Playing Football Still Makes Tom Brady Feel Like A Kid
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady may be 42 and on the verge of completing his 20th NFL season, but make no mistake about it: He's still a kid at heart.
It may be his job to throw the football around as quarterback of the New England Patriots, but unlike a lot of people out there, Brady doesn't mind going to work. It makes him feel like a kid again, and for that, he loves his job.
"I feel like that every day. I go out there and I play [a game], throwing the ball around to these receivers -- you think when I was a kid in the parking lot at Candlestick throwing the ball to my friends, and now I'm throwing to the best athletes in the world and getting paid for it," Brady said Friday at Gillette Stadium. "In a lot of ways, I'm still doing it as a kid. I feel like a kid and I think it's important to still look at it like that."
It hasn't been the easiest of years for Brady, as the New England offense has struggled to consistently put points on the board throughout the season. His numbers are down across the board, and the Patriots offense is no longer a feared unit throughout the NFL.
But that won't deter Brady from competing his tail off every weekend.
"The thing about the football season is it's 16 individual games, but in the end, it's a long span of practice-play, practice-play. It's like a marathon. You have these individual sprints in the marathon and it's all about the competitiveness you bring on a weekly basis," said Brady. "Everyone has it the first four games, first eight games, and at the end you get a second wind. Things are a bit more clear as you go through the end of the season.
"It's great to be at this point, but the point for all of us is to go out and win and do the best we can possibly do. Excited to take the field on Sunday; we have a lot to play for," Brady continued. "To get to 13-3 is a great accomplishment and very hard to do. We have a lot at stake and we have to go play like it."
But the Patriots are right there in the one stat that matters: Wins. They'll try to clinch the No. 2 seed in the AFC and a first-round bye with a victory over the Miami Dolphins this weekend.
"This is an important time of the year. As important as the first game is, so is the last one," said Brady. "It's essentially a playoff game."
Tune in to Sunday's Patriots-Dolphins game on WBZ-TV — the flagship station of the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. with Patriots GameDay, kickoff is set for 1 p.m., and after the game switch over to TV38 for full reaction and analysis on Patriots 5th Quarter!