Tom Brady: I Only Care About Earning My Teammates' Respect
FOXBORO (CBS) -- "Ignore The Noise" is a Belichickism that has become one of the most-used cliches when discussing the New England Patriots over the years. It is a mantra that means a lot inside that Patriots locker room, as players are trained to shut out outside voices whose comments, criticisms and proclamations ultimately mean nothing when the games are actually being played. And for the most part, players abide by it.
Yet as with everything, there are always a few exceptions, and weeks in which Tom Brady goes up against Peyton Manning's team would certainly fall in that category. The week of buildup to the game centers solely around the future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, and it stands to reason that the legacy comparisons and historical significance cannot go completely unnoticed by Brady.
Yet on Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium, after beating Manning's team for the 11th time out of 16 meetings, Brady spoke openly and honestly about what truly drives him to be great in games like the one he had just played.
"I think it's just a topic for people to talk about. It's hard to compare anybody -- that's how I always feel," Brady said of the unavoidable comparisons that will always be made between the two quarterbacks. "I've been lucky enough to play here; he's had an incredible career. ... He's always set a really high bar for how to play. I've tried to do the same through my efforts with my team.
"You know," Brady continued, "the only thing I really care about is the respect of my teammates and trying to go out there every day and earn it. There's a lot of things that I can't control, things like that, things that may happen on a daily basis. You've just got to try to figure out the things you can control and work hard at them and earn it every day. There's nothing that's given to you in this league."
At first glance, they seem like your average, run-of-the-mill quotes from an athlete who is very competitive and constantly driven to win. Yet these comments had a bit more sincerity than normal. For one, they came at the very end of his 10-plus-minute session with the media, a time when he's usually eager to get off the podium and rush to be with his family and close friends. But more, they came after his normal deflection of the "noise" part of the question. His voice dropped, he relaxed a bit and he shared what's truly important to him.
It seemed like the words of a quarterback who knows he's much closer to the 18th hole of his career than the 9th, and one who ever since missing all of the 2008 season has appreciated every single second he has in the NFL.
They're also the words of a guy who's still pretty darn good at slinging the football. He threw for 333 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday, leading his team to a dominant 43-21 win over Manning's Broncos. He now has 22 touchdowns and just three interceptions, on pace for another stellar season under center.
It was just about one month ago when many folks with a trigger-happy pen began writing Brady's career obituary, after he threw two interceptions in a lopsided loss on Monday night. But since then, he's completed 67.5 percent of his passes, throwing 18 touchdowns and just one interception -- a tipped pass off the hands of Danny Amendola on Sunday. He's also, more importantly, picked up five straight wins, and his performance on Sunday (along with, of course, many of his teammates' play) placed the Patriots atop the AFC totem pole as the season heads into the final two months.
It was also about a month ago when Rob Gronkowski stood at his locker in the Patriots locker room, tears nearly hitting his eyes, his voice cracking, as he spoke up for his quarterback.
"I went out there with my teammates, and we made Tom Brady look like Tom Brady after you guys were criticizing him all week — the fans, everything," Gronkowski said after that season-changing win over the Bengals. "And it feels so good, and he's such a leader, and he went over 50,000 yards tonight. He's an unbelievable player and I'm so glad to play with him."
It lends credence to Brady's comments about caring about his teammates' respect above all else. It shows up on the field, when Brady runs 50 yards from the sideline in order to congratulate Julian Edelman after an incredible punt return for a touchdown. It's apparent on every single play, when Brady refuses to give up one inch, calls his own number and gets himself banged up on quarterback sneaks, absorbs huge hits from charging linebackers and just keeps on ticking. And the end result? It shows up in the win-loss record.
And in that regard, Brady can add his 11th check mark in the "W" column in his 16 head-to-head matchups with Manning. Yet it's unlikely he puts too much stock in those 11 wins, particularly the ones that are a decade old. It's much more likely that he'll look at the film, process his mistakes and then get to work on the Patriots' next opponent.
That, more than the stats and more than the win-loss record vs. one quarterback, is what Tom Brady has always been about. It remains as true as ever in Year 15 as it was back on Sept. 30, 2001, when Brady made his first career start. That start came, sure enough, against Peyton Manning's Colts, and that same drive that led Brady to take Drew Bledsoe's job and never give it back has persisted through all these years, through all the ups and downs of his Hall of Fame career.
And so with another Brady-Manning duel in the books, perhaps it's best to hold off on the comparisons of the two. Instead, it might be more productive to compare Brady to Brady. It's evident that the single-minded focus to improve his own game and help his team win burns as strong as ever, and though there's a long way to go in the 2014 season, it has the Patriots atop the standings in the AFC.
Brady says that all he wants is to earn his teammates' respect. Through the season's midway point, he's given them no reason to doubt him.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
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