There is nothing more inspiring than watching a truly great talent manifest their magic at the highest level.  When I was a young man I had the honor of watching Michael Jordan.  Each time you watched Michael there was the potential that something other worldly would occur. When it did it was spectacular.  Since Michael’s retirement the closest thing we have had to that level of greatness in sports was Tiger Woods.  In his prime he was executing at a level golf had never seen.  Football is different than both of those sports because it is very difficult for one player to have such a profound impact on the game.  While there have been spectacular athletes, no one has dominated the game and their position for as long as Tom Brady.  He is without a doubt the greatest quarterback that has ever played the sport, but he may be the greatest player to ever play the sport and there is an argument to be made for him being the greatest athlete of our generation.  Every time Tom Brady steps on the field, no matter the opponent or the score, his team has a chance to prevail. The measure of true greatness is whether you can make everyone around you better. Tom combines all the aspects of what it means to be great from preparation to leadership to execution to mental and emotional control.  Tom Brady is a special talent, enjoy hime while he is here because we will never experience someone exactly like him again.

“Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled. So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations.”

“Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.”

“A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don’t ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren’t blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart.”

“I think that at the start of a game, you’re always playing to win, and then maybe if you’re ahead late in the game, you start playing not to lose. The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.”

“You wanna know which ring is my favorite? The next one.”

“I don’t care about three years ago… I don’t care about two years ago. I don’t care about last year. The only things I care about is this week.”

“You push your body to the limited but you have to train your body to deal with the limits.”

“I don’t want to wake up and be bored. That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.”

“Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That’s not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that’s what life needs to be – and that if it’s not that, it’s all screwed up. It’s not.”

“Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.”

“I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.”

“You have to believe in your process. You have to believe in the things that you are doing to help the team win. I think you have to take the good with the bad.”