“Is Tom Brady gonna be a Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan Type?”: Chris Godwin Was Worried About How The NFL Goat Would Fit With The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tom Brady and Michael Jordan both carried a certain aura around them. This aura often made players like Chris Godwin a little apprehensive.

Tom Brady made the monumental decision to leave the New England Patriots behind as he began a new chapter in his storied career. The decision was not an easy one to make. Brady had several options on the table. He could’ve gone back to California with either his childhood-favorite San Francisco 49ers or the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Bears were also reportedly in the fold for Brady’s services. At the end of the day, he chose Tampa Bay. One of the biggest reasons he did was because of their stellar receiving core. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin put up electric numbers in the 2019-20 season and clearly Brady saw something there that he wanted.

However, his arrival did leave a little mystery. Chris Godwin was initially star-struck when the legendary quarterback reached out to him via text message and a little curious about what kind of teammate he would be.

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Chris Godwin Reveals Private DM From Tom Brady, Was In Disbelief That It Was Actually Him

Chris Godwin recently filled in to write a column on Peter King’s Football Morning In America as he remains on vacation, and in it, he talked about how Tom Brady completely changed the trajectory of his career.

Godwin was a receiver out of Penn State who had been a Bucs fan going back to the Jon Gruden, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, Mike Alstott days. To play for the team he loved was a dream come true. To play with Tom Brady was a miracle.

The Bucs wide receiver had no expectations that Brady would even consider joining Tampa Bay. After all, his home was in LA, they had more proven winners in Keenan Allen, Hunter Henry, and Mike Williams. What would really draw the greatest quarterback of all time to Tampa? Godwin writes:

He’s from California. Maybe he wanted to go home. I mean, both teams have a good set of skill players. They have Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and they had Hunter Henry. They had some good players. I thought there was no shot he’d come to Tampa. What would really draw him here?

Ultimately, Tom would choose Tampa Bay, coining the term “Tompa Bay” as he got ready to bring the Buccaneers another Super Bowl. Godwin was in denial that Brady had joined the team, so when he saw a text message from Brady pop up on his phone, he just assumed it wasn’t real.

Then I saw we’re agreeing to terms with Tom. I got a notification on my phone. Still I didn’t believe it. I went on Instagram to see if there was any other news on it. I saw a direct message notification. It said it was from “Tom Brady.”

I was like, no, no, no, no, nah, nah. This can’t be the real Tom.

It was the real Tom.

Charismatic as ever, Brady simply told the young receiver how excited he was to work together and added a few jokes in there:

Let me pull it up on my phone. March 17. He said he was excited to play with me, he’s watched me a lot over the years. He even threw a college joke in there: “I won’t hold it against you that you’re a Penn State guy.”

Then he said congrats on your engagement.

I had just gotten engaged. And the greatest player of all time is DM-ing me wishing me good luck with my engagement and saying he’s excited to play with me!

Chris Godwin Wasn’t Sure If Brady Would Be Like Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant Or More Fun-Going

There’s no question about Tom Brady’s drive to be a winner. He’s the ultimate competitor in the NFL world. His time with Bill Belichick and “The Patriot Way” had morphed him into a machine of efficiency, driven by one desire and one desire only: win.

However, he isn’t the same kind of competitor guys like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant were. While Brady has the same knack for getting “laser focused” during games and tuning out everything besides football, the way he behaves on the field and with his teammates is far different than Kobe or Jordan used to.

We’ve heard stories of how Jordan and Kobe would often bully their teammates, believing more in the “tough love” treatment more than anything. Brady isn’t like that at all. Neither approaches are bad to the game, they’re simply different, and Brady chose to be a different kind of leader than Kobe or MJ.

This was something that was on Godwin’s mind too. He had never played with someone of Brady’s caliber in his career, and he wasn’t sure if Brady was going to be the stickler for business that Jordan and Bryant were attributed to being.

Is Tom gonna be a Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan-type, super-locked-in from the minute he gets out there? A real no-BS guy? But I walk up and he’s the friendliest guy. For someone who’s so accomplished and as highly regarded as he is, he was humble and receptive to the thoughts and opinions of his new teammates.

It looks like Brady’s attitude end up working as the Buccaneers went on to win the Super Bowl. Initially, Brady and his receivers weren’t always on the same page as the Tampa Bay offense was turnover prone and sluggish at the start of the season.

Once Brady, Godwin, Mike Evans got clicking they were basically on the save levels of winning that Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan were at. Jordan and Kobe may have been hard-willed, but that isn’t Brady’s style. We’ve seen Brady clown around on social media so much and look care-free.

Imagining him to be the same as Michael Jordan (in terms of attitude) would be a stretch. In the end, everything worked out for Brady’s Bucs, and Godwin got the ring that had eluded him his whole career.

For Godwin’s column, you can check the link here. He goes into far more detail about his upbringing, time as a Buccaneer, and what winning the Super Bowl meant to him.

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