Tom Brady has been to the top of the mountain where no one else has ever been. He’s won more Super Bowls than anyone and is widely considered the greatest to ever play in the NFL. But he didn’t get there by having everything handed to him—Brady faced plenty of adversity throughout his career and had to battle through it.
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Brady opened up about the adversity he faced during his career in his latest newsletter. He talked about not giving up until the end and referenced his legendary 28-3 comeback in the Super Bowl as a key moment, expressing that the difference between a championship and a runner-up is most often mentality.
“The Falcons could have locked up that game at multiple points in the second half,” he penned before continuing,
“But to do it they were going to have to take the win from us, we weren’t going to give it to them. Our refusal to lose was stronger than their desire to win. This mindset, I believe, was the difference between their first championship and our fifth as a franchise.”
It’s a powerful statement from the GOAT and one that others, aspiring athletes or not, should take to heart. Most of the best players in any sport hate losing more than they love winning. So, just imagine how hard it must be for some ultra-competitive players to lose on the biggest stage.
Some may look at Brady’s resume and assume he had a perfect career without facing tough times. But that’s far from reality. From 2005 to 2013, he struggled to get over the hump and secure his fourth Super Bowl.
In fact, he suffered one of the most devastating upsets in NFL history when he lost to Eli Manning and the Giants in ‘07, which spoiled the Patriots’ perfect season. He lost to the same team in the Big Game again in 2012. But he battled through it and went on to win four more championships in the years that followed.
What seemed to prompt the entire newsletter was a speech that college basketball coaching legend Rick Pitino gave to his St. John’s team during halftime earlier this year. Pitino’s squad was trailing Providence at halftime, a team they should be beating handily. And Pitino let his team have it.
Pitino’s Speech
“Don’t you know what adversity is all about? That’s the f***ing game of life, not the game of basketball,” Pitino exclaimed. “You don’t f***ing get down when things go wrong. You dig in and get tougher. Your whole life’s gonna be adversity, learn how to f***ing deal with it!” Pitino told his athletes.
The speech naturally went viral on social media. Some criticized the head coach for the harsh words. But other former athletes, like Brady, saw it as a speech every athlete needs to hear at some point.
“If you’ve played sports long enough, you know what it’s like to get yelled at like this by a coach. I’ve been yelled at by every coach I’ve ever played for,” Brady wrote.
“Like it or not, yelling is part of the fabric of organized team sports… This was a scared-straight, sliding doors, change-your-life-forever type of yelling. This was the type of yelling you hear when someone is desperately trying to reach you.”
It’s hard not to agree with Brady. What Pitino did wasn’t out of spite or because he had something against one of his players. He yelled at his team because he wanted them to listen and fully process what he was saying.
Sometimes a coach can talk so much to their players that it sounds like jargon after a while. That’s why Pitino made it indelibly clear what he was trying to communicate to his team. There’s time to pout about things not going your way later, but during the game, it’s time to overcome what didn’t go your way. Don’t pout, figure it out as the saying goes.
