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Tom vs. Time is an incredible series about the 2018 New England Patriots season. Each episode is about 15 minutes long. The entire transcript is included so that writing prompts and discussion ideas can be shared with the students.
Below are some ideas to start.
Continuity and Change: Athletes are taking control over their image and no longer rely on traditional sports coverage.
Previewing Questions.
- Tom Brady: 3 adjectives (Who has Tom Brady gear?)
- List TWO factors that make him so amazing.
- Numbers
Class Discussion
- THREE (one for each gender) Who is (are) the most committed athlete(s) in the school? What do they do above and beyond the typical high school athlete? (Pearson Lee ’25
- What do you remember about the greatest comeback in NFL history?
- How many high school athletes are 24 hour athletes? Committed to making good choices – alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sleep? Do athletes make sacrifices (football vs. Rockland, Hockey season)
- What do you do to physically prepare for a sports season?
- Social Life or Hockey “I would easily quit the sport!”
- Belichick
- Defining Plays:
- Good Teams
- (7 Super Bowl rings, 328 Super Bowl Comeback, 45 age of retirement, 199 draft pick, 23 seasons, 7th on the depth chart at Michigan)
Friday, October 6, 2017
Daughter: Daddy I’m going to soccer. I’m going
Brady: I’m going to watch.
Brady: What are you willing to do? And what are you willing to give up to be the best you can be? You only have so much energy. And the clock is ticking on all of us. And when you say yes to something, it means you got to to say no to something else. In the end, my life is focused on football. It always has been. It always will be, as long as I’m playing.
I’ve given my body, my everything, every bit of energy for 18 years to it.
I am doing okay.
So if you’re going to compete against me, you better be willing to give up your life because I’m giving up mine. (1:14)
Chapter 1
The Physical Game
Tom’s Home Office
Monday April 10, 2017
22 weeks Before The Season Opener
Let’s see which ones we got here. 2007
Oh God! It’s not a great ending to that year.
I’m not pulling out a bad ending. I’m pulling out a happy ending 2015, 2014
Oh right here… 2016. So I still keep this… my suspension letter that I received. Just a nice way to remember. Thank you. (Motivation)
Watch a youth sports video of when you were younger.
So this is a lot of stuff that Belichick talks about in team meetings that I write down. These are kind of his themes. I’ll read you some of them.
- Prepare to play well
- The Super Bowl environment is all about hype and ridiculous BS that will go on
- It’s a great week. It’s about competition. The two best teams on the biggest a stage. The team that wins is the one that works the hardest. (2:58)
Superbowl
There’s a warrior Spirit about me. I’m always in competition with myself (Jimmy G). You represent a lot of people out there when you to out and play a game. And when you let people down that’s a very tough feeling to keep inside.
Atlanta Highlights (3:29)
Superbowl LI
February 5, 2017
Announcer:
DEFINING PLAYS: You know to go into the Superbowl and be losing by 25 points, that hurts really bad.
Brady: The guy made a good play. I went and I tried to dive for the guy made the tackle and then I kind of got up and looked and knew no one was catching him. And I was thinking, if we lose the game, this will be the play. If we lose, this is what will define this game. And it didn’t define the game. (4:02)
Falcons 28 – 9
Mental toughness means a lot. And, you know, I’m always trying to get that out of my teammates. I think part of that is letting everybody else know that, it is time to go out there and perform.
Falcons 28 – 28
Being mentally tough is putting all that BS aside. Everything that’s happened. All that noise. All that hype. And just focusing on what you got to do. (4:40)
- It’s no excuses.
- It’s no whining.
- It’s no complaining.
- It’s like, look, did you win or did you lose… end the story!
Falcons 28 – 20
COMBACK WINS: The first-ever overtime in Super Bowl history… “A Touchdown wins it for the Patriots. 2nd and goal to go from the 2. Toss, Sweep Right for James White… Driving for the goalline. A touchdown and a title for the Patriots. They have completed the greatest comeback in Supern Bowl history!” (How old were you? 2017) (5:34)
Friday June 9th, 2017
13 weeks before the season opener
Brady: There we are. “Should’ve got ‘em polished, man. Should’ve got ‘em polished. That would have been sweet.”
I still feel like I’m dealing with last season. (LOOK AT THOSE RINGS Now 7 rings) All those external things. You know, not playing in the first 4 weeks. You know, the way that our team won. You know, over the course of the season, like. I kind of expected those things to happen. I didn’t know that would result in a Super Bowl, but I knew we were damn good team. You know I got to see it. I got to see it every day in practice. I’d come off the field and say Damn we’re good. We just need to go do it.
TEAM CELEBRATIONS / END OF YEAR: What are you celebrating? (recording life) One more! The only time of year we bring them out.
MOST MEMORABLE WIN: “I can say that this Super Bowl win was unequivocally, the sweetest one of them all. And if you think that was sweet, wait until you see what we prepared next.” Robert Kraft
The joys of winning are great, but I sweep those under the rug so fast,. that there’s a brief moment in time where I enjoy the experience of winning.
And then I’m thinking about the next game. I am thinking about winning… again. (7:22)
ROLE OF FAMILY: That was a big one for my family. That one meant a lot for my family. That was a very trying year. Missing the month of September. Knowing no one what all my family put into it and I think to end it the way we ended it. To celebrate the way we celebrated it was a year I’ll never forget for so many different reasons.
Thursday Night August 3, 2017
5 weeks before the season opener
Sports Talk Radio Host: Happy 40th birthday #TommyBrady. Enjoy that avocado ice cream and a cake iced with organic hummus.
(Played another 5 years and got 3 rings.)
Female Host: Jay-Z taught us 30 is the new 20 and Tom Brady is showing a 40 is the new 30. 40 is normally considered a line of demarcation for regression, especially among professional athletes. I can hear our boy Max now the cliff is coming.
Radio Host (Max) In the next 18 months he will be at best middle of the pack. And I would tend to take the lower estimate like 15 to 18, something like that. He’ll be average-at-best.
Radio Host #2: Father time is undefeated. And Tom may play well enough to win another Super Bowl. But his play is going to start to backup. We’ll start to really see if this year. (2017)
Brady: You know, whenever people call me they call me. Those things don’t bother me at all. I don’t need exterior motivations. The ones that I have inside of me are enough.
BETTER WITH EXPERIENCE (So many types of training):
Brady: I wish I did at 22 years old what I was doing you know, for the last 10 years. I just didn’t know any better. I didn’t know any different. I lind of did what everyone else was doing.
Hopefully, as you gain experience in these things, you can learn to be more efficient. You now, and create this version of me at 40 (or 45) that I think is a lot better than I was 22. (Tom Brady retired from the NFL at 45 years old on February 1, 2023.)
ATHLETIC GROWTH:
Brady: Every draft moment, they’lll show me running the 40, which looked very unathletic. I was draped in the big white T-shirt, big gray shorts, and me lumbering down, you know, the Indianapolis field.
So I feel like being a late bloomer in some ways was really helpful because when I got to the pro level, you know I was still so excited and I was still trying to chase everybody. I was still trying to get better and outside just the openness to learn. (9:36)
Big Hit
PERSONAL TRAINER:
Brady: In 2004 & 2005, I was going through a lot of body issues. You know, Bbumps and bruises were really starting to take a toll. It got to the point with my right throwing arm where I couldn’t throw the ball they way I wanted to throw it.
Chris Collinsworth Announcer: Watch that left shoulder. He’s had an issue. An AC separation in that one whole time…
Brady: And just generically feet and then we’ll hit legs. Two special spots and arm
Alex: Perfect.
Brady: I met Alex when he was coming to our facility to work with, you know, different players. I was like, yeah, you know “What can he do?” What can he do that has been different than what everyone else has done for me. Which is just you know ice your shoulder and take some rest. And boy did I learn a lot. (10:36)
YIKES leg massage.
I see pliability as lengthening and softening of muscles to get them back into balance.
Over the years, so many muscle contractions, or through all the workouts that we do, we shorten our muscles. So, if you can get them to lengthen, then when you can contract them, they can fully contract and relax.
We’re so close. You know, he’s much more than someone that just works on me physically.
Alex: Prior to the season starting, we really try to get his brain to understand there’s going to be impact and then to prepare his body for the impact. To almost feel as if it’s normal behavior for him.
Brady: There is no way I would be here today without that. I mean, he has just been so influential in how I take care of body, the process, the routine, that we go through on a weekly in order to prepare myself to play, without pain and with a lot of joy,. And I can go to practice feeling great. (11:35
So when you are 39, most guys would go ahhhh, you know, I can fire that mf… (11:43)
We work really hard over the course of the year. What we do in the workouts and in the way we train. You know, all these lifestyle choices that you are making. In order to do what? In order to win!
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Season Opener (NFL Tradition)
Tailgating.
BLOCK OUT THE NOISE:
Announcer: Well, the Patriots season opener coming up we’re just hours away. And one guy that the chief certainly are scouting is Tom Brady who is 40. Yes, he is four zero. So the question is, can he continue the pace now that he’s officially over the hill? How much time left for Brady?
Announcer: If he slips or doesn’t look the same way coming out of the gate in 17. What are we talkin about?
Brady, I think this is different, we all consider him to be different. But when you hit that age, there’s a reason why people have preconceived notions about it.
Brady: You gotta block out the noise. because none of that’s going to help you win. What motivates me is I could’ve, should’ve, done better. I think I’m in my 18th year (What now). I have all this knowledge, played so many games, so many experiences, so many teammates, so many game plans. I could be, should be perfect. (time change = Mac Jones)
When I see myself out there I feel like, man, I still I still do this and I do it better than I’ve ever done it, so why should I stop? (5 TDs week #2 in 2nd season with Tampa Bay, Superbowl)
Patriots 27 Chiefs 42 (13:47)
The FRUSTRATING Car Ride:
BLEEP
Gisele: You just were not in sync. yet. You don’t know each other. It’s like building a relationship. The first time you meet somebody you are not going to be their best friend. You know it takes time to get to know people. They are going to get to know you. Your looks and the way you play and the way you do things, you know. You’re going to get to know them… It’s going to be awesome. I know it. OK? (14:25)