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The greatest quarterback of all time, who hadn't played a down of college football and had one NFL catch for three yards to his name prior, was running the show on a rain-drenched field in 2020.
He slipped on the first route.
I was making excuses, and I thought I was on the ground. He said it was a perfectly laid ground. "Just being hard on me." He threw me the ball that was in the sun, and he said, "I don't need any excuses." You're an athlete.
When Brady got to the Buccaneers, he created a bond with the practice squad receiver. Brady wanted to know that he could trust the young receiver.
For a moment, he put his head down. He felt defeated.
He thought that he was being too hard on him.
Tom Brady came over.
He told him that he wanted to pull his talent out of him. I want you to see that in yourself.
"From that moment, I knew he felt something in me," he said.
After the unexpected departure of Antonio Brown in the Week 17 game at the New York Jets, Brady threw the winning 33-yard pass to Grayson.
Getting the most out of virtually every teammate is one of many reasons Brady has been so good down the stretch in nearly every one of his 22 seasons.
Brady has a record of 112-31 after Thanksgiving and 43-14 in January and February. Brady's teams ascend when other teams fade because of injuries. He found a way to pull out the perfect play. How does he do it?
I think it was him testing me.
Brady was testing him because he might need him down the road. He wanted to know what chemistry was like.
Brady needs to know who can be relied on late in the season when teams are hobbled by injuries.
Brady said that it's important to put a lot of pressure on the guys because they don't know how they're going to react. You don't want it to be the first time they're put in a pressurized situation when they get their chance. I'm tough on those guys.
Sometimes I force the issue and create some arbitrary pressure to see how they respond. Young guys who haven't played need that, but you want to see how they respond to adversity.
Danny Woodhead, who came over from the Jets, felt the wrath of Brady before Kevin Faulk went down with a season-ending injury. Woodhead would run into the huddle, calling the personnel grouping and Brady would chide him for not saying it loud enough despite the fact that he had barely scratched the surface of his new playbook.
Danny Woodhead wondered why Tom Brady would berate him in New England, but it all clicked for him and he attributes it to a key factor: "You have the accountability of the quarterback."
Woodhead said that he would yell at him "literally everything that he could yell at me for." I remember asking what the cat's deal was. Did he have a bad day? Did he not sleep well? "This is the greatest of all time, and the only thing I've experienced is him berating me," Woodhead said.
Woodhead scored his first touchdown in the two-minute offense. Woodhead describes the two as having a good football relationship.
Woodhead said that Brady was testing him to see if he could trust him.
"There's been many times in New England where guys would get injured, but we'd figure it out because obviously we had the talent, but you have the accountability of the quarterback," Woodhead said.
Is my 4-year-old going to cry under pressure when she has to clean up her toys? I don't want that either, so let's make sure they can handle the pressure.
This is the time to put the jets in full gear.
In New England, there was always an emphasis on playing the best ball after Thanksgiving, and it was discussed all throughout the season by coach Bill Belichick.
It's when seeding can be decided and wild cards can be won or lost. Other coaches mention it, but it's different with Bill.
Rich Ohrnberger said that Bill didn't make any secret of how difficult it is to win in November and December. He told us that the week changes around Thanksgiving. You have to be up to the challenge. You get to the playoffs and it gets more intense.
Donte Stallworth remembered those talks as well.
For the average human. It's like Thanksgiving towards the end of the season. "For this dude, this is the beginning of the second season for him," Donte Stallworth said of his time with Tom Brady.
We had to play our best ball. "We had to be technically sound on everything -- mental errors to an extreme low, minimal, and Brady learned to divide each season into two," said Stallworth. The beginning of the playoffs happen after Thanksgiving week. For the average human. It's like Thanksgiving towards the end of the season. This is the beginning of the second season for him, and you have to come out. This is the time that the jets need to be running at full speed.
Brady's numbers aren't dramatically different from the regular season to the playoffs, but he tends to find more of a rhythm. Those around him improve as the ball comes out quicker.
Brady's "time before play" -- which calculates his release time -- goes from 2.6 seconds in September to 2.48 seconds in December and February. The difference between a touchdown and an intercept is tenths of a second.
Brady said, "You don't do much different, you just do more of what got you here." You do more of things that work. You try to keep the focus on the task at hand. This isn't the time to go to the movies, this is the time to watch football because we have nothing else.
You just look at it. We hope the end of the year isn't Sunday night, because everything you can put off until the end of the year is. We have to earn it. We have to win to move on.
His teams tend to cut down on mistakes. The last two seasons, the Bucs accepted 6.17 penalties per game. The Bucs accepted 3.933 penalties per game after December. The turnover rate dropped from 1.35 per game to.857 per game.
"You want to be able to learn from your mistakes so that you're playing your best ball in December and January, because that's when it really matters," he said. A lot of the guys on the team realize that.
When you get to the playoffs, it's even higher because it's like, 'This is do or die'. Tom's thought process is that we're not dying.
He's like a professor.
Nothing is left to chance for Brady. No detail is overlooked. He's teaching everyone at every position. He studies how his players run their routes. He will tell a wide receiver how to release his arms on a route.
"If you're running a certain route, he may want you to give him eyes quick, instead of maybe you gave him eyes a little too late, trying to finish your route, but maybe he wants you to give him eyes as soon as you come out that break."
"If they're not on the same page, you see Tom talk to them," Rob said. If I ran a route that he thought I was going to be, but I was actually over there, he does the same thing with me. He's going to ask you questions like, 'Hey, why were you there and what were you thinking?' You're ready for the game if he gets on the same page as you.
Brady conducts his own meetings that are not common in the NFL. He runs one prior to the team meeting in New England and sometimes 100 plays, after he goes over every play on the call sheet with his offensive coordinator.
He leads a Friday meeting in the city.
In practice, he would never throw to me, but he would let me know in the meeting if he did, "Hey, Donte, stay alive on this if we get." I'm going to be looking for you. "You're alert, so stay alive on that play," said Stallworth. He's a professor up there.
I remember when Wes Welker was in the room, he'd be like, "Hey Wessie, when you come out of that break, you've got to snap your head up right now, because the ball's gonna be."
Tom Brady once told a teammate, "Hey, Jules, don't wait for your corner to bite", recalls Rich Ohrnberger. You just leave. Brady would give pointers to his teammates.
You need to understand that the ball is coming out on this play. You need to get to the spot and be ready to catch if they show this coverage or these guys, because it's firing out.
"Hey, Jules, don't wait for your corner to bite," he would say. Ohrnberger said you just go. He'll give pointers like a coach would. It's important for him to be able to communicate his thoughts.
In games, too, the coaching happens. Brady noticed that wide receiver Tyler Johnson was in motion in the third quarter because there were multiple players in motion. Brady yelled "Freeze!" and put out his arm to stop Johnson.
Ronald Jones came out of the backfield and raced to the edge for the touchdown after the Bucs avoided a penalty. Brady went over to Johnson right after the play to explain what happened.
Brady said that it's important because there is awareness with it. I try to tell him right away that this is the route when I see things at practice, because there are a million things that happen on every play. This is what we are thinking. The depth is what this is. The angle is shown. This is the throw.
You have to be on the same page in football. We have to see things the same way. Constant communication is what it's all about. You're not going to get any better at it if you don't communicate.
He's the best football mind we've ever seen.
Brady brings a lot of ideas to the coaching staff.
"All I do is talk football with him," Leftwich said. We both love football and we talk about it every second we see each other. It's a blessing to have someone who loves the game and approaches it in a way that he loves. It's ball, ball, ball all the time as a coach. You love being involved with him and working with him every week.
Tom Brady said that it's important to put a lot of pressure on guys because they don't know how they're going to react if they're not in there playing.
After they'd gone over every single play the night before, Brady approached Josh McDaniels the morning of the game about changing a play.
Brady asked if he wanted to move Randy Moss inside.
Brady thought they could use a double team over the top and leave a one-on-one match up underneath with the idea of running a particular play with Moss on the outside.
Moss had lined up in the slot a few times, but at no point had they practiced this particular play with this particular personnel group with him inside.
"It was amazing," he said. "This is the morning of the game!"
Brady asked, "What do you think about putting Randy on the inside?" "If he gets one-on-one with the safety, I have a lot of trust that I could just throw it up."
The Kansas City Chiefs' defensive backs received text messages at all hours leading up to the Super Bowl.
Evans said that he was the greatest football mind they had ever seen. From the beginning, we saw it. We saw it in Week 1 but it heightens in the playoffs.
Bruce Arians said that watching Brady crack the code on a defense and move the ball at will is the most fun he can have.
"He's a surgeon when he's playing," he said. If you're rotating, he'll figure that out real quick. It's hard on the defense.
He wants to be the greatest of all time.
They had to wait to find out who they'd play in the divisional round after their wild-card win over the Washington Football Team. Brady said at the end of the video that he knew who he wanted.
He was referring to the New Orleans Saints, who defeated the Bucs twice in the regular season. The Saints were seen as a Super Bowl favorite. He wanted to take down someone he thought was at the top of the mountain.
The Jets defeated the Pats 17-14 in the wild-card round of the 2006 season as the Pats struggled to defend their front.
The schedule and format are full.
The first look at the divisional round.
The wild-card weekend has overreactions.
See more playoff content.
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