HOUSTON — This is how New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s interactions with reporters at Super Bowl LI began:
“Big bro,” he said, looking up at a questioner holding a microphone.
“Hey, little brother,” former teammate Willie McGinest, working for NFL Network, responded.
The exchange highlighted how Brady views the Patriots’ locker room. When he arrived in 2000 as a sixth-round draft choice out of Michigan, he looked up to bigger brothers like McGinest, who had been there since 1994.
Now Brady, 39, is the big brother to everyone in the room.
At Super Bowl LI, returning briefly to the role as the little brother, his joy in seeing McGinest kicked off a three-hours-over-four-days stretch in which he filled reporters’ notebooks while wearing his heart on his Under Armour sleeve at times. By McGinest’s second question, which reminded Brady that this would be his last game in his 30s while asking how much longer he wants to play, Brady was laughing.
Call it a tone-setter for the week.
“You taught me; [in] 2004, you said this is what you got to do, and I listened,” Brady said to McGinest. “It’s nice to feel better as the season goes. To be an older player and have the mental experience, and then to also feel great physically, I think it’s a great benefit for me. Hopefully I can keep going. I don’t see any end in sight.”
Much has been written about Brady this week, so let’s empty out the rest of the notebook with some leftover nuggets ahead of the Patriots’ meeting Sunday with the Atlanta Falcons.
McGinest ribs Brady. Before wrapping up his opening interview, McGinest asked Brady, “Did Trump call you?” But McGinest quickly said, “I’m joking, don’t answer that question.” Brady played along. “Not you! You’re not supposed to ask those questions!”
Not into the “best ever” discussion. There were multiple times Brady was asked about others referring to him as the best quarterback of all time, and his answer was the same each time: That’s not why he plays the game. “That was never the reason why I wanted to play this game, to be the best,” he said. “I played football because I love playing with my teammates. The best times are when you’re hanging with your friends on the bus ride, when you’re in the locker room, when you see old teammates and talk about all the great years you’ve had. … It was never to be in some talk/discussion about where you ranked with somebody else. Those have never been important to me.”
Belichick booster. Brady said he has never imagined playing for a head coach other than Bill Belichick. “To me, he’s the greatest coach of all time. He sets a great example for us about dependability, consistency. He brings it every day.”
Bolden booster. Brady called Patriots running back Brandon Bolden “one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. So selfless. He’s got the best personality. He’s the most positive person. He’ll be a friend the rest of my life. … When I think of Brandon, I just think of all the things that have made so many of our players on our Patriots team great. His attitude, his toughness, his belief in himself.”
Never wears his rings. “They just sit [there],” he said of the souvenirs from his four Super Bowl victories, before repeating that his favorite ring is the “next one.”
Career has flown past. Brady never thought about winning Super Bowls, because, he said, “I never thought I’d be playing in the NFL. It just all happened. It’s my 17th year and it’s still happening. I’ve never really taken the time to have any perspective or anything, because I’ve just been caught up in the moment of playing. It’s just gone very fast.”
Learning to compartmentalize. “We all have busy lives. You guys do too. You know that when you deal with one thing, you kind of have to put everything else aside and be focused on what those things are that you’re dealing with. As a football player, a lot of different things come at you at different times. When I’m dealing with football, that’s where my focus needs to be. I think over the years, you learn about compartmentalization. It’s part of what your life has to be. You can’t bring things from the outside to your job, because everyone is counting on you.”
Kraft like a second father. Describing his relationship with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Brady said, “He has been a second father to me in a lot of ways and given me a lot of advice about things that only someone like he could speak to and relate to.”
Biggest splurge food. Asked by Simone Biles of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team about his favorite splurge food, Brady went with the cheeseburger. “There’s the GOAT,” Brady said, looking in Biles’ direction as he spoke about the greatest of all time. “You’re amazing.”
Has a surf instructor. Who knew? Brady was asked about Australian-born football players and said, “Australians are pretty good surfers. My surf instructor is Australian.”
One word to describe himself. Asked to describe himself in one word, Brady turned to a beat reporter to solicit his opinion. “Consistent,” the reporter said, to which Brady nodded affirmatively and replied: “I’ll go with that.”
Top NBA player to make the transition to NFL. If Brady could add one NBA player to the Patriots’ roster, it would be LeBron James. “Tight end, split him out, throw it up, and he’d come down with a lot of them,” he said.
Catch-22 with experience. Brady hit on the balance of how experience can be good and bad. “There are a lot of 22-year-old golfers who have no fear. They see that big lake in front of the green and they’re trying to go for it in two, and they don’t even see the lake, they just hit it,” he said. “But after you hit a bunch in the lake, you start realizing, ‘Man, I better not hit it in that lake.’ You don’t know those things at 22. But by the time you get to be a certain age, you’re throwing those interceptions on those plays and that starts getting in the way of the risk-taking. You’re always trying to calibrate those things. [Offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] and I talk about that a lot, and he’ll say, ‘What was that?’ And I’ll say, ‘I had a little fear on that.’ And he’ll say, ‘We gotta get rid of that. No fear. This is a no-fear throw.’ For me, so often, I don’t want to make mistakes. And if I do make a mistake in the game, I want to throw the ball in the dirt or miss a receiver in the right spot. We talk about ball possession so much, turnovers, and we have an incredible win percentage when we don’t turn the ball over. But as a quarterback, you can’t kneel on the ball three straight times and punt and think you’re going to win the game. There are inherent risks to every play, and you have to manage those the best you can while still trying to be aggressive. That’s what I’ve learned over the years: when you have to go for it, and when you don’t.”
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His love for the University of Michigan. “It was a tough pick, being from California, to go all the way to the Midwest. But I made a great choice. It’s such a well-rounded school, and to go back there this fall was very special. I never had a chance to do that [at that time of year]. The team has done so great with Coach [Jim] Harbaugh. We just have to figure out how to beat those [Ohio State] Buckeyes. It’s been a thorn in my side.”
Narrowing the focus with 70 plays left. Brady touched on how the offense has 70 plays left in its season, so, he said, “You have to make sure everything there is of critical importance. You don’t often have the luxury of all this extra time, but I think we’ve used it wisely.”
How football challenges him. “You can never master it. It’s always changing. It’s very strategic. It’s all angles, matchups, one-on-ones and decision-making. When you have 11 people trying to execute one play, there are a lot of things that need to happen to execute it at a high level. The only way to be a good team is for everyone to do that. It’s a great sport. Hopefully everyone enjoys it as much as I do.”
Is comfortable with controlling emotions. Asked how he keeps things in check, Brady touched on the crucial balance: “I’ve got a good regulation on my emotions. I know when I need to get amped up, and I know when I need to relax a bit. I think you learn those things. You kind of have to be right on the edge. It’s such an emotional game, you don’t want to be out of control, but you can’t play with no emotion. You strike different chords for different emotions at different times. … It’s a game of outward emotion and inner calm. You have to teeter on both.”
Embracing his place as senior citizen in the locker room. How much harder is it to connect with some of his younger teammates? “I’m a hell of a lot older than most guys in the league now. … I think that’s part of the fun part for me. Your role always changes, and still as a leader and a veteran, I still can express things to my younger teammates and things they’re going through and try to help them through those things, because I’ve been through those things,” he said. “I have a lot of experience, where Tedy [Bruschi] helped me, Rodney [Harrison] helped me, Willie [McGinest] helped me. It may not be like we’re going out together on Friday nights, but it might mean more than that. I might be able to share things that help them out with their career, or their family, because of the experiences I’ve had. I love that. I try to embrace that. That’s a great responsibility.”
