a new relationship, with drop-dead-gorgeous supermodel Giselle Bundchen.

Which raises the question of what all that does to Brady’s image?

He still looks the same. He appeared to be in tip-top shape yesterday and, clearly, he still has no problem completing passes on the football field. Or off it, for that matter.

But do we look at him in the same way?

For those who believe athletes should be role models, Brady ranked right up there at the top of the list. He has visited schools and hospitals. He has contributed time and money to numerous charitable organizations. He sat by Charlie Weis’ bedside when Weis was in danger of dying after stomach bypass surgery. Respected, liked and admired by his teammates, he is adored by Patriots fans.

But role models do not sire illegitimate children. Especially with a woman with whom he once visited the Pope at the Vatican. Don’t know if the Holy Father reads the tabloids, but the news of Brady becoming an unholy father probably is something he’d frown upon.

Most people, however, can’t get enough of such scandal — as Brady pointed out near the end of his press conference yesterday.

“It’s all about money,” he said. “There are so many media outlets, everyone’s jockeying for the latest and greatest (story.)”

That’s another side to the story.

One of the few downsides to being Tom Brady, one of the few drawbacks to being a handsome, wealthy superstar who sleeps with starlets, is that life is lived in a fishbowl.

There was a mini-controversy recently when Brady was photographed wearing a Yankees hat, as if it were a betrayal of die-hard New England fans who root for the Red Sox perhaps even more rabidly than they do the Patriots. Oh, my gawd, the locals lamented — how could Tommy do such a thing?

Such trivial things are insignificant — tempests in the proverbial teapot. Or, in this case, beanpot.

Children, however, are of the utmost importance. Fatherhood is not something that should be taken lightly — although it too often seems to be in today’s society, especially among pro athletes and entertainment industry celebrities.

Brady grew up as the youngest child in a family seemingly as wholesome as those depicted on TV sitcoms of the ’50s and ’60s.

“I’ve got a great mom and dad,” he said yesterday. “I have a great family, and I’m very proud of the way they raised me.”

How proud they are, in this case, of being grandparents is a matter that Brady doesn’t want to discuss, preferring to keep his family life part of his private life.

“The hard part,” he said, “is when (the media) bring my family into it. Part of my life is public. My family is not.”

The question of how much of a superstar’s life should be public was raised yet again last week, when Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was photographed in Toronto in the company of a well-endowed blonde. Count me among those who think such dalliances should be of interest only to A-Rod’s wife, Cindy. As long as athletes — especially baseball and basketball players — have been taking road trips, such goings-on have been taking place.

How different, for example, would Babe Ruth’s image have been if he’d been followed by photographers on his late-night revels involving large quantities of adult beverages and various other activities among consenting adults?

Now we wonder if people will look at Brady differently.

It’s no wonder he doesn’t want to talk about it. What, really, can he say?

“I have no complaints about my life, what I’m doing,” he said.

jdonalds@projo.com