And this was no exception.
He got Baker Mayfield into his signature closing move and got him to tap out in under a minute.
But, when it was time for business, he was all business.
Not just his job but the players around him.
The proper timing, the proper alignments, and so forth.
And anybody who played with Tom would support that.
Julian, Rob, Troy Brown, you name it.
And that’s kind of the way I was.
“And people say well, we didn’t have fun.
Let me tell you something.
Winning six Super Bowl championships was fun.
Going to nine Super Bowls was fun.
Winning those AFC championship games, that was fun.
The fun was really the winning.
And I certainly understand where Tom was coming from.
“Honestly, I think there’s a lot more stress when you’re not winning.
It’s very hard to win in the National Football League.
You’ve got to put a lot into it.
And there’s a very fine line between winning and not winning.”
The Brady-Belichick dynamic has never been expressed so beautifully.
Not even by me, who spent the whole 20 years they were working together trying.
This is the true benefit of having both these GOATs away from the game and sitting behind microphones.
And this is as revealing as anything they’ve told us.
Remember all the speculation over all the years as to whether these two got along?
Whether Brady could even stand playing for Belichick?
(Happy 31st anniversary to my devoted Irish Rose.)
They weren’t throwing Friday pizza parties and going out after work for beers.
In the offseason they weren’t texting each other memes or getting together for rounds of golf.
What they did was share the common enjoyment that can only come from harvesting souls together.
But you don’t get to enjoy that vantage point without putting in a lot of time and effort.
Blood, toil, sweat and tears.
Which is an entirely different kind of fun.
One that’s not for everyone.
Like Brady and Belichick.
And the others he singled out, like Edelman, Gronk and Brown.
Dozens of guys who were obsessively fixated on winning.
That’s what all the critics and haters never understood.
“After all, it’s called ‘playing’ football!”
But it was always the Aesop fableThe Ant and the Grasshopper.
It’s ridiculous that this even needs to be said.
Difficult for those involved.
But all their effort paid off.
They accomplished impossible things.
I’ve been to Patriots parades and I’ve been to Disney.
And there’s no question which was more fun.
