The Simple Lesson That Changed Tom Brady’s Career
After the Patriots lost the 2011 Super Bowl, Gisele Bündchen offered her husband words of wisdom that he’s lived by ever since.
Each week while Man in the Arena airs on ESPN+, we’ll dedicate these Friday newsletters to examining the latest episode of the series, trying to understand what each of Tom Brady’s Super Bowl seasons can teach us about the nature of competition.
Right at the end of the latest episode of our series Man in the Arena, I had to pause the TV. Gisele Bündchen, Tom Brady’s wife, was talking, and she said something so simple yet profound that I had to rewind and listen again. And…yep. I’d heard her correctly the first time. Right at the end of episode 5, Bündchen says two sentences that serve as the heart of the entire project. She also may have just revealed the insight that inspired the most fruitful period of Brady’s career.
Some context: the New England Patriots had just lost Super Bowl XLVI to the New York Giants, their sixth year in a row without a championship. Some in the media were putting the blame squarely on number 12’s shoulders; they viewed the loss a personal indictment of Tom Brady. It’s funny to think of it now, but at the time, many thought that he’d never win a Super Bowl again.
Brady couldn’t sleep the night after the game. Bündchen didn’t sleep either. She comforted Brady, talked him through his emotions, reminded him to keep everything in perspective.
And then Bündchen recalls giving him some advice. “What happened yesterday is the past,” she said. “The only thing you take from it is the lessons, the things you learned from it.”
Pause. Rewind. “What happened yesterday is the past. The only thing you take from it is the lessons, the things you learned from it.”
In 2011, we’re squarely in the middle of Brady’s story. He’s already won three Super Bowls, overcome injury, and surrounded himself with new players—but he hasn’t yet entered the stratosphere of the all-time greats, that unimpeachable club of G.O.A.T.s. After 2011, Brady vaulted into a new stratosphere. Four more (and counting) Super Bowls would follow. His play would continue to improve. His relationships with his teammates would only get deeper and more meaningful.
If you’re looking for a smoking gun, an obvious sign of what changed within Brady, you can look away from kale juice and massages or an improved release. You can instead look towards his relationships. And you can look towards that quote.
I’m not sure if he understood the importance of what Bündchen told him right in the moment or if it took a while for it to sink in. But some time not long after that night, Brady began to have a different understanding of time. He had always wanted to win—he’s one of the most competitive people alive—but now he crafted a zen-like wisdom to the way he approaches football. If he loses, he takes Gisele’s advice and buries himself in the defeat. He obsesses over what could be improved. And when he wins, well, he does the same thing. What went right? What can I learn from this?
When the episode ended, I went back to the very beginning of the series. In the opening moments of episode one, there it is. “All the experiences,” Brady says, ”the ups and downs, the wins and losses, the good and bad, twenty years of heartbreaks and heartaches, sleepless nights, and the greatest of victories—I think about those things and how they impacted me in every aspect of my life…and how all those relationships and all those memories have shaped the person I am today.”
Sound familiar?
That’s what this series is about: deconstructing Tom Brady’s career season-by-season to understand the lessons that he learned from each year he made it to a Super Bowl. It doesn’t take long to realize that Brady has been thinking about these themes long before the cameras started to roll. He started looking for those lessons ten years ago, during a sleepless night when his career was at a crossroads. He asked his wife for advice, and her response just might have changed NFL history.
Now Streaming: Man In The Arena Podcast
In addition to the docuseries, we’re also producing a Man in the Arena podcast, in which Gotham Chopra explores two decades of Brady’s career through the eyes of the fans and haters, those inside and outside of the arena. Each episode grapples with the ways in which Brady has altered our understanding of sports. In episode five, Gotham explores failure. Is it possible that losing is the reason why Tom Brady is so great?
So Let It Be Written...
How Big Is Travis Hunter Joining Deion Sanders and Jackson State? I Asked Nick Saban, Reggie Bush and More
By Bruce Feldman • The Athletic
National Signing Day is always crazy, but the nation’s number one recruit tossing aside hats belonging to traditional blue bloods to sign with Jackson State has to be the wildest moment in recent history. Some of the smartest minds in college football discuss here whether the moment truly represents a sea change, but the must-read answer comes from Zach Soskin who has helped advise college stars on NIL deals and says that Hunter might prove that recruits are no longer going to be looking to sit on the bench while they develop.
A Teen Sensation Grows Up
By John Branch • The New York Times
Snowboarder Chloe Kim discusses how the last Olympics nearly ruined her experience of her chosen sport—and how she plans to win gold again.
Dave Campbell Made Texas Football the Juggernaut It Is Today
By Richard Justice • Texas Monthly
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football has often been described as the Gridiron Bible of the Lone Star State. RIP to its legendary namesake.
Next Man Up
What happened when West Alabama University’s running back bumped into the school’s president? An awesome video straight out of Trading Places.
Take a minute this morning to watch this and laugh.
Al Bello / Getty Images
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
You might have heard: Steph Curry is the NBA’s new three-point king. What would you guess he thinks about when he shoots?
CNN
Old School
Can Women's Pro Soccer Work In America? An Investigation, In Sweden (2013)
By Allison McCann • Howler
Written before the founding of the NWSL, Allison McCann travelled across the Atlantic to explore the ins and outs of the professional women’s league in Sweden. Read in the midst of the NWSL’s recent reckoning, expansion, and growth, it’s a fascinating look at how far women’s soccer has come in the last decade—and how much further there is to go.
Last Word
“If I’m starting a team to go to battle with, Wes Welker’s in that starting lineup.”
– Tom Brady