Brady Still Feeling Nerves Ahead Of 9th AFC Championship Game
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's pretty incredible to think that after Sunday, Tom Brady will have played in nine AFC Championship games in his 15 NFL seasons.
But even as he gets ready for Sunday's tilt with the Indianapolis Colts, his 28th career playoff game, Brady admits he still feels those pregame nerves.
And not just in the hours leading up to the game. Those nerves started immediately after the Patriots found out it would be the Colts coming to Gillette with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Sure, there were a few hours Saturday night and Sunday afternoon that Brady got to enjoy watching football, and those nerves were nowhere to be found.
But as soon as the Colts beat the Denver Broncos on Sunday, those nerves, that edge, was back in the Brady household. It even prompted his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, to ask Brady what his problem was.
"I get pretty edgy," Brady admitted to reporters Wednesday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, with the Lamar Hunt trophy not far from his podium. "I just think there's a high level of pressure every week and the pressure is on from the moment... I would say it's like watching the games on Sunday, you watch the first game – Cowboys-Packers – and it's kind of fun. You get to watch that game, but then all of a sudden you watch Denver and Indy play, and as soon as that game ends it's like, 'Boom!' The clock starts. It's a race to see who can prepare the best over the course of the week."
As Brady spoke about his preparation for Sunday's game, it was clear his emotions were rising.
"You do everything you can through the preparation to get an understanding of what the team is doing and how you're going to play and which plays you're going to install and how you're going to run the plays, and did you execute the plays? All those things lessen the anxiety because you can go out and perform and build confidence in what you're doing. It's kind of the ebbs and flows of the week. Sometimes I'm in a good mood. Sometimes I'm in a [expletive] mood… bad mood. Sorry."
Brady raised his eyebrows and quickly apologized, realizing that his press conference was being broadcast on live TV. While his potty mouth on the sidelines caused a bit of a stir a few months ago, chalk this one up to Brady's raw emotion carrying over into his weekly preparation.
Asked if he's ever considered dialing back that ferocity he displays on the sidelines each Sunday, even just a little bit, Brady was quick to point out that's not how he always is. But when there's football to be played, the calm Tom goes through a Bruce Banner-esque transformation and lets those raw emotions take over.
"I'm actually pretty mellow most of the time, as you guys know. It's just for those three hours on Sunday that you let it rip, which is really when you can be yourself," he said. "You have to go out there and bring a level of energy and enthusiasm, and all the guys do that. Certainly, making good plays helps that. You see your teammates make good plays, taht is all part of it. Hopefully we make a lot of good plays."
While he may get a little too riled up at times, Brady said it never keeps him from focusing on the game, and it's a big part of his drive on the field.
And those nerves, even four days ahead of a game? Those are a big part of everything No. 12 does as well.
"I think that's part of playing sports, being in a competitive situation like we are, I don't think that ever goes away," said Brady. "You never know what's going to happen on game day, you work as hard as you can to try to prepare for everything to be physically and mentally right. No one can predict what's going to happen. You have your vision of the way you want things to turn out on a particular play or scheme, or something like that. If it does, great. If it doesn't happen the way you want, which is most of the time, you have to figure out something to do. I think that's where a lot of the nerves come into play, and the anxiousness and anticipation of what's going to happen vs. what we prepared for. You just have to prepare for a lot of things."
Brady will be prepared for anything on Sunday, and you can imagine his teammates will be prepared for a very fired up quarterback come kickoff.
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