Tom Brady is 43 years old, he’s the oldest active player in the NFL, and Tom Brady is, dare we say, Growing Bolder. He has thrown 40 TD passes and thrown for 4,633 yards in his first season with the Tampa Bay Bucs, who are playoff-bound this week against Washington.
Welcome to the Cool Kids Club, Mr. Brady.
Although it is fair to say he never left.
At an age when most athletes are looking at their investment portfolio and wondering what to do with the rest of their lives, Brady is building sweat equity with a work ethic we could all apply to our lives: you get results by busting your butt.
It goes way beyond the competitive fire that fans often catch a glimpse of on the sidelines, when Brady can be seen screaming at a teammate. It’s nothing new for a guy who once broke a ping-pong paddle after losing to former teammate Danny Amendola in a game.
For seven years, Brady has trained at a private resort in the Bahamas to prepare for the NFL season. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. His breakfast is a berry-and-banana smoothie. Brady then meets his long-time trainer, Alex Guerrero, at around 8 a.m. on the beach.
Brady’s routine includes using resistance bands, massages, online brain exercises, and as expected, throwing balls at 20, 30 and 60-yard increments.
“No one has to be Tom Brady,” he once told Men’s Health. “I just get to be Tom Brady. You get to be you. Everyone has a choice. But if you want to be good at sports, you have to work hard at it. If you want to be healthy, you have to work at it. But you can’t say, ‘I want to be healthy,’ then eat shitty food and do crappy workouts.”
Brady took that work ethic with him from New England, where he led the Patriots to six Super Bowl titles, to Tampa this season. He is now chasing his first with the Bucs, who last won a Super Bowl title in 2003.
Brady made headlines right away when he signed with the Bucs, including inadvertently going to a park in Tampa that was closed during the pandemic in April. He was there to … wait for it … work out.
Eight months later, Brady’s commitment on and off the field are paying off on the investment the Bucs made by signing him to a two-year, $50-million deal.
“He’s playing really, really well,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians recently told reporters. “He’s exceeded (expectations). His leadership is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Peyton Manning is the only thing close.”
Did we mention he was 43 and the oldest player in the league?
“It’s a special thing, and that’s what makes him a special guy,” offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich said recently. “He’s a very unique guy. Not a lot of guys are built like him, not a lot of guys are even capable of doing the things he can do. Shoot, I can’t do them right now and I’m a couple of years younger than him.
“He’s been preparing for this moment for so long, it’s no shock to him, to be honest with you. He’s been preparing to play this long for a while now. So, he’s done everything he can possibly do to give him that opportunity to play like this, at the age he’s at.”
Age is just a number. We hear that all the time. But it’s also what you do with that number.
Tom Brady is not your average 43-year-old by any means. The regular Joes and Janes would be smart to follow his path. No need to go to the Bahamas. But wherever you go, you “have to work at it” as he says.
Pick up a dumbbell and drop the cheeseburger. The year is young.
