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Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is the GOAT in more ways than one. He’s definitely one of the best of all time when it comes to finding ways to mount a giant chip on his shoulder.
In the first episode of Season 2 of his Let’s Go Podcast with Jim Gray on SiriusXM, Brady explained that instead of telling his patchwork offensive line to ignore the noise, he tells them to embrace it.
“I showed them and used it as motivation,” Brady said. “Anytime someone says they suck and can’t do anything, I tried to show them and say, ‘That’s what they all say about you. What do you think? What are you going to do about it?’ And make sure they know what everyone is saying. I think that’s important. You know, I think I’ve always used little, different nasties as motivation for myself. And I am [a] really motivated person. But it always helps when someone says something that isn’t flattering. Or someone who still doesn’t believe in you after all these years, you’re trying to prove them wrong. And they still don’t. So you say, ‘You know what? Many Thanks. you know, thank you very much Let me go ahead and prove them wrong.”
Are people really saying his offensive linemen suck? It’s fair to point out that center Ryan Jensen is out indefinitely and guard Aaron Stinnie is lost for the year. It’s fair to note that Brady has historically been prone to pressuring the middle. It’s fair to ask if the backup players who were backups for a reason are willing to be no backups when it comes to stopping Brady from dealing with the pressure down the middle. Nobody says these players suck. It’s fair to ask if they’re willing to show they’re not.
But that apparently hasn’t stopped Brady from turning any possible criticism into a diss. He’s done it before. For example, after a 2018 divisional round win over the Chargers during his final Super Bowl run with the Patriots, Brady played the aforementioned card when he told the world that nobody believes in us. The truth was that pretty much everyone believed in her. But that doesn’t motivate Brady or anyone.
Additionally, Brady acknowledged that the offensive line situation “is going to be challenging.”
“We lost Alex Cappa to the Bengals,” Brady said. “We lost Ali Marpet, a great player, to retirement. And then Ryan got injured in training camp. So we have Shaq Mason, who I absolutely love. I played with him for a long time. I know what he’s about. Notre Dame’s Robert Hainsey earned the respect of his teammates with his work ethic and he showed up every day last year despite not playing to be prepared. He’ll step in and try to do a great job. And we have a left guard who fights every day. Luke [Goedeke] did a great job for us in the training camp. We called him up to come here and play and we’ll see if he gets in there ready to do a great job.
That’s all anyone says. However, Brady knows he needs something more to push the young players.
“I hope they take to heart all the things that people have said about them, which aren’t always the most flattering things,” Brady said. “But they’ve got to get out there and they’ve got to get out there, like all of us, we’ve got to get out there and earn it and prove people they’re right or wrong.”
Prove them wrong. Even if they’re not actually wrong because they don’t say what they say they say. It’s a neat trick if you can pull it off. We’ll see if it works when the redesigned offensive line holds its own against the Cowboys on Sunday night.