Doug Flutie
makes his final
NFL start.Peyton Manning
wins an NFL playoff
game for the first
time in his career.think, I don’t want to let this guy down. We all think that.”
Early on Brady issued a request to his new center,
Ryan Jensen. Could he apply baby powder to his back-
side to keep the football free of sweat? Jensen complied,
then walked around the field trailed by chalky plumes,
as if he were announcing the new pope. Before it could
be a source of embarrassment or teasing in the locker
room, Brady spoke to teammates to make sure it was
taken as instructional: These are precisely the kind of
small sacrifices and adjustments you make when you are
fully committed to winning.
More than ever Brady is surrounded by teammates
who entered the league with more fanfare. Mike Evans,
his favorite downfield target, was the
seventh pick in 2014. Tampa Bay’s top
running back, Leonard Fournette,
went fourth in ’17. Even Brady’s
backup, Blaine Gabbert, was the
10th choice in ’11. Two decades after
he left Michigan, Brady’s modest draft
slot of—all together now—199, still
galvanizes him. “He had to work for
everything,” says Arians, “and he just
never, never lets himself forget that.”
But the coach noticed something
else: Brady has taken a source of per-
sonal motivation and alchemized it into something to
benefit his teammates. What was once about—to use the
tired trope—proving the doubters wrong has evolved into,
Guys, if I can go from good to great, you sure as hell can, too.IT’S HARD TO EXAGGERATE JUST
how statistically outlying Brady’s longevity is. The
NFL’s next-oldest player is Rams offensive tackle
Andrew Whitworth, 40 on Dec. 12. Brady is closer in
age to Dan Marino, who played his last game in 1999,
than he is to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Nearly
half the NFL’s coaches—13 of 32—are younger than he
is. (Though Brady’s own coach, pointedly, is the league’splayers about the need to pump their arms on their routes.
When they didn’t, Brady also noticed and pointed it out
to his two teammates.
Says Arians, “They look at me [when I tell them] and
go, Oh, O.K. And when Tom tells them they go, O.K., Tom!
And they do it.” Arians then cackles, thinking of other
messages he would let Brady communicate to players on
his behalf. “He tells ’em to do it, and they listen!” (Pause
for a thought exercise: Imagine Brady’s previous coach
joking about delegating some of his duties to the charis-
matic quarterback.)
Brady may have, like the rest of us, binged
The Last Dance—“That’s my era!”—but his leadershipstyle is at striking odds with that of the basketball GOAT.
Michael Jordan demanded that his teammates match
his intensity and humiliated those who couldn’t handle
his lacerating edges. Brady is all soft power. Teammates
should feel seen and heard. Gaps in accomplishments and
fame—and commitment levels—among players must be
bridged. Experience is something to be shared.
Licht laughs when Brady introduces himself warmly to
rookies and new teammates by saying, “I’m Tom Brady.”
No s---, you’re Tom Brady. But the message is clear, as is
the effect. “Tom is known as the greatest player of all time,
and I get the sense they were expecting him to come in
and want preferential treatment and have an ego—which
would be well deserved,” says Licht. “But he just wants to2 O
2 1AL^
TIE
LE
MA
NS
Licht laughs when Brady introduces himself
to rookies by saying, “I’m Tom Brady.” But
the message is clear: “HE WANTS TO EARN
THEIR RESPECT. And they think, I don’t want
to let this guy down. We all think that.”