Tom Brady is the ultimate competitor, and his mindset is always setting on getting the ring that matters the most: the next one.
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When the NFL GOAT switched over from the Patriots to the Buccaneers last year, many people speculated whether he would really be able to find success under a head coach whose name wasn’t Bill Belichick. Well, Brady proved them wrong and then some.
Not only did he play sensational (top five in passing yards and touchdowns), he also won the Buccaneers a Super Bowl finishing as the Super Bowl MVP. This year, he’s exceeding expectations too as he’s first in the league in passing yards (2,275) and touchdowns (21) with only three interceptions. He also recently became the first player to throw 600 career touchdowns.
The #12 is going to go down in NFL history, but there was a decent chance Brady wouldn’t have been rocking 12 with the Buccaneers the last two years.
Tom Brady was ready to wear #7 as it embodied his “next ring” mindset
If you’ve ever heard Brady speak about his favorite ring, you must know that he’s very fond of the ‘next one’ implying that he’s never content with how many he has.
That mentality almost led Brady to taking up a different jersey number with the Buccaneers. It might feel like a lifetime ago now, but there was a time when Chris Godwin used to wear the #12 that Brady had donned for 20 years with New England.
After the deal had gone through, GM Jason Licht wanted to make sure that Brady knew Godwin was already wearing the number that he’d been used to having for so long.
“Hey, there’s one other thing here,” Licht told Brady. “It’s a small thing, but maybe a big thing. We have a No 12 on our team and he’s pretty good – Chris Godwin. What are you thinking about that?”
Brady isn’t the kind of person to demand anything outright from a teammate in terms of his own desires, so his response was much more diplomatic, and yet, at the same time it showed how competitive he truly is.
“Oh, he’s a great player,” Brady answered back. “I’m not going to take his number. I don’t care about that. You know what number I’m thinking of? I’m thinking of taking maybe No 7. Is that available?”
The number was certainly available but Licht didn’t understand why Brady wanted seven. “It is,” Licht replied back. “Why do you want that number?”
The answer Brady gave is something you can only expect from the legend. “I want that seventh ring,” Brady calmly answered. That attitude, and that mindset, to always be on the look out for a championship is what enabled Brady and the Bucs to never give up. They got off to a shaky start, and 13 weeks in, they were sitting at 7-5 looking nothing like a Super Bowl contender.
Brady and Arians would then have what is now a storied phone call where they dissected the offense to fit both Brady’s playstyle and Arians’ scheme. The result was an undefeated run all the way to the Super Bowl.
