If you don’t know Tom Brady, you should. Tonight, the NFL player becomes the oldest man to ever play in a Super Bowl after transforming the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his first year with the team, his tenth appearance overall after 20 years with the New England Patriots.
Doubted nearly every season, the GOAT of American football and IWC ambassador continues to defy the odds and put his lauded peers such as Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers to shame, blessed with a killer instinct that he couples with a superhuman dedication and focus on maintaining his skills well past the age that all the greats before him had to hang up their cleats.
In Super Bowl 55 at his team’s home Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida, Brady faces perhaps his toughest challenge yet in Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs, the current best quarterback in the sport and the man most likely to achieve the heights that Brady has in his sure-to-be hall of fame career.
Ahead of the game, Brady shared insights into what drives him, how he has processed the heights and lows of his life and career.
1. Even he can’t fathom being back in the Super Bowl
“I feel like it’s so surreal but it’s almost like a movie. You know? In so many ways, I can’t imagine that it’s happened again. Even for it to happen once and I never thought that that would be anything that could ever been achieved.
I mean, I realize how blessed I am and how fortunate I’ve been to play with so many players that brought the best out of me. I have a lot of joy. I have a lot of joy. I have a lot of fun. I love the journey. I love the process.”
2. Reaching the Super Bowl means almost nothing to him unless he wins
“You know, so much of football, so much about life, is these moments. We have one chance, have one opportunity. And when you don’t take advantage of it, you never know if you’re going to get it again. So, so much of it is being prepared, being ready for any opportunity that comes your way. Because if you finally get in, and you mess it up, what’s the point? What do you do it all for? You do it all because you want to show that you’re the best at what you do.”
3. Working hard has meant nothing to him when he wasn’t working in the right direction
“It took me a while to figure things out, took me a while to understand what it takes to be a great leader, took me a while to be to understand what it takes to make the commitment that I needed to make what I wanted to achieve. I didn’t always know how to get there. And a lot of times, I’ve worked hard at the wrong things. I don’t think working hard was my problem. I was working on the right things. And when I focused on the right things, I saw myself improve. When I focus on the wrong things, I never saw any improvement. Over the course of my life, I’ve tried to cut out all the bad things, cut out the things that I know don’t work, and focus on all the good things that I know work, and I was going to build on those. I think that’s why I’m still doing what I do today.”
4. He’s never satisfied with himself, even after six Super Bowl victories
“I still think I could be better. I still think I can have a level of perfection out there playing that. I’ve been trying to get back to whenever you have your best game. You want that same moment. Thank you thirst for that moment. You’re ready for it, you’re ready to seize on it. But it’s hard. Sports are hard. It’s a lot of things happening. A lot of moving parts. There’s a lot of people that need to be coordinated, but I love having the chance to lead my team. I love having the chance to get out there and throw the ball with my friends and compete against the best teams in the world.”
5. He doesn’t regret his biggest losses, because he knows he gave it is his all
“I think whenever I look back, I never would have changed anything. It’s all worth it. You know, it all pays off. I don’t think you ever think you ever look back in life and feel bad that you worked hard, as hard as you possibly could to give a look back, thinking that you gave it everything that you had, that your mind your body, your spirit was in it 100 percent. I think the regrets come when you don’t give it your best. You don’t give it your fullest. And I can say I’ve always given my best. I know that. For as long as I’ve ever done it. Every single day was the best I could do. It has always been the best. But what I given was everything. It was my heart, it’s my soul.”
6. He doesn’t just play for himself—he plays so he doesn’t let his team or his family down
“It was my spirit, my emotion. I thought about all the people that I do it for. I do it for my team. But I do it for my other team, my family. And I have two families. And I play for both of them. I’m play for the name on the front of the jersey. I play for the name on the back of the jersey. And I know that when I’m out there, they’re all cheering for me. And everyone came to see me make everyone proud and I never want to let them down.”
7. Deep down, he’s still the 12 year old throwing the ball back and forth with his father
“I had moments when I was 12 years old. The first time I picked up the football and wanted to learn how to throw it. I want to learn how to throw it like my heroes. And I remember getting it and I was on the street with my dad for what must have been three hours, throwing the ball back and forth, back and forth. And you know, my heroes were the ones that inspired me. And I used to dream about throwing the game winning touchdown pass. I used to dream about being on the field when my teammates won a game. And you know, I captured that feeling when I was young and that stayed with me and stayed with me through some great moments.”
8. He wouldn’t be where he is without a family that sacrificed so he could achieve his goals
“My parents gave so much. They gave all their time, all their energy to see me succeed. They gave everything they could to spend their weekends, their summers taking me to fulfill my dreams. I see my wife do what she does, she’s how she sacrificed her mornings and her nights to put the kids to bed, wake up early to take them to school, to be at their parent-teacher conferences. So that I could be living my dream. You know, and that’s what it’s all about. For me.”
9. His biggest losses still drive him
“I think so many things that have happened to me that have been negatives I’ve learned the most from and they become positives or the mistakes of losses. You learned the most from those, so there’s a lot to be gained from that. There’s a lot to be gained from the moments that are the ones you wish you probably never had. Because that’s what builds your character, builds your mental toughness.”
