PBD Podcast - Tom Brady Opens up - 7th Ring Motivation MJ or Belichick | Enemies | Style of Leadership

Starting point is 00:00:00 Even when I watch sports today, I see these guys on the range. Yeah. They're all buddies and their caddies are friends and that's not the killer instinct. You know, I always said we play for the name on the front of our jersey was a Patriots or the boxer and we had to play for the name on the back of the jersey which was my family and people that encouraged me. I think you've chosen the enemies wives. Man, I'm gonna play ten more years. It takes so many people to get to where we get in our life. I learned about work ethic. I learned about resilience.

Starting point is 00:00:34 I learned about gaining the trust and the respect that my teammates and coaches to name me captain. Just like in your business, every year is different. They didn't motivate me. I didn't about any of it. So first I can't wait for you to watch this interview with Tom Brady. By the way, from the moment he walked in, he was in charge, comfortable, respectful, loose, and you'll sense it.

Starting point is 00:01:13 The moment you watch it, he walked in, Dylan's like, hey, Tom, I want to throw the ball with you. He's like, well, then let's go. They go to the back of the hotel, but there's a wide open place at the diplomat. And they start throwing the ball, and then he's running grouts with Dylan, and then he's running grouts with my oldest son Patrick and then he says so dad you're gonna run or what? Like he's almost like pushing you challenging you you could feel his leadership from the second he got there and

Starting point is 00:01:33 then when he hits the stage super comfortable super loose I haven't asked him why are you so comfortable and loose right now like what caused you to be this well you'll sense that and then there was a couple things we talked about I asked him about you know winning then there was a couple of things we talked about. I asked him about winning seven championships. It was more important for him to win seven because having one more than Belichick or one more than Michael and you'll be the judge of which one mattered most. I give my assumption on which one I thought it was,

Starting point is 00:01:56 but his focus how he drove his people, how different it was with everybody else, all in all, this is by far one of the most unique interviews I've ever done. And timely, the fact that this is by far one of the most unique interviews I've ever done. And timely, the fact that this is after his career being done. So he was a little bit more comfortable to talk versus a Tom Brady that's typically like, well, we had a game today. I take responsibility as a quarterback.

Starting point is 00:02:17 We have to come back and watch a take. That's not the time. You're going to see a complete different time in this interview with them. So with that being said, here's Tom Brady. Tom Brady. When we pulled up records, there's so many of them. Let me just read some of them here for you. Most games won by player, 251. Most games played by a non-kick or 335.

Starting point is 00:02:36 Most games started, 333. Division titles, most career passing yards, 89,000 to 14. Most career pass completions, 7,700.000 to 14, most career pass completions, 7,700 attempts, touchdowns, most career passing yards with one team. I mean, I can go over and he's beaten every single team in the NFL, one of only four people to do it. It was so wild in our family, everybody was required to watch

Starting point is 00:03:02 Man in the Arena, everybody. All my kids that aren't in the back catching a ball with them they're enamored by because they've watch Man in the Arena. Everybody, all my kids that aren't in the back catching a ball with them, they're enamored by them because they've watched Man in the Arena over and over and over again. My daughter watched it, my wife watched it, Tico watched it, Dylan watched it. We rented out Foxboro Stadium, we brought Ben,

Starting point is 00:03:16 his manager, one of his best friend, couple of the guys that played with them. We're in there watching Man in the Arena again, to kind of feel the emotion of what it was like, playing with a guy like this, being a teammate, what a guy like this, maybe coaching somebody like this. And as a guy that's a fan of this sport, I've never played organized sports, okay?

Starting point is 00:03:33 I didn't play in high school, I didn't do any of that stuff, but I'm a fan, I'm coming purely from a fan. There are certain players that we have to ask, can anyone ever do this again? So for example, we'll chamber 100 points. I don't know. Home run, 74 in a season.

Starting point is 00:03:51 I don't know. You know, you're somebody gonna go out there and do this or beat Gretzky's record or beat that. I don't know if there's gonna be another player to play for as long as he did and when seven Super Bowls and break all the records, that may not happen in our lifetime. seven super balls and break all the records, that may not happen in our lifetime.

Starting point is 00:04:06 Now, we all believe in doing the impossible, but he made it so hard for somebody else to want to replicate. It's almost like he emotionally got everybody else that's behind him trying to catch up to say, dude, there's everybody else I can compete with. Then there's Tom, set Tom aside. I'm going to go after this guy. There's no way I'm gonna be Tom. So this is a one of a kind of a one of a kind of a person, you'll see the painting at

Starting point is 00:04:29 the end when we give him as a gift, there's some special messages and there will give him. I consider this guy, the goat of goats, please stand up and give it up to the one and only Tom, pray day! Pradee! Nice to meet you guys. Are we fired up for what? That's a little better. Tom, are you naturally when I go into the stadium to get all fired up? This is kind of cool to be with you guys.

Starting point is 00:05:19 Thank you very much, Patrick, for allowing me to be here. This now kind of my hometown, I've been bounced around to a lot of different places over the years, grew up in California, went to school in the Midwest, played in Boston for 20 years, and then in Tampa. So I've traveled around a little bit, and I feel like I've gotten to know a lot of people over the years, and obviously I love being in front of groups

Starting point is 00:05:41 of people sharing some of the amazing insights that I've had over a lot of years in competitive sports and teamwork and discipline and success and probably a lot of things that you guys are looking to achieve in your career. So it's a pleasure to be with you guys. I know what day is this out of the four days that you've... This is the second to the last day. Tomorrow's the last day. Okay, so one last day tomorrow. So hope you guys are doing the work and listening and paying attention. Hopefully I can provide you guys with a couple little nuggets to take with you on your own personal journeys

Starting point is 00:06:13 So first of all it's great to have you here. Okay, I know you're Humble about it, but we're honored to have you here Oh, are you always this fired up like even back when we were you were we're taking you were leading oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, bounce a ball or dribble a ball and you don't have to be obviously be a professional at it. But some things in life can be pretty simple if you like, you know, bouncing a ball or hitting a ball or kicking a ball. And I think that's very much the way that I was a lot like, you know, your sons are back there. And everyone finds their own interests. I was so fortunate to find a real love for sports. And it wasn't just, you know, hitting a ball, throwing the ball. It was the camaraderie of teammates.

Starting point is 00:07:03 And there's so many things that I've learned over the years being a part of a team setting and being involved in sports and dealing with people and relationships. And yeah, it's about getting the ball in the end zone, but that's the final step in the process. There's so many other things that lead to the camaraderie and the ability to do that more often than most other teams. So that's really where the work is. Yeah, I mean, I was watching you back there. You're telling Dylan, so Dylan, what are

Starting point is 00:07:35 you going to do? Let's warm up. You're throwing the ball. Okay, what route are you going to run? Boom, hot, high, no step back. That's yards. We got this. Okay, did you want you to play defense on him? Hey, Dad, are you going to go? You you putting everybody to work? It was interesting watching you do that, but What was that first moment for you for these kids? They're gonna be 40 years old when they say I freaking God Brady's past at nine years old life changing for these guys. What was that moment for you when you were a kid? Yeah, that's a little bit about inspiration and for me I grew up in very fortunate group in San Mateo, California, which was just south of San Francisco.

Starting point is 00:08:07 Yeah, at a time when the San Francisco 49ers were the team in the NFL. And I grew up in a very sports-centric family. I had three older sisters who always say we're all better athletes than I ever was. And I was just like their punky brat little brother that would follow them to their softball games at night to their basketball games, and always cheer them on. And my dad loved sports, my mom loved sports, and it was just very much a part of our family.

Starting point is 00:08:36 So so many of the memories that I had as a kid were growing up on sports fields, going to the bat in cage at night with my dad. I was the youngest of four, so we would always sneak off to the golf course when we wanted to have some boy time. And I learned just so many lessons, I think, from those early ages being in my own family

Starting point is 00:08:55 and being with sisters that were supportive of me. My mom, and then ultimately I grew up on a street where there were, you know, it was just a normal street in the Bay Area. There was 60, 70 kids on the street. We play, this is when we used to play in the street, you know, a lot of people in here probably play in the street too, but this was go down and make a ride at the fire hydrant and, you know, go right at the white car. Oh, don't get hit by the truck coming down, you know,

Starting point is 00:09:18 and the car would come and everyone would back off. So it was just a normal way to grow up. And I think that that was just such a great way for me to grow up in the Bay Area with a love for football and a love for sports in general, but to grow up on a street where that's what we did. We played football, two-hand touch in the street. We didn't have much of a front yard. You know, we played and if you hit the curb, that was out of bounds. So growing up, it was just so normal for me. And I really, in a way, still feel my life is like that. I don't feel like I've changed much over the years in terms of what my values were or what my priorities were.

Starting point is 00:09:52 I just had those inspirational moments I'd say from growing up in the Bay Area, idolizing Joe Montana and Steve Young, who are my sports idols. And in baseball, you know, Barry Bond went to my high school. He's one of the greatest baseball players of all time. So there was these sports idols and in baseball, you know, Barry Bond went to my high school. He's one of the greatest baseball players of all time. So there was these sports idols I had that really inspired me

Starting point is 00:10:09 to dig deeper with myself. And I found a lot of people over the way, over 46 years to support me in this journey. Tom, was there a moment where, did you have a moment like that, which Montana through passage, or Steve Young through passage? And if yes, how old were you? And and outside of that when you first met him were you in your mind at all sizing them up where you would just enamored I cannot believe I'm catching

Starting point is 00:10:34 them off from a guy like this. Yeah well I never caught any passes for anyone but what I did do was I was a bat boy and honorary bat boy at San Francisco Giant Spaceball. And I was sitting in the dugout, and there was a great left-handed hitter who was one of my favorite players, Will Clark, because then it was Will Digg. And he was my, you know, at that time, the giants, he was my favorite player. And he came out of the, I was sitting in the dugout, just scared shitless, you know.

Starting point is 00:11:00 Not saying a word, looking straight ahead. And he came out from the tunnel, the clubhouse, and and came up and he was saying something and like a squeaky voice Where's neither helmet or something like that and I just sunk back on my seat and my devil's like say something say something. I was like I'm not saying anything And then finally I stood up and I said you know Mr. Clark. I'm Tom nice to meet you and I said Tommy This is Tommy nice to meet you and he said nice to have you kid and you know know it was one of those moments where it was kind of really eye opening for me. And you know I had this opportunity I was young to play, but I was actually a pretty good baseball player when I was a kid. And I was just surrounded by all those sports and I picked a high school where it was very,

Starting point is 00:11:41 it was right down the street from my house, but it was very baseball-type school. And in California, where I grew up, it wasn't really focused on football. There wasn't a ton of that. It was more baseball-focused. But either way, there was a lot of sports. And sports in all of our communities were pretty impactful and influential in the ways that we grew up

Starting point is 00:11:59 and we socialized. And again, I was fortunate to grow up at a great time in football sports in the Bay Area. Did you always like if I was in high school with you 13, 14, 15 years old, did you always have an absolute killer instinct where I'm gonna show you I'm gonna prove the way to see what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna kill this guy when we face him. Was it always like that when you were in high school or that kind of developed later on? Yeah, I think it developed over a period of time and I think there was a always like that when you were in high school, or that kind of develop later on? Yeah. I think it developed over a period of time.

Starting point is 00:12:27 And I think there was a work ethic that was in me. I think most people probably know a few things about me, but I was never, I would say, like, a prodigy. You know, I wasn't like the kid where you see Tiger Woods swinging on the Johnny Carson show at two or three years old. And, you know, his swing looks as good as it did at three years old as it did You know as he grew older or you know certain players that had that had this unbelievable Prodigy aspect to themselves that I saw myself as someone who probably had some other traits that maybe were hard to identify

Starting point is 00:13:00 But that were really sustainable over time which was I, I would say, work ethic and discipline. And that was instilled in me by, I think, my parents. I mean, there was part of it that they gave me it, but also just behaviorally grown up in an environment where my dad was out to work every morning, trying to go make a living for our family. And my mom woke up every day trying to figure out how to make sure the home was comfortable for us

Starting point is 00:13:24 and to support the kids. So there was this discipline that I had that even as 13, 14, 15 years old, where all these other boys were, I went to an all-boy school in the Bay Area and I remember showing up my first day as freshman year. I ain't have much, you know, hair under my arms or anything like that. I was like, and these other kids came in and shaved in and I'm like, what the hell is this? I didn't know how to put the pads on in my pants when I tried out for freshman football. I mean, I had never played until that point except in the street. So these kids came out there. They had helmets and shoulder pads that they had worn for four years through pop Warner. And I went on the field and I was like, I'm going to get killed out here.

Starting point is 00:14:00 You know, and my freshman year, I didn't even play. I was the backup quarterback on a team that went 0 and 8. That says a lot. I couldn't get on the field and we never won a game anyway. I mean, it's one thing to be the starting quarterback and to lose. If they don't even think you're good enough to be a starting quarterback on a team that's 0 and 8, you must really suck. And the reason why I played my second year was because that quarterback quit, because he's like, I'm not playing football anymore, we suck.

Starting point is 00:14:30 I'm going to focus on basketball, so naturally I was like, oh cool, I'll continue to work on my skill, because I actually had a halfway decent arm, but a lot of it was even going into my second year in high school. There were workouts in the morning at 6am before school. And I was like, okay, I can get up at 6am and I can go do these rope drills where you'd run through the ropes. See a lot of people do that.

Starting point is 00:14:55 There were these hills that we would run up. And there was probably less than 10 people there, but I was probably one of the three that were there almost every single day to try to continue to push myself to grow in these maybe physical areas that I was really behind a lot of other people at. Because naturally, no one's good at everything.

Starting point is 00:15:14 I mean, that's just not the way life works. We're all talented at certain things, but we can really continue to improve our weaknesses if we're humble enough to identify them and we can build on our strengths. And I think we're all trying to find a more well-rounded aspect to ourself, but a lot of that has to come with this understanding about yourself that what you know is very limited and what you don't know is limitless.

Starting point is 00:15:41 And you have an opportunity every day to surround yourself with people to help you grow. And that could be, in my case, it very much was my parents early on. And then as I learned to love the sport of football, yeah, I was watching kind of on the periphery of pro athletes, but there was a junior college football coach that I wanted to become a better pastor, because I had a good arm. And he was a three sport coach at a junior college.

Starting point is 00:16:06 His name was Tom Martinez, one of my great mentors, and he coached Women's Softball, which is how really I knew him. Women's basketball and men's football. And I would go up there, and I would go up there to his camp to learn to throw the ball better when I was 14 years old, 15 years old. And it just became this, like I said, life was pretty simple when you could kick

Starting point is 00:16:29 a ball or throw it. And for me, it was throwing it. And I wanted to throw it ball better. So who better than to find this guy who was probably ahead of his time as a coach and he taught me how to throw the ball with some good fundamentals. And I really saw that as like, wow, I can go see someone who has more knowledge than me and I can learn from them and I can take them back to my school.

Starting point is 00:16:49 And everyone's gonna go, wow, Tom, you made some improvements. And I think that was a good learning experience for me even at a young age. So it wasn't the, you know, because there's a couple of different ways that it happens, right? Like in business world, you're kind of, do the business, you get into real estate insurance technology, whatever it is. And on all of a sudden different ways that happens, right? Like in business world, you're kind of,

Starting point is 00:17:05 do the business, you get into real estate insurance technology, whatever it is. And on all of a thing, you're like, let me see if I can make money with this thing. Then it's kind of like, oh my God, this is actually great. And then you kind of size yourself up against other people and like, wow, I think I can actually beat that guy. And I can, and who is the guy that does it this way?

Starting point is 00:17:20 Let me go to that guy. Oh, wow, I didn't know about this. Kind of like we're telling the story about Hernandez. But when was it, like, was it where you said no, I think I can play against everybody because even in college if you think about the two Drew's in your life, right? Yeah. You're in Michigan, you got what, Brian Grease, I believe, right? And then Drew, go below. Yeah. And then you got Drew Hansen, who becomes a like you. He was also a baseball player too.

Starting point is 00:17:49 He ended up, I think, getting drafted by the Yankees, right? Drew Hansen. And it was an interesting structure, the coach had. One quarter, one quarter, you know, two quarters, two quarters, first half, second half, which is kind of tough to create momentum. I think you guys went 21 and five or 20 and five

Starting point is 00:18:02 or something like that with the record you had. And then, so, but you were like a backup to Drew and then comes Drew Bletsow, backup to Drew again. So there's a backup. Are you in your mind, say, in where the market kind of like the movie C biscuit? Yeah, you're just a horse to help the other guy get better. You're not the horse that's supposed to be the number one horse. So you always trained to kind of be here to build a confident and the other guy that's going, at what point did you say, just guys, I have no freaking clue who the hell I am. I'm a number one guy.

Starting point is 00:18:30 Did that ever click in your mind where you were number two, say, I belong to you number one? Well, I think there was a naturally very competitive part of me and I love that and I can I go back a little bit, of course, give you a little context too. So my freshman year in football, I didn't even play, literally didn't play. And I love that and I can I go back a little bit of course give you a little context too so My freshman year in football. I didn't I didn't even play literally didn't play Maybe two or three passes coach from this sideline screen at me one time my freshman year Brady You're moving in slow motion and I was I mean I was slow shit

Starting point is 00:19:03 So still am. So going into my second year, I, like I said, the guy quit ahead of me. So I became the junior varsity quarterback. There were three teams in my high school. And I had a coach named Bob Van Al, Perry Carter, Joe Hessian, and Sarah High School. And they were there for the football experience.

Starting point is 00:19:23 They were having as much fun as the kids were. They didn't see it as varsity football. They were there to embrace the love of the game. And for the kids that weren't good enough to play on varsity. And they really took me under their wing. And we had so much fun that second year. I love my football experience. One of the great years of my entire life.

Starting point is 00:19:43 I really started working hard with Tom Martinez to throw the ball better. My third year, I won the starting job in my high school. And I love this sport so much that I stopped playing basketball and I just played baseball and football. But in the summers, I would go in my dad who was very available to me with the greatest mentor, the greatest dad I could ever imagine

Starting point is 00:20:04 was so right there by my side to say, hey, dad, the greatest dad I could ever imagine was so right there by my side to say, hey dad, I want to be better football player. Great, let's take you to the University of Arizona camp. Let's take you to the Cal Berkeley camp. Let's take you to the Stanford camp. You know, it's when you just sign up and there's a thousand other kids and you're just in a group and you know, that's just the way it was. But my dad was there to say, go for it son. and if there was a blessing in my life That I would say you know some of the things I blessed hard work discipline. You know I was also blessed with being very in naive

Starting point is 00:20:33 I had no idea how hard it was and But I believed because I was like on and I'm like I'm gonna get better and I'm gonna I'm gonna be better well Going into my fourth year in high school, I was recruited, but not like a lot of the top kids. There was, look, I was big, I was the size I am now, tall, I had a good arm, but there were a lot of other physical deficiencies that they saw, so I wasn't a high recruit.

Starting point is 00:20:59 So, there was, and it was a different era, where look, we're in the digital age now, that's not the way things work back in 1994 We had to make VCR tapes with my dad in his office when I said dad We got to like put together the most clips that I have and this one my dad would film the games I mean now it's like channel five broadcast every high school game in the area like this is my dad with the camcorder And every time the ball was thrown he'd be focused on? And the ball would go this way and he'd stand up and the camera would go to the left

Starting point is 00:21:27 and he'd be watching and he'd start jumping out. Go! So of course we miss like every important throw that I had in high school. So we pieced together enough clips to like go, hey man, where, Tommy, where do you think you want to go to college? And I was like, I don't know, like University Illinois and I was looking at a lot of like, go hey man, where, Tommy, where do you think you want to go to college? And I was like, I don't know, like University Illinois.

Starting point is 00:21:46 And I was looking at a lot of like, maybe not top tier college programs. And in the end, I was like, well, yeah, just let's send one to USC. Let's send one to Michigan. And I was like, do you think we should send one to Michigan, dad? And he's like, yeah, I may as well. You know, you think you like it. Of course, I'm from California. You know, I didn't, Michigan.

Starting point is 00:22:03 That's a long way from California. So I send these tapes out and there's a little bit of buzz about me and I start getting recruited and I get these letters and of course I'm like, wow, get every day I'm getting these different letters from school saying, oh, you know, you we consider your prospect, continue to keep up the good work and I would file them all you know in a file folder and my high school counselor came up to me and he's like Tom we got to start applying to colleges and I'm like dude I'm getting a scholarship what are you talking about? And he's like yeah no we're going to apply to all these colleges and funny story I never applied to any college. But I actually got halfway decent through my fourth year in college that the momentum picked up.

Starting point is 00:22:50 And I wanted to go, I got it offered a scholarship to UCLA. And then they turned me away at the last minute because another kid signed before me. And I really wanted to go to USC. That was probably my first choice. But they didn't want me either. They signed another kid who was one of the top recruits on the West Coast. So I never forget these stories by the way. These are like hardcore and grained. So then I went to Michigan, I show up, they walked me into the big house, and it's called the big house for a reason. There's 102,000

Starting point is 00:23:23 people in there on a college football Saturday. Now it's expanded like 112,000. It's incredible. And I walk through the tunnel at midfield, and they go from Sarah High School in San Mateo, Tom Brady. And I looked up and I was like, I want to go to fucking school here.

Starting point is 00:23:40 Ha, ha, ha, ha. So I'm there for two days. I don't talk to my parents the whole time. We didn't have cell phones. And I get to the airport in Detroit and I call my dad, collect, and I go, Dad, I think I know where I want to go to college. And like, he started breaking down and he's like, what? You know, leaving to go all the way back to Michigan and he said, are you sure you want to go? And I said, Dad, if I want to be the best, I got to beat the best. And this is where the best are.

Starting point is 00:24:07 So I showed up on campus as a freshman in the fall of 1995. I was the seventh quarterback on the Dept Chart. There were six other guys ahead of me. And Michigan is a great college. There's, you know, it's competes for national championships. And I wanted to be a great football player. If I was going to be a great football player, I wanted to compete against these other guys.

Starting point is 00:24:28 And they were all better than me. Like, like I said, just like in high school, I was deficient. Well, I was, we had another athlete who was in my freshman class at Michigan, Charles Woodson. And Charles showed up on campus. He had a goatee. He looked like a Greek god. And I was like, how am I in the same locker room as this guy?

Starting point is 00:24:51 This guy looks like a physical freak, which he was. And he won the Heisman in his third year. And he went on to be a Hall of Famer in the NFL. And he's one of my great friends. But we laugh, because man, that freshman locker room, I'm looking over there at Charles Woodson as the seventh quarterback. And Charles out there starting on opening day as a true freshman and

Starting point is 00:25:08 I Was you know worked really hard because I developed this work ethic in high school And I realized man if I want to be good. I got I got to wake up in the morning I got to do the extra work and I got to show up when other guys aren't and I've got to learn I've got to continue to be open to learning and my freshman freshman year, I read Shirted, never played barely practice, but I learned a lot. My second year, I had improved a lot physically through that work. And I started to compete in a way that the coaches would notice me a little bit.

Starting point is 00:25:40 And my second year, I was a few little crazy stories of how it got to be the way that it did, but I ended up becoming the third quarterback in my second year. And it rotated a little bit there my second year, but I went from third in my second year to now my third year, I was competing to be a starter. And because I learned to compete in high school, and I learned to compete my first two years in college, in fact, I almost thought about leaving Michigan. And in my second year, I got a call from Steve Marucci at Cal, and he said, Tom, if you come here, you can start for us,

Starting point is 00:26:23 and you're going into your third year. If you leave Michigan, you can come here, you can start for us. And you're going into your third year. If you leave Michigan, you can come here and you can start for us. And of course, Cal was one of my great choices. I thought, shit, I could go home and be a starter. And I walked into Coach Carr's office, the head coach at Michigan at the time. And I said, Coach, what's my situation like?

Starting point is 00:26:41 And he said, Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. You always do is you focus on the starter, the second guy, you don't worry about what's your focus on. You came here to be the best. I want you at this program. And if you're going to be the best, you got to beat out the best. And he goes, you got to start working with this guy named Greg Hardin, who was another mentor in my life. Greg just came out with a book a few days ago.

Starting point is 00:27:09 And Greg had been a sports psychologist at Michigan. And like, you know, we got to start building this knowledge and we got to create a strategy and a plan. And he would say, you know, I would complain all the time that the guys ahead of me were getting more opportunity than I was. There was a certain amount of repetitions in practice. The starter would get 20. The backup would get 10 and I would get 2.

Starting point is 00:27:31 And I'd go in and say, well, how can I ever get better? All these guys get all the reps and I only get 2. And he said, just go in there and focus with the 2 that you got and make them as perfect as you possibly can. So I said, okay. So that's what I did. They put me in for those two, man, I'd sprint in there like it was Super Bowl 49. Let's go boys, here we go, what play we got.

Starting point is 00:28:00 And I did really well with those two because I brought enthusiasm, I brought some energy and I had a little more confidence myself And it went from two reps to getting four reps because those two are pretty good. Then I have four good reps. Then I got ten good reps. And before you knew it, through this new attitude, through this new shift that Greg had said to me, you know, focused on what you can control, focused on what you're getting, not what anyone else is getting. Whenever you get an opportunity, you take advantage of, you treat it like it's the Super Bowl. You treat it like it's game day. Go out there and treat practice like no one else does. And I did that every single day.

Starting point is 00:28:37 And it was a lot. It was taxing on me. There was a lot of stress for me, even in high school. And I looked back at those times, it wasn't probably like a typical college experience because I was really motivated to play, but I had to take it to a new level that the other guys wouldn't.

Starting point is 00:28:51 So going into my fourth year, now I had competed in the sophomore year, sophomore year, I'm going into my third year and I had learned these tools to compete and I said whatever they asked me to do, that's what I'm gonna do, to the best of my ability. And I went in there, I competed really hard in my third year, and I lost the starting job to Brian Greacy.

Starting point is 00:29:09 And Brian Greacy led the team to a 12-0 national championship that year. So I was part of a national championship team, and I barely played. So I go into my fourth year, and I was like, now's my time. I worked hard to compete my first three years. Going into my fourth year, I got a great opportunity to play. And I worked hard. It's time for me to come. And they recruited a kid named Drew Hanson to who was one of the top prospects in the

Starting point is 00:29:34 country from Michigan, right next door to University of Michigan. And here he was coming in the door that everyone knew about. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So all the fans and all the media, they weren't interested in Tom Brady backup quarterback to Brian Greasy, Tom Brady backup quarterback to Scott Drizeman's first year or Scott Drizeman's second year.

Starting point is 00:29:56 Now, we have Drew Henson coming in. And I was like, the competition's relentless. At first I was looking at the guys ahead of me. Now I gotta be looking down at the guys behind me too. But I said, you know what, I'm going to apply the same thing that I learned in those previous years. I'm going to go out there and compete as hard as I can. And I'm going to treat practice like a game. And I'm going to gain the respect of my teammates every day through my work ethic. I'm going to work hard in the weight room. I'm going to work hard in the film room. I'm going to work hard to be a good student. And going into my fourth year, it was a little bit of a battle.

Starting point is 00:30:27 And my teammates named me Team Captain. And I won the starting job. And we had a good year. We finished ten and three. In our bowl game, we played in the Citrus Bowl. And we came back from a... I think it was a ten point lead in the fourth quarter and to win the game.

Starting point is 00:30:48 And I was like, man, that was unbelievable. Now that I'm going into my fifth year, like we're gonna have a great year. I was 10 and three, learned a lot, beat everyone out and I showed up and Coach Kars says, well, you're gonna compete with Drew Henson to be the starter going into your fifth year. And I was like, you gotta be kidding me.

Starting point is 00:31:06 But I was like, you want me to compete? That's what we're gonna do. And Drew had improved too. So Drew is learning to compete as well. And my view on team sports was, you compete and whoever wins the job, that's the person that gets it. No one's entitled to a position on a team. Whatever is best for the team, that's the person that gets it. No one's entitled to a position on a team. Whatever is best for the team, that's what everyone has to say, look man, the kid beating out,

Starting point is 00:31:30 he's better, gives us a better chance to win. So I competed really hard again in my fifth year, took it to a new level, thought about my conditioning, my strength, thought about how I was doing my making my decisions off the field, going to my fifth year and I was starting to play really good And I thought you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna have a chance and Coach car called me and he said well Tom is what we do you're gonna start Drew you're gonna play the second quarter and I'm gonna decide at halftime who plays the rest of the year and I was like Not what I wanted to hear, but I'm going to deal with it the best way I can. So, first game of the year, we played Notre Dame.

Starting point is 00:32:16 I start, Drew comes in in the second quarter, he says, Tom, you're going to play the rest of the game. We're down four points with two minutes left in the game. I drive him down the field. We score. We win the game. I'm like, man, way to go. I'm ready to keep this going. He says, we're going to do the same thing next week.

Starting point is 00:32:43 OK. At this point, this isn't like coaches do this regularly, right? No, it's totally. It's totally a... It's not. It's definitely not normal. And again, I was a team captain too. So, you know, I had to do, I had to do what was right by the team and I took that.

Starting point is 00:32:57 That was like one of the greatest, I always said, that was one of the great honors that you could have. It was when you're all your buddies from college and these great athletes, they name you captain because they say man you deserve it, we want you to be the leader for us. So I go into, you know, the second game of the year and I start, Drew comes in and he says Tom, you're going to play the third and fourth quarter, which I did with and we won pretty handily, it wasn't against a great team. So when we played at Syracuse and I played in the first quarter, we didn't score. Drew came in through a touchdown pass

Starting point is 00:33:28 and the second quarter came in and he said, Drew's gonna play in the second half. And I have a fifth year senior, captain of the team, 10 and three, won a bowl game in my fourth year, got off to an undefeated start in my fifth year. And I was like, all right, let me cheer them on. I'm going to cheer them on. And we won the game. I stood up there and we sang the victors. I sang it louder than I ever sang after a game. Hail to the victors.

Starting point is 00:33:57 And I wanted my teammates to know that I had their back, even if it wasn't right for me. Or it didn't feel it was right for me. So we platooned for another couple games. Sixth game of the year, we're undefeated. We're going to Michigan State. They had undefeated team. I started, drew, played the second quarter, and they started drew in the second half. We didn't have a great third quarter with Drew in, so they brought me in and they said,

Starting point is 00:34:32 Brady, you're going to play the rest of the game. Almost the end of the third quarter. We scored four touchdowns from the mid-third quarter to the end of the game. And we ended up losing. So we were five and one. I walked in there after the game. All the teammates came up, said, great job. And Coach Carr said, we're gonna platoon next week.

Starting point is 00:34:55 And I was like, wow. We're really in on this platoon thing, huh? We played Illinois at home. We're huge favorites. I played the first quarter, Drew played the second quarter. I started the third quarter through an interception. He took me out of the game. They put Drew in. Drew threw an interception. They took him out of the game. They put me back in.

Starting point is 00:35:19 How to pretty good fourth quarter of the game, driving to win the game, our starting center would in feel goal position to win. I'm in the shotgun, snaps the ball 25 yards over my head to knock us out of feel goal range. We lose the game to Illinois. And after that coach car said the platoons off, Tom's playing the rest of the year, we didn't lose the game the rest of the year. We didn't lose the game the rest of the season. So, and that wasn't just because of me. I want to be really clear.

Starting point is 00:35:51 That was we had a great team. But what did I learn from that whole situation? You know, it was a tough battle for me. It was a tough go. It was tough in high school. It was really tough in college. There was a lot of stress. Nothing was given to me.

Starting point is 00:36:04 I didn't take the easy way out going to Cal and saying God that could be really easy close to home My mom can do my laundry and everyone can come to the game. I can start I stuck it out at Michigan where it was 10 degrees in the winter time And it was a lot of tough competition So of course now I'm going to the NFL draft and I'm like at all these pro coaches must have seen how good I was I mean, they watched me at Michigan, we beat Ohio State, you know, my senior year, I went to, we played Alabama in the Orange Bowl, I threw for 340 yards in the Orange Bowl, we were down 14 points in the fourth quarter against Alabama in pick. And, you know, round one, two, and here we

Starting point is 00:36:50 go. Six round, pick one, ninety-nine. And I was like, all right, I'm going to make all those other teams pay. But what did I learn, you know? What did I learn? Like I said, I wasn't the prodigy. I learned about work ethic. I learned about resilience. I learned about gaining the trust and the respect of my teammates and coaches to name me captain. I learned about how to dig deep within myself,

Starting point is 00:37:17 a long way from home without a ton of support for the position I was in, to still try to find a way to succeed in this situation that I really wanted to be in because it was the best for me anyway and Here I go I get picked by the New England Patriots and in The six round 199 and I always joke when they called me they said Tom, you know Day Thomas is you know Bill Bella check. We're you know picking a round, like we'll see him Monday, like get ready to go.

Starting point is 00:37:47 So to the Patriots, and there are three quarterbacks ahead of me, sound familiar? So I was number four, and Bill Belichick kept me as the fourth quarterback in my first year. Now, like there was just cut sale the day, they keep two quarterbacks most of the time on an NFL roster now. Bill Bella checks off something in me through watching me work a little bit and you know watching my love for the game. Alright, you know, we

Starting point is 00:38:14 should, this kid's probably not ready to play, but you know, I like him. You know, he's kind of tough and you know, he doesn't look that athletic, but you know, he throws up all pretty well and he seems to really enjoy the game. So I'm gonna keep them on the roster and You know, that's where my pro journey began. So that was a long answer to your question I think the most if I look at that journey from where I was as a kid, to where I was as a 22 year old, I had my parents that were in my life to support me every step of the way. I had my junior varsity football coaches that were there every step of the way. I had my throwing coach and mentor Tom Martinez there every step of the way.

Starting point is 00:39:06 I went to Michigan and I had coach car challenge me to say those who stay will be champions. So I stayed. Greg Harden found a way into my life who said don't worry about all these things are out of your control. Focus on what you can do. Focus on the two reps you got. I had all my teammates that supported me. I had my sisters that supported me. It takes so many people to get to where we get in our life. Yeah, I was there doing some of the work,

Starting point is 00:39:34 but couldn't have done it if I didn't have them. So when I stand up there, even sitting here today in front of you, I'm just a story like everybody else. It's all just a narrative. You know, you have people in your life that are there to support you, I'm just a story like everybody else. It's all just a narrative. You know, you have people in your life that are there to support you, hopefully, that are gonna encourage you and challenge you every step of the way, because there's no straight line

Starting point is 00:39:54 for anybody. There's not a straight line for me in this path. People, kids may sit here, and your kids may say, God, oh Tom Brady, you know, God, he was able to win. You know, I heard you name some great, you know, records that I was very fortunate to be able to have over a 23 year career. All I think about is my parents. I think about my kids.

Starting point is 00:40:14 I think about my family. I think about Greg. I think about my best friend and body coach, Alex. I think of the people that I work with every day. So for me, I just, I represent representation of all these people that are coming to my life. And I felt very motivated to, you know, I always said, we play for the name on the front of our jersey, was a Patriots or the Boxer. And we play for the name on the back of the jersey, which was my family and the people

Starting point is 00:40:36 that encouraged me. So that was a great... That was a great first, you know, 22 years of my career in my life. And I got to the Patriots and you talked about that one moment where I said, well, I can really do this. So think about it. I had been in all this competition at Michigan. I had Brian Greacy, I had a Melita, so national championship.

Starting point is 00:41:00 I had one of the top recruits in the country, Drew Henson. And I was staring those guys down every day. Here I come to the Patriots, and I get drafted, and I'm fourth on the Dept chart, and I finally see Drew Bletsow throw the ball for the first time, and in my very naive, competitive way, because he signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with the New England Patriots when I was making $185,000, I looked in and I go,

Starting point is 00:41:22 I could throw the ball better than that. Which I was the only one on the field who saw that. And I wasn't, but I had a belief that I could. If I worked the same way, and if I gained a trust and respect to my teammates in the same way, that if I ever did get that position, and I told this to my best friend, who's one of my roommates and college I said if they ever put me on the field they're never gonna take me off the field and they never did. Ask you. When's the last time September 1st you weren't preparing for season. I mean it's gotta be you know 32 years. 32 years right so here's question, why are you so loose? I've never seen you disloose.

Starting point is 00:42:08 Yeah. Why are you so comfortable? Like, you are, I've watched a lot of your interviews. I've watched a lot of times where you're being talked to. You are like in a very comfortable loose place. Why is this happening, right? That's kind of weird watching you. You guys understand, I'm someone I'm saying or no. Sure. You are so just like in a very good place. What's going on with you? Well, I think it's a lot of it's probably maturity. I think, look, when you're maybe you guys have seen me on television and talking in front of, look, in the NFL, you're not up there to like narrate the story for the journalists. You know, you're like, it's not a battle per se, but you're there to keep your strategy

Starting point is 00:42:53 from anyone else. You know, so you know, you're not up there to get into a lot of deep strategy because I feel like I was giving away things to the competition a lot. So I learned and look when you're in the Patriots for 20 years, like, you know, we answered all the questions of this few words as possible. And we were not trying to give away any bit of our strategy because it was intense competition. So I just think now at this point in my life, you know, I'm here to share as much as I've learned.

Starting point is 00:43:19 I was, like I said, I've been, I feel like I've been so blessed. I'm so grateful for all the people that have been on my life because I couldn't have done it without all of them, all those experiences that we think are the hardest things in our life end up being the best experiences in our life because if you approach it with humility and you look inward, they become the best opportunities for growth and learning.

Starting point is 00:43:44 Is there a part of the reason why you may say, no, Pat, I'm always like this. You just haven't seen me because I'm doing the interviews when they're asking me the question. So what do you think about the ball that was dropped? We all made some mistakes. I made some mistakes. We have to get back and watch the tapes.

Starting point is 00:43:59 And we're gonna figure out where to get better. We're looking forward to playing X, Y, Z team, this next Sunday. We have some work to do. Yeah. You also want, you would always like giving those answers, right? But were you always like this behind closed doors?

Starting point is 00:44:11 And the reason why I ask is the following, because, is there any anxiety when you're by yourself? You're like, shit, I'll be playing right now. Can beat that guy. I can do this. Or are you kind of like that chapter is so done. I am fully good. I am so at peace. I am so fulfilled, I got so many other things I want to tackle, I'm done done, and you're the way you are now. Yeah, very much so I think it's a lot like that, I feel like I did my part, you know, I ran a lot of marathons, and it's not that I wouldn't love to still do it.

Starting point is 00:44:45 I mean, I'd love to throw the football. I'm going to probably throw the football for as long as I could. But I also know that, you know, I don't know if it's a good analogy because a lot of people do run. But man, it's great to run the first probably four miles of the marathon. And it's really fun to cross the finish line. At Public Mobile, we do things differently. From our subscription phone plans to throwing a big sale right now when no one else is.

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Starting point is 00:46:33 Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure? Get answers you can trust from Salesforce at AskMoreVi.com. Man, those middle miles probably really stuck. And if you want to be good at those middle miles, you've got to work really hard in the whole off season to prepare yourself for a real big challenge,

Starting point is 00:46:52 which is the NFL season. And I have a 16-year-old son. I have a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old girl. And they've been to enough of my games. And I want to be at their games. And I want to be there for games. And, you know, I wanna be at their games, and I wanna be there for them. And, you know, it's a very intense season. And, you know, it's just a different chapter in my life.

Starting point is 00:47:11 I was really, I was the oldest guy in the league, like for the last three or four years, you know, I was like, and it's not that I didn't have the ability to still relate to those guys. I still feel like I could go out there and play at a high level. But I just, you know, they need someone that's gonna be in it year round. And I think for me that commitment's too much

Starting point is 00:47:30 because my kids need me year round two. And, you know, that's the most, you know, very important thing. I had our guys run some numbers here. So here's what we have. College football, players of all time, in the history of America, and the kids that play for college football, any level of college, 5.62 million kids

Starting point is 00:47:51 that play college football. 25,000 is NFL, which means roughly 0.0045, make it to the NFL, add it to 2,500 Hall of Fame, 0.012. Then you have the guy that makes it into the All-Star game, or the Pro Bowl, whatever their sport is. Then you got the guy that wins a championship and is the MVP, big deal, right?

Starting point is 00:48:16 Then you got the guy that does it twice, or three times. And then you got the guy that keeps going and going and going and going and got seven championship and he's already worth a ton of money. There are no more accolades that this guy's got to get and he keeps driving. So what is the mountain you have to hit for you to continue? Meaning, there's already challenging enough to play for college football. How many guys play college football here? Put your hands up if you play college football. It's not a lot of hands, guys. They're putting your hands up for college football. How many guys play college football here? Put your hands up if you play college football.

Starting point is 00:48:45 It's not a lot of hands, guys. They're putting your hands up for college football. How many here played in the NFL or got drafted? Anybody here playing the NFL? How many hands do you see? One person in NFL, anyone else? One out of 3,000, right? We're talking NFL.

Starting point is 00:48:59 So for you, it has to be, you know, how sometimes people use this script. I'm assuming it's a script because if I had to make that decision, I'm not having this script. Well, you know, I have to go talk to my wife and our family, and we're going to take some time off and decide what we're going to do next season. I come up, it's a phenomenal script that everybody uses, right? Now, you know deep down inside, what you're going to be doing.

Starting point is 00:49:18 You know you're like, I'm going to come back because I'm going to get that next one. For each next hurdle and mountain, what did it take to get you back? And was that like an evolution of making a decision or was like, no man, I'm going to go, because I don't know what interview was. And if it was Erlman or if it was Walker, I think it was Erlman where you're like, hey,

Starting point is 00:49:40 man, imagine if you beat Montana with five, it's like, this guy's not going for Montana, this guy's going for Michael for six. He wants to have seven. So did you know that's what you're doing to be the greatest of the greatest or was it a process that was an evolution? Yeah, so I mean, and a good, I'm happy I was very long-winded

Starting point is 00:49:57 to give you a lot of context. But to think about my high school journey, my college journey, now I get to the pros, right? And I'm the fourth quarterback my first year and Going to my second year and I'm like I made a lot of physical improvement Double down on my work ethic now was a professional work commitment different than college where college or so an amateur Now professionally you're a pro. It's different. It's your job.

Starting point is 00:50:26 But I wanted to do extra, because now I have more time. I didn't have to go to class, you know, and I could just focus on football. So, I wanted to, you know, be a pro quarterback. So, I had to work at it. And I watched through every game, and I learned from him,

Starting point is 00:50:41 and I watched John Freeze and Michael Bishop. And in my second year, we signed Damon Heard to be coming here and compete to be a backup. We signed a veteran quarterback and here I am going as a third quarterback and I said, I'm going to compete with Damon to be the second quarterback in my second year. I beat Damon out at the end of training camp and Bill Coach Belichick said, Tom's going to be the backup. Damon, you're going to be third. Drew's obviously a starter. So in the second game of the year, Drew Bletsle got hurt. And I said, if I ever get put on that field, I'm never getting taken off the field. And Drew suffered a very typical injury, internal bleeding in the hospital.

Starting point is 00:51:21 You know, and it was a crazy year, 2001 for all of us, 9-11. And you know, in my football journey, it was, and it was a crazy year, 2001, for all of us, 9-11, and you know, in my football journey, it was a, it was a crazy year. We ended up, you know, winning the Super Bowl that year, and I had an incredible team. But I learned that like, it wasn't, I was so motivated to be the best I could be, that it wasn't, I wasn't motivated to be the starter, it wasn't motivated to win the Super Bowl. I just was motivated to give my best, do the best with the opportunity I got and to never let my teammates down. Those were my motivations.

Starting point is 00:51:56 So this is at the beginning you were saying. It's beginning and throughout. This is why people would say after a second Super Bowl that we won, in a third Super Bowl that we won, in a fourth Super Bowl we won in 2014 against Seattle, and at this Super Bowl against Atlanta in 2016, and at 6-1 against the Rams in 2018, and then they go to Tampa. It was the same motivation. Money didn't motivate me. Fame didn't motivate me. Fame didn't motivate me. I didn't give it about any of it.

Starting point is 00:52:28 I always took less money because I wanted a good team around me. I didn't care about going to all these different places and doing those things. I just wanted to be my best. I wanted to go out there and the team believed in me. I didn't want to let them down. Every year was different, just like in your business. Every year is different. just like in your business. Every year is different.

Starting point is 00:52:46 You can't sit there and say, God, we had a great year. Let's just do the same. Like, you don't think everyone's watching. The whole competition's watching, especially if you're good. So it's one level of discipline, and I think this is a lot. Like discipline, and I would say consistent discipline has been one of those Prodigy like strengths that I had so I didn't have the arm that could throw the ball 80 yards I didn't have the fourth

Starting point is 00:53:16 Three speed that Michael Vic had I didn't have the you know the size that a lot of guys had But I did have something inside of me that no one could see from the outside, this level of discipline that I could accomplish something that was really important and really special. But not let it get to my head and not to think that I've arrived or to think that I'm something different

Starting point is 00:53:45 or better than anyone else. I just thought, man, we put our mind to it. We accomplished something incredible as a team. Let's go do that again. Wasn't that unbelievable? And the good part in football is the next year you start right back at the bottom. You don't start as Super Bowl champ. Kansas City chiefs, they're not the Super

Starting point is 00:54:06 Bowl champs this year. They were the Super Bowl champs last year. And nobody could take that away from them. That is theirs forever. They have a banner, they have a ring, it's great. But it doesn't mean anything for this year. And that's the challenge of sports. That's the challenge we all face. That's the level of discipline. I became very disciplined with my body through this guy who I met along the way as Alex Grero for the last 21 years, my best friend, body coach, mentor everything. I owe so much of my success to him. You know, we just learned how to treat my body a certain way so that I could optimize my physical performance. I could do things outside of the box because I needed my body to feel good. It was my asset. If I, my body started to deteriorate, I couldn't throw the ball

Starting point is 00:54:58 the way that I wanted. So a lot of people, you know, this is, a lot of people can be really consistent. Let's say with your diet because it's always on people's mind like I want to get healthy I want to well, most people could say man I want to eat healthy for one day or I want to exercise for one day Well, I want to be more hydrated for one day Well, can you do it for a week? Well, that's more discipline, right? Can you do it for a month? That's more discipline Can you do it for a year? That's even more

Starting point is 00:55:25 discipline. So I was so blessed to have this discipline over a really long period of time. And to be honest, people will say, now, come on Tom, don't you go out there and just have whatever you want now that you're done playing. And I'm like, no, man, this is still my asset. This is still my body. Look at what we dealt with at COVID three years ago. That can withstand the traumas that it's gonna be faced with. And in football, it's faced every week. You're getting a car crash every single week. So how do I develop a body proactively?

Starting point is 00:55:57 How do I think about my health and wellness proactively? So I don't find myself in the surgeon office at the end of the year. So I don't find myself as a 50 office at the end of the year. So I don't find myself as a 50-year-old former athlete who needs a near replacement. So those were really important steps on my journey because when I began to understand how to throw them all better, when I began to understand through Coach Bella Check,

Starting point is 00:56:16 how to study the game more and to be a real student of the game, right, there's only a certain lifespan for athletes. Everyone thinks, oh, as an athlete, you just have to basically Maintain this level until your body completely deteriorates. Well, and I tried to prove to everybody Guys, it doesn't have to be like that. You just got to make good choices every day. It's good as possible And it's I still get people that go how did you do it? I'm like I wrote a frickin book I literally wrote a book by the book. I'm not from Dubai for me,

Starting point is 00:56:45 but by it because it's good knowledge. Go out there, I'm trying to give you answers to the test. You know, this is a lot of athletes want to maximize their potential. Maximize everything. You guys want to maximize the potential and opportunity you have in your business. Well, that's a lot. That's a lot of consistent discipline. It doesn't, it doesn't mean that you can have one good month. It means that you gotta do a lot, lot more right than wrong. It means you gotta make a lot more good choices than bad choices. It means you have to be more disciplined

Starting point is 00:57:15 than not disciplined. It means you have to surround your people with very smart people, not people that are gonna help you think less. You gotta challenge yourself, not challenge yourself less. So we're all based with those decisions every day, and you get the opportunity, just like I had the opportunity to choose, what do you want?

Starting point is 00:57:33 What are your goals? What are your priorities? What do you guys want to achieve? You guys are sitting here as entrepreneurs, CEOs, leaders, running business, running families. What's the choice you get to make every day to wake up and say, all right, this is where I'm going to focus my time and energy. How disciplined are you to maintain that routine over a period of time? And I think that will determine your level of success.

Starting point is 00:57:57 Fantastic. Come. But the question, the question I ask is, why do it? Meaning, is it a vision you're solving for? Is it like yourself? Hey, vision, in order for me to be able to play for XYZ years, XYZ years, and I got to be healthier, I got to be a liability, I got to be more flexible, because I'm shooting for a goal, or I'm shooting for vision. Or it's just, nah, I got to be ready for this year.

Starting point is 00:58:24 I have a hard time believing that it's just for one year. Was there a vision for you to say, if I'm going to be the best of all time, I'm going to need to make sure I take care of my health, I take care of your mind, I minimize the amount of distractions. Were you solving for a vision? Or was it just one season at a time? It was one season out of time, and I'll say this. I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. Ever, I wanted to be the best I could be, period. That's all I wanted. I learned that in college, it didn't matter

Starting point is 00:59:03 what the other guys were doing. It didn't. Powerful. It mattered what I was doing. I had to look at the mirror every night. I had a, you know, for different reasons. Last year was a hard year for me, one of the hardest in my life.

Starting point is 00:59:17 And I printed out the man in the glass, you know, the big poster, and I put it on my mirror in the bathroom, and I looked at it every single day. And I said, be proud of the man in the glass. Be proud of that man that wakes up every day and does the best that you can do with his priorities. You know, and a lot of things happen in our life. You know, we all face our challenges and adversities, and we all go through things, and I think life is about dealing with a lot of things that you didn't want to have happen in your life, whether it's your business or whether it's sports or whether it's personal or children.

Starting point is 00:59:48 Like I said, we all have our unique challenges, but do the best you can do. Show up every day and make the commitment to yourself and the people that count on you, the people that you support you. And through a lot of failures, you're going to learn a lot and you're going to hopefully be humbled because sometimes you give your best and it doesn't work and I learn that in sports and you learn it in life in different ways too. Sometimes you do what you try your best, you work hard but it just doesn't in the end go the way you want. So what are you gonna do? Quit. You're gonna just blame everyone else, you're gonna go

Starting point is 01:00:21 in there and blame the guy next door and blame that person and blame the dog and Can go out there and sleep in the hotel o'clock? We're gonna get you to try to bed wake up and go do something about it learn from it and make it better so Stylist style of leadership right some of these guys here They're run the business so they're the CEO that he wanted the company and they have a right-hand person Right, so let's just say the CEO is craft, he's dealing with the coach,

Starting point is 01:00:47 and then the coach has the best salesperson or the best engineer. These are different dynamics with relationships. What was your style of leadership? Meaning, leadership, we talked about it earlier today is one, hey, you leave by example, right? But that's not enough. Sometimes you leave by example, and you're quiet,

Starting point is 01:01:03 you don't say anything. Well, you got to do more than just leave by example. Yeah. You got to get other people to do things they typically wouldn't do on their own. What style of leader were you? Yeah. So if I'm a guy that I'm like,

Starting point is 01:01:13 Hey, man, I don't want to play anymore. I've got two more years. I want to get my check. I want to go. I want to go to a different team, get my big contract. And I'm done. How are you talking to me there?

Starting point is 01:01:20 How are you enrolling me into me giving my best? Are you asking questions? Are you kicking my ass? Are you taking me out to dinner? Are you telling me come over to the house? What was obviously from the people that we've spoken? Anybody we've talked that's been attempt teammate Tom We I've been a real lot of people that are athletes. I don't know how many guys that were the goats their teammates freaking everybody Love them dude people love you. Like teammates loved running with you.

Starting point is 01:01:47 You played three different careers. You didn't have one career. You were one of those guys at a three careers there, you played. But what was your style where you kick their ass, you challenged them yet you believed in them. What was the method you driving your guys? Yeah, so a lot of it, it's a great question.

Starting point is 01:02:04 I think that, and this is another probably, a very important thing in my mind, is in terms of leadership, is how you relate to the people that you work with. And my vision of a relationship comes down to one word, caring. Do you care about the other person of a relationship comes down to one word, caring. Do you care about the other person and do you collectively care about what you're trying

Starting point is 01:02:30 to achieve? The only way people are gonna feel that they can trust you is if you care about them. So if you just see them as a transactional relationship, you're just here for this time being, or well, that's all they're gonna give you. But I felt like I need to connect. Especially as I got older, I got to connect with the young players. I need a relationship. I need the ability to relate to them.

Starting point is 01:02:56 They need to trust me. I need to trust them. We need to be vulnerable to one another. I need to care for them. So before I could yell at them, which believe me, I yelled at a lot of people. The relationships I had on my teammates, I had, I played with guys from all over the country, every background, you know, every college, and man, I got to be just me. Like, you know, people you would think,

Starting point is 01:03:24 oh man, you treated a certain way, which yeah, when you outside of a building, people know you, they see you on TV, they treat you a certain way. When you're in the building, man, you're just another guy. You're like, my son going to a camp for three week sleep away camp. And there's no electronics, and this is up in Maine this year. No electronics, they sleep in like this log cabin. They swim in the lake every morning, they eat in the cafeteria. And I drive away last year, and I'm like, we all need more of that. And then about five minutes later, I was like, well, I do live that life.

Starting point is 01:04:00 I'm still a football player. We're all in this building where we're eating a cafeteria. We're getting MF'd by our coach, you know. We're showering in the same spot. You know, everyone's, it's an all-community. You know, so this ability to have this relationship with so many people is, is been a great part of my life. And I think my ability to relate to them, care about them.

Starting point is 01:04:21 They felt like, well, if Tom, why should Tom care about me? And I'm like, dude, because you're my teammate. I know, Tom, but you've already won six super bowls. I'm like, I don't give a fuck. Like, we have this year. This is here, my first year in Tampa. I don't care what I did. Like, that's, I'm gonna look at those things one day,

Starting point is 01:04:42 and I'm like, that's great, someone's gonna say it, but this is the moment, right now. Let's get to work, let's get to know who you are, let's get to move you, let's make the most out of your career. Like my career is great, like, but I want the best for your career too, and if it's gonna be your best career, you need me to be good, and I need you to be good.

Starting point is 01:05:00 So let's work together, because every year those things change. Was it, you know how you get a person that comes in and you sell them on the culture. Here's what we're all about. So leader, I'm going to sell you. Here's why we do this. Here's why you accept high standards. Here's why you get up and do your, here's why you watch the tape. Here's why you take care of your health.

Starting point is 01:05:23 Here's why you get, because if we do this at the end of the season, we got a chance at winning a championship and being the best, okay? Or is it more the pure pressure of the culture, you either fit the culture, or you're not gonna want to be around this culture, so you filter yourself out, which was more the model, specifically more underbelly check and yourself in the wingland,

Starting point is 01:05:44 was it more selling the culture to the player, or was it more, no man, this is our culture, either adjust or I'm sorry, it's not gonna work out. I think it's a great question and it's hard to develop culture, right? Cause that's a word that's drawn around a lot and I think that has to do with like values of the company but in the end, what does culture mean to me?

Starting point is 01:06:01 Do we care about each other and do we care about what we're trying to accomplish? Most people just care about themselves. And you just care about your own personal situation, my coworker, what the mission is, not the owner usually doesn't think like that because this is his business. But the more you give people the opportunity to have ownership of that culture, the better. And I was in the, I look at some

Starting point is 01:06:31 great cultures over the years like, you know, its sports are kind of easy, you know, somewhat easier. But even like the culture of like, you know, the armed forces are military, you know, like you look at shop to the naval academy. Like, man, that's a culture. Like, and people are accountable to that. They show up every day, they show up on time, they respect each other. Everyone's probably got different tenants that they believe in, but the fundamental belief is,

Starting point is 01:06:56 I'm giving myself to something greater than myself. I'm giving myself something greater than me as an individual, because it's gonna pay off in ways that nothing in life can be accomplished in a big way without teamwork. Teamwork is what it's all about. You show up every day, you play your role, you do your best, and then you communicate about it, and then you have people that hold you accountable to the results. And if the results aren't good enough, then you re-strategize, or you get rid of some people and you move on. So I think what we are fortunate enough to develop over an early period of time in New England was a culture of a lot of teammates that may not have been the best like myself, but we cared a lot. We worked really hard. We were really coachable and we won. And then some

Starting point is 01:07:47 other players are like, dude, that's what I want to win. They joined our program. So then we had, which is really important, you need people that drive the culture because it just can't be you. Because when you turn your back to folks on what you got to do, you need other people driving the culture too. And we developed a culture of culture drivers, Willie McGinnis, Teddy Brusky, Mike Vrable, Troy Brown, Wes Welker, Kevin Falk, Matt Light, all these guys that they just liked. It was inherent to what the team ultimately ended up becoming. We all drove the culture and then no one was going to get up. So you got some people that came in from other places and man, they might have had maybe

Starting point is 01:08:34 some certain reputation and they realized that when they got in that locker room, I can't make bad decisions here. There's no room for bad decisions in this place. Now, not that we were all like angels or nothing we weren't. I can't make bad decisions here. There's no room for bad decisions in this place. Not that we were all like angels or nothing, we weren't. But we weren't destructive to what the culture was. And those guys who were, they didn't last long. And they realized pretty quickly they didn't fit in.

Starting point is 01:08:57 And they moved on somewhere else. And my view was always like, man, if you're about yourself, you may be amazing. I would love to compete against you. Go play for the other team. Because when you're around a bunch of selfish people, and I've been around those, you know, guys that you win the game and they're pissed off because they didn't get the ball as much as they wanted.

Starting point is 01:09:19 And you're like, there's one ball. I'm trying my best. I'm trying to do what's best for the team. Like, this is not other good players here. Some days it's going to be your week. Other days it's not. But what are we in this for? We in here to pad your statistics, whether that's because we all get accolades for those.

Starting point is 01:09:37 And we have people that want to see a succeed. But in my view, the team success was always most important. And I think the great reward in my life is not the record that you would read off before I came on stage. What you said was, your teammates loved you. That's the greatest reward I could ever have. I'm telling you, when we have the guys there, please,

Starting point is 01:09:59 when we have the guys there at Foxboro, and for me, sometimes, if you want to learn about me, ask the people that I work with me, you're going for me, sometimes if you want to learn about me, ask the people that I work with. You're going to learn more. If I want to learn about you, of course, I can do an interview with you. And you'll give the answers you'll give. And you're maybe not wanting to offend anybody.

Starting point is 01:10:13 So you kind of now at a different phase of your life. But if I talk to your team, I say, I'm like, no, man, listen, here's how I was. Here's this. Everybody. Talked very highly. But let's stay on this. So driver for you would what drove you more?

Starting point is 01:10:26 Because you just said something. If you're selfish, hey man, congratulations on you being great. I cannot wait to compete against you, right? Straight up to your face. Okay. What drove you more? Did words of what other people said about you in the paper, media drive, you kind of like Ted Williams was driven by that?

Starting point is 01:10:43 Did, hey, Tom Brady is done, you know, Max Kellerman, every fricking season, now he's done, he's done, he's done. Is it more, Peyton Manning's the better quarterback between the two and it's just going to, like, you know, Joe Montana just yesterday said, well, the greatest quarterback of all time is Dan Marina. We all know that is not me. It's not, it's Tom. Okay.

Starting point is 01:11:01 Did that drive you, you know, is it more, you know, the people who left you, they're like, hey, man, I mean, it's great. It's been a great run, but I'm going to go play with X, Y, Z, Tim. I'm going to go play with X, you think that guy is a better teammate to go? Or is it people from other sports that are like, hey, man, the greatest of all time to go? I mean, listen, everybody says he's the MJ, he's the Jordan of this, he's the Jordan of this. And why isn't he's the John, why don't he say he's the Brady of this? He's the Brady, I want to change. And he's the Jordan? Why don't they say he's the Brady of this? He's the Brady. I want to change.

Starting point is 01:11:26 And I don't know if you're going to be fully comfortable to serve because some of these guys are your relationship, your friends. Which one drove you the most behind closed doors? I think that the point is is like the attachment of someone else's thoughts about me, they did 1% and here I was, I was a little bit older, but I was still pretty decent as a player and I was like, all right,

Starting point is 01:11:55 free agencies coming and I called my agent and I was like, all right, what's the deal? What are we thinking? He went off a list of teams, right? And there was probably like seven or eight teams. And in my mind, I'm like seven or eight teams. Like there should be like 20 teams. Like you're telling me there's like

Starting point is 01:12:15 that many better quarterbacks in me or in obviously the situations fit certain ways. But it came down to like there was a couple teams that like you can be motivated by more than one couple of teams that like, you can be motivated by it. But more than one percent. But I'm saying, you could be motivated by a newspaper article, or talk show debate, or by people saying, paid management.

Starting point is 01:12:33 I got it. But at the end of the day, I don't think that motivates you every day. I just don't. I don't think you wake up every day. Super motivated to go read the newspaper. I think you wake up every day and hopefully you can look at yourself and say, did I give it my best? Was that my best? Did I give it everything

Starting point is 01:12:52 I could? Did the people around me get as much as I could? And the answer is no, that's okay. Like that's okay. Like, but just at least you know it. But don't think that like, you know, that you're going to have a lot of success if you all as you do is care about yourself, you don't work that hard, no one's that accountable. Look, I was on a team that was last year in Tampa, it was tough. When I see a defense sack the quarterback

Starting point is 01:13:19 and every D-line then runs up to the guy who sacks the quarterback and they do a group celebration, I go, oh, and I't want to play against the guys. But then I see one guy sacked the quarterback and he's got his ninth celebration and none of his teammates celebrate with them. I'm like, well, he's in it for himself. That's not going to go well over a period of time. These are just things you guys can see now with just a little awareness.

Starting point is 01:13:43 Who are the dangerous companies? Who are the dangerous teams and competition that you guys can see now, with just a little awareness. Who are the dangerous companies? Who are the dangerous teams and competition that you guys are facing? When you guys succeed, is it all about that person? Is it about the team success? I always felt like the quarterback's job is when it doesn't go well, you take the blame. When it goes well, you give the credit.

Starting point is 01:14:00 That's what great leaders do. You know, you always, that's how it should be in all those sports. By the way, Sam Kelly, Mario, can one of you guys find my phone and bring you to me? I don't have the time, so I don't know what time it is. One of you guys can find my phone. Tom, question, have you watched the movie The Last Dance? Have you watched the last time? I loved it. So a couple questions for you. One, the moment with Isaiah in Jordan, okay? And I see you as a guy that you kind of, maybe you watch the competition and everybody else can be,

Starting point is 01:14:33 I've seen your shot, your turnaround shot, you got a good game as well, you're an athlete. You know, you're a guy that kind of follows along with what's going on everywhere. The moment of Isaiah not shaking his hand when they lost, and they walk off Bill and Beer, and Michael's like, you kiddin' me, I lost you last year, humiliated, I came and shook all your hands one by one

Starting point is 01:14:55 and I said they go in the championship, I go in the gym, come back, train, we beat you, you don't wanna even give me that respect? No problem. And Michael was a grudge guy. Yeah. Okay. And then dream team, boom, doesn't let him get back on the team. And wow, it was never Michael, it was never this.

Starting point is 01:15:13 Okay, well, it was Michael, let's you say. And then come to the celebration that happened last year, a few months ago, where all the top 75 NBA players are there's one scene that's gone viral on TikTok. I don't know if you know which one's up. I haven't seen it. There's one scene that's gone viral. It's freaking hilarious. Yeah, where you see magic is there shaking hands with Isaiah And Michael standing behind magic. Okay, and Magic's like yeah, yeah, yeah, all this stuff all this stuff and then Isaiah walks off and he see Michael comes you all this stuff, all this stuff, and then Isaiah walks off, and he see Michael comes, and he whispers something in magic's ear, and this is within seconds after he talks to

Starting point is 01:15:49 Isaiah, and they are both laughing so hard, right? Now, couple trolls added additional sound to say, what would have been said? I'm going to show you afterwards. It's unbelievably funny. Did you and your career ever have an Isaiah Thomas? I could hold the grudge as good as any of them, out there actually. I, that was good aspects of, I would say, the motivation.

Starting point is 01:16:17 Like, you know, it's very different. Like, I didn't have any friends on the other teams. I didn't, you know, and I think it's a little different day and age-wrestling. Yeah like I didn't have any friends on the other teams I didn't you know, and I think it's a little different day and age Interesting. Yeah, I didn't I was X teammates that left well Yeah to a degree, but I mean I was my friends were the guys that were in the battle with me So it's very different in today's age, which I actually think is a little You've got to create a lot of different emotion to heighten your sense of awareness and focus. Like for me, anger was good. Anger was good because it was motivating. The more I could create an enemy, the more I wanted to go and kill those guys. Now, I

Starting point is 01:17:01 knew I was going to kill them physically. But man, if I could just, what did they say? You know, and what did they look like? They disrespect me at all. You know, and did that I still say something? Like, those are little, little, little things that can get me right in the emotional frame of mind that when I ran out of the field and I said, let's can go. It was really let's go kick some ass. That's what we were doing. So there wasn't a lot of smiley faces with me out there. There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with Michael Jordan.

Starting point is 01:17:42 There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Kobe Bryant. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Kobe Bryant. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Tiger Woods, right? Tiger wasn't trying to be friends with anybody. Tiger had no friends. Tiger's friends were guys that he knew he could kick their butt. Those were Tiger's friends. And they were very happy to have their butts kicked by Tiger Woods to be his friend.

Starting point is 01:18:03 So Tiger had him right where he wanted up. And I think for me, even when I watch sports today, and I see golf's a good example, I see these guys on the range. They're all buddies, and their caddies are friends. And I'm like, that's not the killer instinct. That's just not. I don't know how you can want to crush the competition

Starting point is 01:18:25 because they are your competition, but then they'll have dinner with them the next night. Now, I had a few friends like, because maybe it was a long period of time, but I could count on one hand the number of, maybe Peyton, Manning, and I, and I love Peyton. Maybe I've had dinner with him twice in 23 years. And it's not because I don't love him.

Starting point is 01:18:45 I really do. Twice in 20 years, probably. Three years. And our competition was always like, God looked up to him so much. I admired Peyton Manning. Like I loved his game. I loved everything he did,

Starting point is 01:18:58 but if we wanted to get where we wanted to go, we had to get through them. So I had to create something different in my mind. He couldn't be my friend. You know, when I see that with a lot of the guys that drew breeze, I love Drew. He was incredible, but he wasn't my friend. Now he's my friend, because I'm not competing

Starting point is 01:19:17 in against anymore. And I just think it's different now because of social media, the ability to connect with everybody. Everyone's friends now in sports all the time. And I'm like, I don't get that. That's just not my thing. So, and it's not that I'm like, I'm trying to be a jerk, but in my job, it's different than my person.

Starting point is 01:19:35 You know, my, it's interesting. Like, when I was a quarterback, I was just playing quarterback. Yeah, it was me, the person, but it was me, the quarterback that was out there, because I was doing a job. I wasn't the father, I wasn't the dad out there, I wasn't, you know, the husband out there. I was the quarterback out there on the field.

Starting point is 01:19:56 I was the quarterback when I went to work. Nothing was gonna get in the way of that, you know? And then when I stepped off the field, great, I'm back to who I am. I had to draw on a part of me that was emotional, aggressive, angry, decisive, irrational, all those things. And then when I came back into life, okay, well, like calm down, you know. So, but I would say a lot of the guys that I looked up to approached it the same way.

Starting point is 01:20:23 You know, I don't think Jack Nicholas was trying to be friends with anybody. I don't think Joe Montana was trying to be friends with anybody. I don't think Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson were trying to be friends with anybody. I think they were going out there on a mission. And if there was someone in their way, they had to crush them. Question, let me follow up. So you said, Peyton Manning. To me, Peyton Manning is a competitor.

Starting point is 01:20:42 It's like Michael Clyde, Michael Barkley. Michael, you know, it's like a magic. Fine. But, you know, it was like, no, you know, Peyton Manning. To me, Peyton Manning is a competitor. It's like Michael Clyde, Michael Barkley. Michael, you know, it's like a magic. Fine, but you know, it was like, no, you know, the whole game in the Olympics, whatever game it was, were Michael and Magic, what do you call Magic and Bird. He came up to play that video that's about four minutes and 30 seconds and you see, he says, listen, I'm the guy. There's a new chief in town, right?

Starting point is 01:21:00 And it was like, and we're like, listen, Larry says, magic, relax, we're not at this guy's level. He's better than us, right? And it was like, and we're like, listen, Larry says magic, relax, we're not at this guy's level, he's better than us, right? And I'm not talking about competition. I'm talking about who disrespect you to, because Isaiah disrespected Michael. But anybody disrespected you, disrespected you, that you said, it's done.

Starting point is 01:21:20 I would say there were, I can't think of any competitors off the top of my head, coaches. Like, I like the guys that would like, you know, and I remember a few instances, like, you guys remember in Domakin's zoo? Of course. Okay. And he ended up being a teammate, thank God. Because, in Domakin was one of the biggest, fastest, most explosive athletes the league

Starting point is 01:21:44 has ever seen. And the Dolphin signed them to like a $20 million year contract, highest paid defender in history and they were in a division. So he seemed twice a year. And he had a reputation that he was played to the echo of the whistle. And I would always try to butter the D line them up because I didn't want them

Starting point is 01:22:06 Like trying to hit me any harder than they already were trying to hit me like they get paid a lot more the more they kick my ass Which that's good incentive for them. So every opportunity I could get I would try to like you're a great player man Like stand on my backfield, you know like man like damn you really hit me hard on that one. You know. So endomac in one time we were playing in Miami and he had been in the backfield like a couple plays in the game and I can feel it because I let go of the ball and then this heavy sarm would come and just boom and I'm not that big. I mean he's and when he hits you it's like different than everyone else hitting you And I never wanted to show him that like God damn that hurt

Starting point is 01:22:50 So he got me a couple times early So it was like the second drive of the game and we were driving the ball and I let I 1 2 3 4 5 I dropped it and I threw the ball and just as I threw it boom he hit me again And I'm like how did he get here that quick? So I slapped them on the butt. And I go, dude, stand up our fucking back fuel today. And he looked at me, goes, I'm not your fucking friend. And I was like, I respect that. I respect that. I never said another word to him. And he became my teammate a few years later and I love being his teammate. But look, he didn't give that, you know, I'm one this or one that or had this or that. And there were a lot of guys that were.

Starting point is 01:23:38 You know, a lot of guys would come up to me and they'd be like, hey man, it's the honor to be on the field with you. And I was like, oh thanks man, I appreciate it. In my mind I'm thinking, they're done. Here we go. It's gonna be easy. Today's gonna be easy. So Tom, I have to ask this question from you.

Starting point is 01:23:56 So six championships, okay, you got six rings. So from a fans perspective, and we've had this debate with friends, just to kind of see which one it is. What drove you more? Was it to get one more than Bellicic or one more than Michael? It was neither. I promise you. I promise you, it wasn't.

Starting point is 01:24:21 I, when I really doubled down on my health and wellness in about 2013 with Alex who I referred to earlier and I said, I said in my, when I turned 30, I want to play till I'm 40. And I started improving my 30s, which that doesn't really happen for athletes because I really started to work on all the things that were making me successful physically. I only trained doing the things that really worked. My nutrition got better, my hydration got better, all the pliability treatments I got better. And he and I would joke, dude, like this is unbelievable. I'm getting faster, my arms getting better, I learned better techniques, a new mentor came into my life, Tom House,

Starting point is 01:25:01 another great throwing coach. I learned a lot from him. I had all these years with Belice. I mentally I knew it to do. Physically, I was improving. Emotionally, I was at a great point. Like, why can't I continue to go? And I just thought, man, I'm going to play 10 more years. And when I was 35, I was like, I feel better 35 than I did at 30. Like I still got another 10 years in me.

Starting point is 01:25:24 And I literally committed, I got 10 more years and I said I'm going to play till I'm 45 years old and last year I was 45 years old and playing. So what it's not about like for me the when I made that decision at 35 it wasn't I'm going to play until I win seven Super Bowls. I never once said that. We won the fifth against Atlanta, which was unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Starting point is 01:25:53 Like that game, my teammates, like that was sick. That wasn't incredible. I still watched that, and I'm like, that it was, I mean, I'm glad I was playing because I had a heart attack if I was watching And then 2017 we actually had like probably a better chance to win and we lost the Eagles in the Super Bowl And we played a great game. We just look. I played great. I just we didn't win then 2018

Starting point is 01:26:22 We freaking found a way to beat the Rams through a lot of good process, a lot of good, we weren't the most talented team in 2018. We were, we won on process, we won on culture, our culture drivers led us to succeed. We went through work ethic, we went through a lot of intangibles, and then I went to Tampa in 2020, and you know, we put together a great group of players, teammates, everyone was super focused that year. And then I just think winning Super Bulls was the result of a lot of great process. Like my view is like, you can't control the outcome all the time, right?

Starting point is 01:27:01 Like the ball's going to bounce the other team's way. Like, do cut the ball on his fucking helmet in 2007. That would have been the greatest team ever. And that's like one that still gets me. Yep. Cause we had a great team that year. And the dude caught the ball in his helmet with one of the greatest player I ever played against on his back. Sometimes it should go the other people's way. It shouldn't always go your way. So you get motivated by the losses, you stay motivated through the winning, what you can control is your process.

Starting point is 01:27:30 You can control those intangibles. You can control the work ethic, the consistent discipline, your attitude, your culture, how much you care, all those things are in you. They just need to be drawn out of you. And really when you're in that position that you feel like you've got those pretty well under control, then you start passing those on to the other people

Starting point is 01:27:49 that you're working with, that are parts of your team. Because I don't care how good any one of you are sitting out there. It doesn't matter unless you've got a great team around you. You could be great. You probably are great. You need a lot of other great people to support you. Tom, and I

Starting point is 01:28:06 Absolutely, I Appreciate the answer. It's awesome. It's great But I'm selfish and greedy man. I got to push back. Let me tell you why okay so You know, I'm writing a book right now. It's gonna come out December 5th. It's not out It's gonna come out like four or five months called choose your enemies wisely I think you've chosen the enemies wisely because I think for me if I'm driven by enemies I don't even I can't even describe it to you like I have a list of all the quotes everything they said what they looked at

Starting point is 01:28:33 I mean I'm names or for me. Yeah, I know what I'm driving at this point of my life And then you graduate enemies and you say good things about them and you go find new ones and then boom new ones boom new ones, right? Okay, so Let's say that's really the reason. Let's buy into them. We're going to be skeptical as fans and we'll have our beers and talk and say, I don't agree, I agree, we'll do our part. Because you're the guy. We're on the other side.

Starting point is 01:28:58 I don't know. If you're going to do that, then you would have stayed with the team and you would have wrapped it up there. Robert Kraft is willing to give you one day contract. I think he said that this, your May 23rd to come back, Patrice, I want to do the ceremony, which frickin' is gonna be sick. Of course, whether he's joking or whatever,

Starting point is 01:29:15 this being playful about it, you know, he loves you the way he looks at you. He's got so much love for you. But you come back and you get your seventh. Just like you said, maybe 1% of media drove you, which one of the two drove you more, even if it's by 1% or half a percent, isn't having one more than Michael or Bella chick. I got to ask you, bro, you're killing me. Even if it's half a percent. Yeah. You do too.

Starting point is 01:29:45 I would rather have won than lost. And I'd rather have seven and six. I get it. But if Coach Belicec was to win a Super Bowl this year, I don't think it takes anything away from me. I think it only adds to how great he is. Like, I have a great appreciation for him, because without him, I'm not sitting here today.

Starting point is 01:30:10 So, like, he wasn't my competition. He was my competition when I played against him that one game, and we won. But, he wasn't like, I genuinely root for them. I really do. Like, I think every once in a while, maybe you guys have seen little snippets of me that, look, I do have a little grudge from time to time. And I think that's totally fine.

Starting point is 01:30:37 I think emotion, you know, maximizing and optimizing our potential is physical mental and emotional. I believe that. Physically, I was able to mentally Emotionally, there's little triggers absolutely all the time some opponent says something in check They really don't want me to check. Oh, I was a six-round pick check all those little things out up But I still the man in the glass. That's the one that motivated me He's the guy was accountable to Nothing that anyone did took away from me. The only person that could take away from me is me.

Starting point is 01:31:11 So can I give you my interpretation of that answer? Yes, please. By the way, this is my interpretation, I speak sign language. So I'm trying to read in between the lines. The way I take it is, it felt could beat them straight up. The one game that you played. But in my mind, based way I take it is, it felt could beat them straight up, the one game that you played. But in my mind, based on what you just said, having one more than Michael is more important than having one more than Belly Check. That's how I process what you just said.

Starting point is 01:31:36 That fair? Is that fair for me? Can I live with that? Can you? I love Michael Jordan as my mom. Literally literally there's no athlete Michael's like if there's your kids you know and that throw I don't know how they feel about me I think today love positive Michael Jordan was my he everyone wanted to be like Mike so like I even when I see Mike today I'm still like that's Michael Jordan right there, you know? And I just think he's the coolest guy. And, you know, I love this determination. I love, you know, I see like what Messi's doing here in Miami. Like unbelievable. Like, I see

Starting point is 01:32:18 Cristiano Ronaldo. I admire athletes as much as anybody else. I, especially the guys that I really, you know, it's like there's some guys that are athletes, athletes, you know, and when I see some of those guys, those are the guys that I love, you know, like I was in, I went to a pre-season game the other day and I saw Steve Smith. He was the receiver. Sick, bird ball that weren't killing.

Starting point is 01:32:43 And I love Steve Smith Yeah, because he he wanted to kill the defensive back 89 right with 89 yeah, and he was a little dude but played with the biggest heart And I would have loved to play with Steve Smith and Julian Edelman and I you know these guys like there's a lot of guys that are Primadanas, you know they they they were the prodigies. It just came easy for them. I don't think it came easy for Michael Jordan as great as he was. LeBron has been through a lot. It's tough for LeBron.

Starting point is 01:33:12 He's unbelievable. I love Steph Curry. These are the guys that I look up to. They inspire me in the same way. I'm looking to be inspired too. Just like you guys are looking to be inspired. I'm looking to be inspired too. I draw on guys are looking to be inspired. I'm looking to be inspired too. And I draw on a lot of people that are teaching me different things too.

Starting point is 01:33:28 So I came and speak because of you. So I came here because I love what you're doing with people. I love how you're trying to impact the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. So, uh, means a lot. Thank you. But I got a gift for you.

Starting point is 01:33:42 I got a gift for you. We put almost a thousand hours into this gift. Okay? Based on some of your answers, I think you're gonna love this gift. I don't know what kind of reaction I'm gonna get from you. You have no idea how much I've been thinking about it all night saying I hope this guy falls in love with this gift as much as I freaking love this gift to gift you But before we give the gift I do want to go through we order these supplements for everybody These are their protein bars. Did you guys everybody should have one of these on their What do you call it on there? We got three thousand of these for you

Starting point is 01:34:09 So you think so for you when it comes out to your health if we can talk about TV 12 Everybody knows and they can go to the website will put that in the videos well So a few things you won you sleep at 8.30. Two Bio ceramic sleepwear right recovery pajamas, okay? Bioseramic sleepwear, right? Recovery pajamas, okay? No tomatoes, no strawberries, no eggplant, flotation therapy, two gallons of water a day, breakfast, 36 ounce of protein, 80% vegan,

Starting point is 01:34:33 20% organic meat, if you eat chocolate, is a square of chocolate, and it's a specific kind of chocolate, right? It's a cacao or something like that? Yeah, the dark chocolate that you eat. Man, like, how much was this and this, the reason why you were able to play as long as that you did?

Starting point is 01:34:51 Yeah, hugely important. It's like, you know, everyone, like I said, this is I was trying to treat my body like a Ferrari, like an F1 car. You know, you just can't put little crappy tires on there and you know, figure out how't put little crappy tires on there and you know, figure out how much gas you got. Like, I always wanted a lot of gas in the tank, especially as I got older, because it got challenging for us. You know, we're not young. We don't,

Starting point is 01:35:13 you know, have the same, you know, biology in our 40s or 30s that we didn't our in our teens and our 20s. So I had to really lock in on my routine over a period of time. And I think that a lot of that didn't happen overnight. Like I started with my body coach Alex and started taking some just nutritional supplements. And then my gut at that, I started doing a lot of pliability work making sure that all my muscles were long and unrestricted. Then I started to go, okay, well, the only way

Starting point is 01:35:44 to improve our treatments through long and unrestricted movements with I started to go, OK, well, the only way to improve our treatments through long and unrestricted movements with my muscles is the hydrate them. Do you want your muscles to look like beef jerky? Or do you want your muscles to look like beef tenderloin? Should they be really moist and hydrated so they can move? That's the only way to absorb the forces on the field. Great, let's stay really hydrated. Oh, great.

Starting point is 01:36:02 We cause a lot of inflammation in our bodies through workouts, through playing football games, through practicing, through throwing passes. How do I reduce inflammation? I got to eliminate some foods that cause inflammation. Strawberries, eggplants, all the nightchates, tomatoes, things that we referred to. So a lot of those things took 12, 15 years to really manifest themselves in total. But I approached it in a very holistic way. You know, I, it wasn't like,

Starting point is 01:36:29 hey, I do all these things at one time. It was, let's just start slow, you know, and then work over time to improve, you know, this process of my body and what I needed to do in order to go out there every day and compete with guys that were half my age. So all those things that you did, were just little routines that built up. And like anything, the routine I had in high school, that worked for me.

Starting point is 01:36:50 So I wanted to improve it in college. I wasn't going to go, oh, I made it. Now, I'm actually a starter. Let's go back to sleeping in the nine o'clock, not studying my film, eating light crap, not caring about my teammates. No, it was like, let's do more of that. And then I got to the pros. And it was like, what should I have done? Oh, let's compete a little less, care a little less.

Starting point is 01:37:09 You know, now that I'm professional, no, it was like let's double down on that. So when it came to my health and wellness, it was more of that. Oh, hydrating works. I felt a lot better. I don't feel like I had any really soft tissue injuries. I could go out there and play a full season. Let's do more hydration. Oh, my diet's getting better. I like the way my play a full season. Let's do more hydration. Oh, my diet's getting better. I like the way my body's shaping up.

Starting point is 01:37:27 Let's do more of that. Great. Oh my God, I'm working out and I'm not a sore. Let's do more treatments. So a lot of those things were just me trying to be open to the people that came into my life to say, hey, man, you know better than me. So let me learn from you.

Starting point is 01:37:41 And let me try to take those things and incorporate them over this you know, this this you know first half of my life What what a great brand by the TB 12 what a great name for brand makes the noise time Brady. Yeah, okay top I want you face this but if you want to stand up. I want you to look this way. Okay. I'm over my back on a crowd Some of them can come here and we get an Allen to get camera of angle from there a b-roll angle from their Alan if you can Come maverick get it from that angle as well. I don't want you to look yet, Tom I don't you I can't fit that in my car on the way home. You know, we're gonna deliver this to you So I I want to okay, so we sat there and

Starting point is 01:38:18 We said I wanted to put a painting together. We made a list of all the things that I think moves you. Memories, family, moments you've had, all of those things in one painting. I wouldn't call my friend, Brent Hill, who's not a painting for me. He's not a painting for Mark Cuban. And then we started working on this. And it was phase one, phase two, phase three,

Starting point is 01:38:41 phase four, phase five. No, we got to fix it. We got to do this. We got to do that constantly going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until we finally got this. So, if you don't mind coming, don't take it off yet, because I want him to see you and all of it come. I wanna see the audience react first, then you see it.

Starting point is 01:38:58 If you don't mind looking this way first. Okay, go ahead, take it out. I guess are crying, I'm gonna take it down. You cannot put it all down, go for it. Put it all down. Yeah, go for it before I tell Tom to come down. Okay, go ahead. Take it down. I guess our crying. I'm gonna take it down. Take it. You cannot put it all down. Go for it. Put it all down. Yeah, go for it before I tell Tom to come down. Okay, hang on. Okay, Tom, I want you to look at this. Can I look? Yes. Tell me if you like this. Oh man. So can I explain? Wow, this is obviously

Starting point is 01:39:22 Wow. This is obviously family. We know what game this is. Wow. This is you, all your rings, your favorite teammates, the legendary picture here, you draft 199, Michigan, your mom, your dad, you, your kid. We created this Mount Rushmore with yourself, Michael, Tiger Woods, Messi, and then we got the Tampa side, all of this gift for you.

Starting point is 01:39:50 So when you look at this, it reminds you of what you've done with the first half of your life, man. This is hopefully a gift you appreciate for us to you. Thank you. Thank you. Anytime, man. Amen. Thank you, brother.

Starting point is 01:40:02 Thank you. Unbelievable. Yes. Unbelievable. I'd expect that, Kaka. Thank you. Anytime, man. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. I'm believe all. Yes. Thank you. Unbelievable. I'd expect hacker. Thank you. Anytime.

Starting point is 01:40:10 Any final words to the crowd before we wrap up? Yellow, still a quick picture here? Yeah. Let's do a quick picture here. Where you want me? I'm going to write that in any words. I'm going to write that in any words, so. I'm going to write that in any words, so.

Starting point is 01:40:20 Go for it. Yeah. Yeah. Top final thoughts. Yeah, I was just saying, obviously it's a pleasure to be here with you guys today. And I think for me it's always, you know, I still think of myself as a kid growing up in the Bay Area, like on Portola and and to have you guys come out and Obviously be a part of this event with Patrick It's honor for me to be here and I'm happy that I could share a few things with you guys that can inspire You guys to dig a little bit deeper to learn a few things that you could take back with you and your everyday life to Try to maximize your potential and take advantage of the opportunities that you could take back with you and your everyday life to try to maximize your potential

Starting point is 01:41:05 and take advantage of the opportunities that you get. And we're not victims of this life. We wake up every day with choices to make. And you get a choice every day. And like I said earlier, I think whether or not you're going to look back on your life as a success is going to be determined by what your values and priorities are and how often you're willing to wake up every day and make the choices that are going to fulfill

Starting point is 01:41:31 you and bring you to joy that you're looking for. So this is a great step in the journey. So I'll be with you guys and hopefully we can do it again sometime. Thank you. Give it up. Tom Brady. I'm ready! So I'm curious, now you've seen the whole thing. What do you think was more important to get to 7 Drink? Was it more, I can do one on my own, was it more about,

Starting point is 01:41:59 George being the goat of goats? I wanna hear your thoughts, but you know a lot of times I get asked questions about how you prepare for interviews like this. Number one, it makes it very easy when you're very interested in the person you're sitting down with. I am very interested in the guy we just set down with just Tom Brady. My entire family had to read Man in the Arena right of paper on it. My 10 year old and my eight year old son at the time, they're now 11 and nine. We rented our Fox Burl to go out there and take 96 of our sales

Starting point is 01:42:25 executives and watch men in the arena for two days and bring out a couple of times teammates and his manager for them to ask him as much questions and then during the break they're eating food and they're on Foxboro watching the stadium just mentally emotionally getting to that place. But you know if you think about preparing for this interview, so if you're asking that question, the way I prepare for these interviews is I like facts, I like history, I like watching a bunch of content, which I watch a lot of different things on him. Then I like things I'm interested in, angles, topics, or research team does a phenomenal job. Back in the days when I was doing interviews, we didn't have a research team, so I was the research person, but you can hire fire in a lot of different ways to do it. So it was a great experience sitting

Starting point is 01:43:02 on with them. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I will say a lot of times people want to ask me questions to say Pat how do you do this? How do you do that? We launched an app recently called Menect and the whole purpose of this app Menect is many times you'll DM a lot of different people and they don't respond and the reason why they don't respond is because they've got a thousand DMs. They can't just respond to everybody but you want to get an answer back. So what if there was a platform where you could pay to get a respond back for a DM with a video or a FaceTime call with the individual? That's exactly why we launched the app Menect. Do you have a minute to connect? Let's Menect. So whether you want to connect with me and ask me a question about the Tom Brady interview or any other expert that's on Menect,

Starting point is 01:43:38 click on on link below to download the app and start Menecting now. and start monecting now.

PBD Podcast - Tom Brady Opens up - 7th Ring Motivation MJ or Belichick | Enemies | Style of Leadership

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