the subjects became capable jugglers
and the skill was no longer novel, the
gray matter reverted to its levels before
the study. “The brain had nothing to
adapt to, so it put the neurons else-
where,” says Andel. “It’s the stimula-
tion, the change of environment that
challenges the brain and redistrib-
utes our bodily resources.” That, says
Andel, encapsulates Brady. “He’s un-
believably adaptable.”
So credit Brady for his rigidity.
But his relentless success owes just
as much to the opposite trait, his f lex-
ibility. Does he contradict himself?
Very well then, he contradicts himself.
He is large. He contains multitudes.
Moving to a different franchise in a
different state with a different cor-
porate culture? That example of his
adaptability is just one of many.
BRADY MIGHT, RIGHTLY,
be depicted as the exponent of clean
living. But there he was in February,
giving new zest to the phrase drunken
fling as he hurled the Lombardi
Trophy Frisbee-like from one boat to
another during Tampa Bay’s Super
Bowl celebration. He then put to rest
any questions about his sobriety with
the unforgettable tweet, “Noting to see
her...just litTle avoCado tequila.”
Brady is an unapologetic capital-
ist. His NFL salary of $25 million is
dwarfed by his various businesses and
investments, from the TB12 health and
wellness brand to his clothing line, to his 199 Productions
content studio, to his stake and promotion of a crypto-
currency firm. His NFT company, Autograph, is widely
considered an industry leader in digital collectibles. He’s
arrowing toward billionaire status, if not there already.
And he’s not simply slapping his name on products. He
is poring over balance sheets and Zooming into board
meetings, glimpsing his post-NFL life while still playing.
On the other hand, Brady doesn’t always show fidelity
to the market. His NFL salary, which does not consign
him to eating ramen, still ranks ninth in average annual
value among QBs. “He’s never wanted to be the highest-
paid quarterback,” says Arians, “because [doing so]
would mean not getting maybe two other good players.”
As much as Brady values health, he mourns the rule
changes that diminish the physical risk of football. “The
game I played 20 years ago is very different from the game
now, in the sense that it’s more of a skills competition than
it is physical football,” he says. “It’s like being in the box-
ing ring and saying, ‘Don’t hit your opponent because you
might hurt him.’ Look, we’re both able to protect ourselves.
I’m looking at you. You’re looking at me. Let’s go.”
Brady made those remarks recently on Let’s Go, the
podcast he hosts with former receiver Larry Fitzgerald and
sportscaster Jim Gray each week. And this might repre-
sent the most striking example of Brady’s adaptability.
For most of his career he was willfully, even strategically,
unknowable. Not surly or standoffish, but you might say
that long before COVID-19, Brady wore a mask. As he put
it this summer on HBO’s The Shop: “What I say versusSPORTS ILLUSTRATED Q SI.COM 36JIM(^) DA
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BACK PATS
Brady returned to Foxboro for a Sunday-
night game in October, leading a go-ahead
field goal drive late in a Tampa Bay win.
“It’s the stimulation, the change of
environment that challenges the brain and
redistributes our bodily resources,” says
Andel, the gerontologist. Of Brady, he adds:
“HE’S UNBELIEVABLY ADAPTABLE.”
SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR