Brady discussed the differences in motivating Julian Edelman and Randy Moss, how his leadership style complemented Bill Belichick, and a character-building moment from his time in college at Michigan.
By Hayden Bird
As Tom Brady continues his post-football career transition, Patriots fans have been able to see and hear another side of the seven-time Super Bowl winner.
Brady, through a range of settings (including the recent Netflix roast), has offered a more transparent view of his personal thoughts on topics like playing for the Patriots, his relationships with teammates as well as Bill Belichick, and how he views his own personal psychology as a Hall of Fame quarterback.
After years of limiting his media presence, the 47-year-old appears to have become more comfortable speaking at length. The latest example arrived in an expansive piece recently published by the Harvard Business Review.
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In it, Brady, along with former Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria, tried to distill his leadership principles down to a few key points. And amid the context provided to help illustrate Brady’s principles, the former Patriot inevitably wove in some stories about his New England tenure.
How he viewed some of his competitors.
While the point of Brady’s piece is to help inspire and inform others — not necessarily in the world of football — to become better leaders, he admitted being “lucky” that not everyone in the NFL was as driven as he was.
While discussing the importance of putting the team first, Brady noted that there are many football players who simply don’t do it.
“If you spent time in professional sports locker rooms, you might be surprised that players don’t always behave that way. Some players take all the credit when things go right, but when things go wrong, they make excuses and place the blame on everyone else, including referees, teammates, and coaches,” Brady said.
“When I see players like that, who seem to care more about themselves than the team, I can also see how that makes the people around them less motivated to give their best effort. In a way, I was lucky those behaviors are so pervasive,” he added, “because if they weren’t, many of the teams I played against would have been more difficult to beat.”
He tried to lead Michigan teammates even after being benched.
One of the more interesting periods of Brady’s career was his up-and-down experience at the University of Michigan. Arriving as a fairly average recruit, Brady had to wait until his fourth season before he got significant playing time.
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And even when it appeared he’d solidified his role as the starting quarterback, highly touted recruit Drew Henson loomed over his shoulder.
Brady shared an anecdote from when he was benched in favor of Henson during a game against Syracuse. While Michigan (under Henson) won the game, Brady acknowledged that he had been “crushed” by the decision to swap quarterbacks.
Still, he explained how — as a team captain — he enthusiastically led teammates in a traditional postgame rendition of Michigan’s fight song.
“I was crushed that I hadn’t played in the second half, but I stood up on that chair and I screamed those lyrics out as loud as I could,” Brady said. “I’m sure people knew I was disappointed, but I wanted to show everyone that I supported Drew and the team. I felt like that really endeared me to my teammates.”
Several weeks later, Brady recalled, he was named as the permanent starter (and Michigan won all of the team’s remaining games that season).
“The way I handled myself during the first few games of that season, when things didn’t go the way I wanted them to, was very important in my development as a leader,” he recalled. “I continued to work hard, I put the team first, and I always supported my teammates, even as I tried to prove that I was the right person to play quarterback. This fundamental change in attitude set the tone for the rest of my athletic career.”
His view on NFL players not reaching their potential.
As part of a section about leading by example, Brady discussed how he tried to hold teammates accountable by setting his own (higher) standards than what the coaches initially planned.
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Surveying the NFL landscape, Brady presented a candid portrait.
“In the NFL, every player thinks he’s giving 100% effort,” he explained. “Judging from what I saw, a lot of them are playing at only 70% or 80% of their true ability. They may not realize it, but they’ve been conditioned to do that.”
He was also open about how his motivational practices were always imperfect.
“I wish I had a foolproof method for going into any situation where a player is giving 70% and finding a way to squeeze out that remaining 30%. I’m not sure I ever was able to do that,” he admitted. “But by modeling team-focused behavior and creating higher expectations and accountability, I could reliably get another 5% or 10% out of players — and that often made a big difference.”
The difference between motivating Julian Edelman and Randy Moss.
Two of Brady’s most important (and high-profile) teammates in his time with the Patriots were wide receivers Julian Edelman and Randy Moss. Each contributed enormously to New England’s offense in Brady’s time, becoming — for very different reasons — favorite pass-catching targets.
Within a larger discussion about how he tried to tailor motivational practices to the individual, Brady used Edelman and Moss as examples.
“If you wanted Julian, who had incredible mental toughness, to play his best, the way to do it was to tick him off,” said Brady. “I would say something like ‘Jules, wow, you look really sluggish today.’ He’d glare at me and be so angry, but I knew he’d channel that energy to prove me wrong and go out and play great.
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“Randy, who’s a Hall of Fame receiver, responded better to validation,” Brady added. “Even in practice, if I went too long without throwing the ball to him, I’d go over and say how much I valued him and remind him that I was always looking for him on every play. I wanted to make sure he never slowed down.”
How he developed his leadership style alongside the “sometimes difficult” approach of Bill Belichick.
Brady has bristled at the perpetual debate over who should get more “credit” for the Patriots’ unprecedented NFL dynasty. He maintains that New England’s sustained success was the result of many factors working congruently.
On the subject of Belichick, who he called “the greatest coach in the history of the NFL,” Brady offered some context for why he thinks the Patriots’ success was more attributable to the collective than any individual.
“We all felt fortunate to play for him, and there were many benefits to his approach,” Brady said of Belichick, “but his motivational style — often based on fear — was sometimes difficult. So as a team leader, I tried to complement that approach by being a bit more upbeat.”
The former Patriots quarterback elaborated on how he played a version of “good cop” to Belichick’s “bad cop.”
“He wasn’t one to mingle and form personal relationships with players or coaches, because it’s difficult to do that when you know you’ll have to trade, cut, or fire most of them at some point down the road,” Brady said of his former coach. “So I often took the opposite approach: I tried to get to know my teammates deeply and show that I cared about them personally.
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“I asked about their families and the things going on in their lives off the field. I made it clear that if we connected as teammates, they’d be my teammates for life, and I’ve tried to live up to that.”
Ultimately, Brady noted that the famous duo were interdependent.
“I like to think my style complemented Coach Belichick’s,” he said. “I was lucky to play for a coach who was so smart, hardworking, and focused on discipline—a coach who relentlessly held people accountable for doing their job. He was fortunate to have someone like me who could recognize where the team was at emotionally, rally the troops, and pull people together.”
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