For 20 seasons, Tom Brady knew only one path – “Patriot Way” – but it only took an extra season to realize that it wasn’t the only way to succeed.
“When you’ve been in one place for 20 years, you think that’s the only way,” Brady told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview Wednesday. “And I think when you go somewhere else, you realize, ‘Wow. There is another way people do things. “
He later added: “I was the new guy for the first time, you know. And it was a really different experience.”
These new experiences led to a familiar result, as Brady won another Super Bowl championship – his seventh overall – in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He signed with the Bucs as a free agent outside of last season, leaving behind the legacy he built with the New England Patriots.
“I think that’s an important part of football,” Brady told GMA. “It’s not about what you did last year. It’s kind of what you’re going to do this year. So for me, it was what I was going to do for Bucs last year. I still feel that way.”
“That’s a lot of what I understood last year: things are going to be different. I’m trying to work on what’s going on right now, but I’m still trying to do everything I can. Everything was really, really amazing – obviously with the way the season ended – so it was a great year. “
It was also his first season playing for a head coach, apart from Bill Belichick from New England.
“[Bruce Arians] “It’s a great motivator,” Brady said of the Bucs coach.
And at the age of 43, Brady relied on motivation to keep his competitive fire out on the road to winning his fifth Super Bowl MVP award.
“I’ve always been motivated by people who say, ‘You can’t do this,'” Brady said. “You know, ‘you’re not good enough, you’re not fast enough, you’re not big enough, you’re not good enough for your arm.’ I’ve had a lot of work over a period of time and … you forget quickly. “
That thing is not over. Brady is linked with the Bucs in the 2022 season, after agreeing to an extension this season that saved $ 19 million against the salary cap for 2021. And with that money, the Bucs kept the band together with all 22 starters. in offense and defense returning to the team to defend its title.
“I don’t think the show, for me, is the motivation,” Brady told GMA. “I still want to play. I have a little illness in me that just wants to throw a spiral, you know what I mean?
“Once you stop, you can’t go back and do it. I’ve received football before [left in me]. I mean, not very much – and I know that. But what I have left, I will go and give everything I have. “