For the better part of his early NFL career, Tom Brady knew very little about extended stretches without success. Three Super Bowl wins in his first four full seasons as a starter established him as one of the most dominant quarterbacks of his era. But from 2007 to 2010, everything changed.
Advertisement
Brady encountered a stretch that challenged him in ways he hadn’t experienced before, one that also taught him a hard-earned lesson about the true nature of hope.
The 2007 season, for instance, ended in heartbreak for the GOAT and the New England Patriots. After a perfect 16-0 regular season, they fell to the Eli Manning-led New York Giants in a stunning Super Bowl upset.
To add to Brady’s misery, any thoughts of a quick rebound were dashed almost instantly in 2008. He tore his ACL in the season opener. Then, by the time Brady returned in 2009, his team faced even more changes, as key defensive starters had either been traded or retired, while offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left for Denver.
Brady and the Patriots did manage to finish 10-6 and win the AFC East that year, but the success was short-lived as the Patriots were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the Ravens. “It was not a great feeling,” Brady recalled on his weekly newsletter, 199.
Up until this point, his approach to the game had been straightforward: trust the coaches to have a plan, execute the assignments, and focus on performing at a high level. But by 2010, with Bill O’Brien stepping into the OC role and still relatively new to the program, the legendary quarterback recognized an opportunity and a need for something more.
He decided that “hope” couldn’t mean simply wishing things would get better. Drawing from what he would later describe as the modern scientific definition — “the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways” — Tom Brady embraced a more active, solutions-driven leadership role.
This meant proactively communicating with O’Brien about what plays he liked, what he had confidence in, and what had worked in the past. It also meant rejecting wishful thinking in favour of tangible action. “There could be no wishful thinking if we were going to achieve our goals as a team,” he explained.
Naturally, this proactive approach worked its charm as the results spoke for themselves, and New England finished 14-2, earning the AFC’s No. 1 seed in 2010.
This is why, fifteen years later, as a broadcaster evaluating 32 teams each season, Brady still applies that perspective.
True hope isn’t passive …. it’s built on leadership, process, and deliberate action. Because in Tom Brady’s case, it was forged in the difficult years when talent alone wasn’t enough.
