‘Gladiator Persona’ Tom Brady Reveals How Anger Helped Sharpen His Focus On the Field

For many over the years, Tom Brady has been the epitome of a nice guy. A squeaky-clean image, incredible composure and rare instances of behavioral issues made Brady the American household’s perfect athlete. However, in a surprise revelation by the GOAT, Brady revealed that he used anger to motivate and fire himself up in his play days.

Appearing on The Pivot Podcast, Tom revealed to Ryan Clark and Fred Taylor that he used anger on the field to enhance his focus.

The seven-time Super Bowl winner admitted that he also wanted to “kill” his opposition on the field like the opposition wanted to do to TB12. He called this mental state, the gladiator persona – an all-in mentality where the gladiator is ready to go to all extents to secure the win.

“Anger was a great way for me to approach the playing field, like I could not look at you on the field. I like Ryan off the field when you take your stuff off, great, Ryan the Steeler. You wanted to kill me and I wanted to kill you, that’s just the way it was. Not literally but that we did our job and I think it was when you’re out there on the field, that’s a gladiator persona for all of us.”

But what set the former Patriots star apart was his ability to quickly detach from the state once the match was over. Great actors have always shown the ability to switch off from their characters once they leave the sets. However, the bottom line for Brady was nothing better than anger that made him focused.

“When I walked off the field, I didn’t have to be that person anymore which was good cuz I didn’t want to be that person in my everyday life. So I just feel like anger was the one thing I could always tap into that would get me way more focused.”

While Brady was praising the role that anger played in his on-field success, poor host Fred Taylor was crying from inside remembering facing the wrath of TB12 in his second rookie season.

When Tom Brady “Chewed” Fred Taylor “The Fu*k Out” For a Mistake

Former Patriots RB Fred Taylor is all too familiar with TB-12’s anger. Taylor revealed the time when had to face the wrath of the GOAT, remembering how he was blasted by the former QB for making a simple tactical error against Washington in a preseason game.

Instead of playing off Mike, Brady wanted Taylor to make a run. However, Taylor didn’t know this because he was a last-minute replacement for starter Kevin Faulk. He remembered,

“My second year there in 2010, preseason yeah third game versus Washington – it was a meeting that I didn’t go to. Kevin Went to but Kevin didn’t play in the preseason game, so I had to. I was in the F position. I had the versus cover two, Tampa two. I had the inside hook but I had to play off Mike and you wanted me to run a skinny out but I hooked it in. He chewed me the the fu*k out in pre-season but being the great teammate that you are, you came and apologized because you recognize Freddy wasn’t in that meeting.”

Due to missing the meeting, Taylor committed the mistake and thus had to face the wrath of the GOAT. However post the match, the GOAT realized that the RB hadn’t attended the meeting. Hence he went on to apologize to Taylor for not being cognizant of this fact before teeing off on him. While a calm and collected persona off the field, it seems Brady was quite the angry young man on the field.