Tom Brady shared what his ‘superpower’ was and how he used it to win Super Bowls
"I was Starlink before Starlink."
Tom Brady refused to waste any moment ahead of the Super Bowls he played in on not preparing for the game.
The iconic Patriots quarterback laughed at the idea that he would use downtime to divert his attention away from the game in the days ahead of one of the 10 Super Bowls he played in when asked on FS1’s “The Herd.” Brady explained that he wanted to use any possible time he had in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl to feed his “superpower,” sharing how two weeks of just watching film helped him lead the Buccaneers to a win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.
“Friday night, I was just going through the film and I knew Kansas City’s defense better than they knew themselves,” Brady said. “I knew their body movements, the way their linebackers moved, the way their safeties moved – Tyrann Mathieu, Nick Sorensen, Charvarius Ward – I knew everything they were doing. I got on the field and I looked up as I got to the line of scrimmage and said, ‘OK, they’re blitzing.’ I was dealing with it right away. I walked up and I said, ‘OK, they’re going to bail to Cover 2.’ Ball was snapped, Cover 2.
“It was like I had the answers to the test. That’s where I was great. That’s where my magic superpower was. It wasn’t how fast I could run. It was how fast I could diagnose what they were doing. What’s the special quality, what’s the internet speed of me as a quarterback? Fast as [expletive]. I was Starlink before Starlink.”
Brady had his most comfortable win in a Super Bowl in that game, completing 21 of 29 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns to help the Buccaneers win, 31-9. Most of the production came in the first half as he picked apart the Chiefs’ defense. But Brady credited his film study and ability to diagnose defenses at the line of scrimmage for that win and the 285 other wins he had as a starting quarterback in his career rather than his arm talent or accuracy.
“The one benefit you have as a quarterback, before you snap the ball you know where everybody on your team is running,” Brady said. “If you have five eligibles out on the route, I know where all five are going. If I look at the defense and say, ‘None of the guys are going to be open based on this coverage, I don’t need to snap the ball. I can run something different.’
“Everyone would be like, ‘God, it looks so easy.’ I’m like, ‘It looks so easy because you’re not paying attention to the right thing.’ What’s going on up here is what my superpower was. It was Peyton Manning’s superpower. It was Drew Brees’s superpower. Those were the guys I tried to be like. That’s what we did a great job of. That part of the game is what I’m really fascinated by and when I see players play like that, those are the guys that I think have the most upside.”
Of course, Brady went on to win seven Super Bowls as a result of that preparation However, it was the three losses he had over his 10 Super Bowl appearances that reinforced the idea that he had to use every possible moment in the two weeks leading up to the game studying film.
However, Brady initially didn’t have that mindset. As he won his two bowl games as a starter at Michigan and the first three Super Bowls he played in, Brady wondered what was the “big deal” about using countless times to prepare for the Super Bowl. Once the Super Bowl losses to the Giants happened, though, he realized how much those defeats hurt more than others.
“It was just like, ‘Wow, this is way harder,'” Brady said. “We went 10 years without winning. I said, ‘ You know what? These Super Bowl moments I get a chance to partake it, I’m going to exhaust every bit of an energy I have into these weeks of games.’ When you lose this game, this is on your résumé forever. A loss in the Super Bowl matters more than any loss that you’re ever going to be a part of.”
If Brady needed any extra motivation to prepare for the Super Bowls he played in, he shared that he’s still constantly reminded of them even after retirement.
“When I go to Philly, they go, ‘Philly special! Philly special!’ And I’m at the Knicks game with my son and Spike Lee, I throw him a ball and he catches it on his head like the helmet catch, I mean that was 17 years ago and I’m still living that thing down,” Brady said. “No one remembers the loss I had to Peyton in the 2015 championship game. No one talks about the 2013 loss to Denver in the championship game. They don’t talk about the loss to the Ravens in the 2012 AFC Championship Game. They all tell me about the losses in the Super Bowl.”
As Brady prepares to call his first Super Bowl on Fox, he actually thinks that’s that reason why it’s imperative for Patrick Mahomes to lead the Chiefs to victory in Super Bowl LIX.
“I think the challenging thing is, if you look at Patrick, for example, you want to win this game if you’re Patrick because if you don’t, you’re 3-2 in Super Bowls,” Brady said. “It’s not a great feeling.”
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