Tom Brady shares his own take on "The Patriot Way"

FOXBORO -- For two decades, the Patriots ruled the NFL under the watch of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Throughout their dynastic run, "The Patriot Way" became the mantra of the team and fans who were along for the glorious ride.

Except New England players never really used that phrase. At least not the guy at the top of it all.

"I've never used that term in my entire life," Brady said Tuesday during his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. "I think when people say it, I'm always like, 'What's the Patriot Way'? It sounds like the title of a book."

Brady gave his own take on the phrase, saying Patriots players were always trying to do things the "right" way as a team. No one was above anyone else, and they were all fighting for a common goal: To win.

That's pretty much how fans defined "The Patriot Way," though players just saw it as teamwork at its finest.

"I think what we tried to do was, we tried to do things the right way. I think we tried to practice the right way and prepare the right way. What happened on game day was ultimately a reflection of what we practiced," said Brady. "I thought we had great leadership from our coaches, and it filtered down to the guys that really drove the culture. We had so many guys that I played with over the course of a lot of years that really understood that, 'Okay I'm going to care about my teammates and I'm going to care about helping the team win.' And whatever personal agenda you had -- individual success and individual awards -- I don't want to make those insignificant, but they weren't as significant as what we were trying to accomplish as a team."

Brady said that having a collection of selfless players is what really drove the team's success.

"To me, it was always when we scored touchdowns we would celebrate with the offensive line, because without them we didn't have anything," said Brady. "I didn't have time to throw the ball or holes that we could open up on the o-line for the back to get through. When we had a tight end like Gronk at the point to attack, or early in my career we had Dan Graham, one of the great blockers that I've ever seen, we could run to the tight end and that tight end could now release up the seam and we'd throw the ball for a big gain on third down.

"It was all teamwork," Brady added

Brady said that the Patriots always celebrated those little things, but they rarely got pointed out on television. He aims to change that next season when he takes his place in the FOX broadcasting booth.

"Those are things I'd like to point out when I'm on FOX next year, that this is the ultimate team sport. We're playing chess out there," he said. "I'm not necessarily looking at where the ball is. I'm looking for things that create opportunities for everybody to make plays whether that's offense, defense or in the kicking game."