As the greatest American football player, his wife is supermodel Gisele Bundchen… Tom Brady is so perfect that someone wants to steal his “like” from a movie.

In March 2020, Tom Brady, 42, left the New England Patriots after 20 years of association. If in football, this is an event on par with Lionel Messi’s farewell to Barca. Brady has worn the Patriots shirt since his first day playing professionally in the US national football tournament – NFL. He is also revered as the GOAT – Best Player of All Time – of rugby.

The achievements say it all. With the Patriots, Brady attended nine Super Bowl games (NFL finals) and won six – more than any other player in history. He won the Super Bowl Player of the Year four times and added three other NFL Best Player awards. This includes the classic 2017 Super Bowl , now known as the “28-3 match”. At that time, the Atlanta Falcons thought they were sure of victory when they led the Patriots with a score of 28-3, but were reversed and lost 28-34.

Tom Brady celebrates the NFL championship after the 2017 Super Bowl. Photo: Reuters .

Not only successful on the pitch, Brady also has a fulfilling life. He is 1m93 tall, has a handsome face and his wife is the cult supermodel Gisele Bundchen. It is no coincidence that in the comedy “Ted 2”, the two main characters tried to break into Brady’s house to get “breed”, when the teddy bear Ted wanted to have 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren by artificial insemination. In the eyes of many Americans, Brady is the perfect man, a real-life superhero.

But to get to the current position, Brady has gone through extraordinary hard days and still has not stopped.

Willpower than people

For those who are unfamiliar with rugby and Tom Brady, he can be thought of as a version of Cristiano Ronaldo in the football world. The Portuguese player is famous not only for his footballing talent but also for his professionalism, discipline, scientific lifestyle and desire to win to the extreme. So does Brady.

Ever since he was a University of Michigan intern at the financial firm Merrill Lynch, Brady has demonstrated more disciplined qualities. “Tom was always polite to everyone, worked hard, completed every task assigned and liked to feel busy,” former boss Oliver Owens told CNBC .

That was in the late 1990s, when Owens was Vice President of Merrill Lynch and the financial markets were constantly setting new records, leaving many employees in the group not putting in their best effort at work. This annoys the intern Brady, as Owen has witnessed: “Once I saw him raise his arms to the sky and ask, ‘Isn’t there anyone else working here?”.

When Brady complained that he had nothing to do, Mr. Owens suggested that he update all of his partners’ business cards into the Rolodex pagination. To this day, when he has moved to UBS, Mr. Owens still keeps the Roledex with hundreds of business cards arranged by Brady every day on his desk and says it is “a great story to tell with colleagues”. the customer is a football fan”.

Brady does research data collection before client meetings. And he did so well that after his second summer as a trainee, he was invited by boss Owens to have a private chat. He insists he “will have a bright future in finance”, but Brady is determined to try his hand at professional rugby.

A few months later, Brady was picked by the New England Patriots in the 199th draft of the sixth draft. When he first turned pro, Brady was just a backup quarterback, but from that moment he told Patriots owner Robert Kraft: “Picking me was the best decision this team has ever made in history.” . This story is part of the reason why England striker Harry Kane is a fan of Tom Brady. Kane was also dropped by Arsenal’s youth team and was loaned to lower-tier clubs before finding a place in the Tottenham squad.

Since playing for the school team, Brady had declared to the coach that if he was promoted to the NFL, the Patriots would never use Drew Bledsoe again. At that time, Bledsoe was the official quarterback of the Patriots and even considered the top star of the NFL. But a serious injury in the 2001 season kept Bledsoe out and created an opportunity for rookie Brady.

Cornerback of the Patriots from 2000 to 2004, Ty Law told ESPN : “When Tom was on the starting line-up, we just hoped he wouldn’t make a mistake. To this day, I still vividly remember one of Tom’s words to him. We had a conversation. In those days, Drew Bledsoe was an excellent quarterback, but Tom still said firmly: ‘Drew has no way to regain his position’.

“On one hand, I thought ‘Must have such a weapon!’, on the other hand, I thought: ‘This is a pro and Drew was picked from the first draft with a big contract. Congratulations. This boy was lucky to get past him.’ But Tom didn’t think so.He wasn’t disrespecting Drew at all, but just tried his best, making it impossible for coach Bill Belichick and owner Kraft to bring Drew back. the main team again.”

Bledsoe (right) had to sell out of the Patriots because he couldn’t compete for the official spot with Brady. Photo: AP .

The results were true to Brady’s claims: Bledsoe could not return to the main squad after recovering from injury. Despite having just signed a 10-year contract in March 2001, Bledsoe was forced to switch to the Buffalo Bills from the 2002 season and then retired with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006. His replacement at the Patriots became a legend of the country. not only the tournament but also rugby with the nickname “TB12”.

In 2017, Bill Belichick, the Patriots coach from 2000 to present, gave an interview to CNBC reporter Suzy Welch . According to him, Brady is not a natural athlete, but he has other qualities that make him great.

The first is a sense of practice. Belichick said: “He’s not as good as he is today when he first came to the Patriots, even a kilometer away from his current level. But Tom works very hard. He trains harder than anyone and deserves it. with all current successes”. Tactical thinking is also important. The coach added: “On the pitch, he sees a lot of things and has the ability to absorb huge amounts of information quickly. Tom has a great football mindset and understands how the team works. ball and opponent”.

Brady’s final strength, according to Belichick, is focus. “He’s always really focused on short-term goals. Tom can just focus on this week’s challenges and at the end of the week, he’ll put it out of his mind and set new challenges.” , he said.

A statistic shows that only 5% of players maintain a rugby career until the age of 42. Brady does that with a strict diet-sleep-exercise. On WEEI radio , this quarterback said he usually goes to bed before 9 pm. He explained: “I go to bed very early because of my habit of getting up early. I think my personal choices always revolve around improving my level of football. Therefore, every decision about food and drink .. ., it’s all about rugby. I want to be the best version I can be every day, every week. I want to be the best for my teammates.”

“I love rugby and want to play for a long time, but I understand, to do that, I need to do something different from what other players usually do. Strength exercises, fitness and lifestyle are all the same. It’s very important. Because nothing makes me as happy as playing football, and I want to prolong this as much as possible,” added Brady.

In the book “The TB12 Method: How to Stay at the Top for Life?”, Brady reveals his menu: “My diet is a blend of East-West philosophies. some of the principles are even thousands of years old.My diet may be harsh for some people, but for me, eating differently is unnatural.Many young players these days don’t. I care about nutrition and eat whatever I like, but I don’t.”

Private chef Allen Campbell revealed that up to 80% of the food Brady eats is vegetables. He drinks a lot of water every day and often eats fish and fruits. The list of foods and drinks that Brady doesn’t use can shock many people. It is understandable for an athlete to limit the use of alcoholic beverages, junk food, sweets …, but Brady is more strict than that. During the off-season, Brady does not eat gluten-containing breads and pastas, grains, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, sugar, sweeteners, fruit juices, soft drinks, ketchup, tomatoes- coffee… Even Brady’s cooking oil has to be coconut oil, because for him olive oil is still not enough… healthy.

In Men’s Health , Brady said he sometimes lets loose and treats himself, but only when it’s the best food. “If I crave bacon or pizza, I’ll eat one,” he said. I don’t want to eat a bad piece of pizza and wonder why I have to eat it.”

Cristiano Ronaldo is famous for waking up early to practice at Man Utd and making Carlos Tevez mad because he couldn’t come to practice earlier than his teammates. Brady has a similar story. The victim is Rodney Harrison – a Patriots player from 2003-2008. “When I first arrived in New England, we became friends,” says Harrison. “I went to the weight room at 6:30 a.m., and heard Brady say, ‘Good afternoon!

Brady with his supermodel wife Bundchen. Photo: AP .

“So the next day, I arrived 15 minutes early and the same thing happened again. The next day, I arrived at 5:45 am and heard him say ‘Good afternoon’ twice. Finally, I arrived at 5:30 am. , and before Brady could open his mouth, I blocked his throat: ‘I don’t care what you say, Tom. There’s no way I’m getting to practice earlier than 5:30!’ We both burst out laughing after that. there”.

Good relationship with teammates is also a factor that helps Brady reach the top. He places high demands on the field with his teammates, but shows interest in real life. When Sebastian Vollmer joined the Patriots in 2009, he was surprised to be greeted by Brady himself. Vollmer said: “Going into the dressing room, of course everyone knew who Tom was. But he still came out to introduce himself to the new recruits: ‘Hi, I’m Tom Brady. I play quarterback’. Tom doesn’t try to be bossy or arrogant.”

Matthew Slater was even more surprised when he first turned pro. He said: “The first day of the draft, I felt lost and didn’t know what role I would take on in the team. But Tom came to know me and told him that he knew me and my career at the University. California. I didn’t expect that a star like him would take the time to learn about a young player. That says a lot about Tom’s personality.”

Obsessed with victory

At an age where many other players have retired, Brady still wants to fight until 45, even 50 years old. He still has a burning desire to win, as he has shown throughout his career. On the field, Brady is always known for his enthusiasm and likes to swear to vent his anger. He once admitted to hating the feeling of losing and had to practice his body language so as not to frighten his teammates too much. Brady once had a chat to encourage team spirit so that they didn’t lose a… charity match against local firefighters.

Darrelle Revis, a teammate at the Patriots, even likened Brady’s desire to win to an illness. He said: “I think Tom’s disease is always wanting to compete and destroy all opponents. From the outside, the audience can see that he is a loser. But he has to practice with Tom every day. I can see why he’s so successful when I see how he approaches the game every day.”

It is Brady’s high demand that makes his teammates better, because every practice match with them is like an official match when Brady is on the field. According to Business Insider , Brady even sacrificed more than $ 60 million in contract remuneration at the Patriots to help the team have money to strengthen its forces, thereby creating a stronger team.

The desire to win is likened to a pathology of Brady. Photo: AP .

Brady doesn’t just hate losing in rugby. He hates to lose at… all fields. Former teammate Danny Amendola said Brady once broke his racket after losing a table tennis game. Another story comes from Wes Welker – who wore the Patriots shirt from 2007-2012. He said: “On the plane, I played a game for fun with Tom and won him in the first few innings. The bet he lost was $200. I started making fun of Tom and saw his angry attitude. clearly. He even took the chessboard and threw it on the floor, before coming back to play with me again.”

“In the end, he won back me 300 USD and smiled happily ever before. I withdrew the money, but Tom refused to take it. He just wanted to win.”

On March 20, Brady signed a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, worth $50 million. On social media sites, the majority of Patriots fans sent their blessings instead of resenting Brady. For them, seeing a living legend like Brady play was too lucky, and many also expressed hope that Brady would return to the Patriots for a season before retiring.

But that day is probably far away.