In March 2020, Tom Brady, 42, left the New England Patriots after 20 years. In football terms, this is an event on par with Lionel Messi leaving Barca. Brady has worn the Patriots jersey since his first professional game in the NFL. He is also considered the GOAT – the greatest player of all time – of football.

The records speak for themselves. With the Patriots, Brady has played in nine Super Bowls and won six—more than any other player in history. He has won four Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards and three NFL Most Valuable Player awards. That includes the 2017 Super Bowl classic , now known as the “28-3 Game.” The Atlanta Falcons were up 28-3 against the Patriots, but were beaten 34-28.

Not only successful on the field, Brady also has a fulfilling life. He is 1m93 tall, has a handsome face and his wife is the famous supermodel Gisele Bundchen. It is no coincidence that in the comedy “Ted 2”, the two main characters tried to break into Brady’s house to… get “seed”, when the teddy bear Ted wanted to have a child by artificial insemination. In the eyes of many Americans, Brady is the perfect man, a real-life superhero.

But to get to where he is today, Brady has gone through months of extraordinary training and has yet to stop.

Willpower

For those who are unfamiliar with football and Tom Brady, he can be considered a version of Cristiano Ronaldo in the football world. The Portuguese player is famous not only for his football talent but also for his professionalism, discipline, scientific lifestyle and ultimate desire to win. Brady is the same.

Brady has shown exceptional discipline since his time as a University of Michigan intern at Merrill Lynch. “Tom was always polite to everyone, worked hard, completed every task assigned to him and loved to be busy,” former boss Oliver Owens told CNBC .

It was the late 1990s, when Owens was a vice president at Merrill Lynch, and the financial markets were hitting new records, leaving many employees in the company not putting in their best effort. This annoyed intern Brady, as Owen witnessed: “One time I saw him throw his hands up in the air and say, ‘Isn’t there anyone else working here?'”

When Brady complained that he had no work to do, Owens asked him to update his Rolodex with all of his partners’ business cards. Now at UBS, Owens still keeps the Rolodex with hundreds of business cards that Brady used to keep on his desk, saying it’s “a great story to tell to football fans.”

Brady worked collecting research data before client meetings. And he did so well that after his second summer as an intern, he was asked to sit down with Owens, who assured him that he “had a great future in finance,” but Brady was adamant that he wanted to try his hand at professional football.

A few months later, Brady was drafted by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the sixth round. When he first turned pro, Brady was just a backup quarterback, but he even told Patriots owner Robert Kraft: “Picking me was the best decision this team has ever made in its history.” This story is part of the reason why English striker Harry Kane is a fan of Tom Brady. Kane was also rejected by Arsenal’s youth team and loaned out to lower-league clubs before finding his place in the Tottenham squad.

Since his college football days, Brady had told his coach that if he ever made it to the NFL, the Patriots would never play Drew Bledsoe again. At that time, Bledsoe was the Patriots’ starting quarterback and was considered one of the NFL’s top stars. But a serious injury in the 2001 season sidelined Bledsoe, giving rookie Brady a chance.

Patriots cornerback Ty Law told ESPN : “When Tom was playing in the starting lineup, we just hoped he wouldn’t make any mistakes. To this day, I still remember clearly what Tom said to us in a conversation. Back then, Drew Bledsoe was an excellent quarterback, but Tom still firmly said: ‘Drew has no chance of getting his position back'”.

“On one hand, I was like, ‘That’s the tone!’ On the other hand, I was like, ‘This is the pro league and Drew was a first-round pick with a big contract. Good luck to this kid in getting past him.’ But Tom didn’t think that way. He didn’t disrespect Drew at all, he just tried his best to make it impossible for coach Bill Belichick and owner Kraft to bring Drew back into the starting lineup.”

The result was exactly as Brady had predicted: Bledsoe never returned to the starting lineup after recovering from his injury. Despite signing a 10-year contract in March 2001, Bledsoe was forced to move to the Buffalo Bills for the 2002 season and then retire with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006. His replacement at the Patriots became a legend not only of the league but also of the game, nicknamed “TB12”.

In 2017, Bill Belichick, the Patriots’ coach since 2000, gave an interview to CNBC reporter Suzy Welch . According to him, Brady is not a naturally good athlete, but he has other qualities that make him great.

First is the training mentality. “He wasn’t as good as he is today when he first came to the Patriots, and he’s miles away from where he is now,” Belichick said. “But Tom works very hard. He trains harder than anyone else and deserves all the success he has.” Tactical thinking is also important. “He sees a lot on the field and has the ability to absorb a huge amount of information very quickly,” the coach added. “Tom has a great football mind and understands how both his team and his opponents operate.”

Brady’s final strength, according to Belichick, is focus. “He’s always really focused on the short term. Tom can just focus on the challenges of this week and then when the week is over, he’ll put it out of his mind and set a whole new challenge,” he said.

A statistic shows that only 5% of players maintain their football career until the age of 42. Brady does that with a strict diet – sleep – training regimen. On WEEI radio , this quarterback said he usually goes to bed before 9pm. He explained: “I go to bed very early because of my habit of waking up early. I think my personal choices always revolve around improving my football level. Therefore, all decisions about food, drink… revolve around football. I want to be the best version of myself every day, every week. I want to be the best for my teammates”.

“I love football and I want to play football for a long time, but I know that to do that, I need to do things differently than other players do. Strength training, fitness and lifestyle are all very important. Because nothing makes me happier than playing football, and I want to keep this going for as long as possible,” Brady added.

In his book “The TB12 Method: How to Maintain Peak Performance for Life,” Brady revealed his menu: “My diet is a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies. Some principles are even thousands of years old. My diet may be harsh to some people, but for me, eating any other way is unnatural. Many young players today don’t care about nutrition and eat whatever they want, but not me.”

Personal chef Allen Campbell revealed that 80% of the food Brady eats is vegetables. He drinks a lot of water every day and regularly eats fish and fruit. The list of foods and drinks that Brady does not use may shock many people. It is understandable that an athlete limits the use of alcoholic beverages, snacks, sweets… but Brady is even stricter. During the season, Brady does not eat bread and pasta containing a lot of gluten, grains, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, sugar, foods with sweeteners, fruit juice, soft drinks, tomato sauce, coffee… Even the oil used to cook Brady’s food must be coconut oil, because for him olive oil is still not… healthy enough.

Brady told Men’s Health that he still indulges sometimes, but only if it’s the best food. “If I’m craving bacon or pizza, I’ll have a slice. At the end of the day, we’re all human and we only have one life to live. But if I’m going to break the rules, it’s got to be the best pizza. I don’t want to eat a bad slice of pizza and wonder why I ate it.”

Cristiano Ronaldo is famous for waking up early to train at Man Utd and driving Carlos Tevez crazy because he couldn’t get to training before his teammates. Brady has a similar story. The victim was Rodney Harrison – a player for the Patriots from 2003-2008. Harrison said: “When I first came to New England, we became friends. I went to the weight room at 6:30 in the morning, and Brady said: ‘Good afternoon!’

“So the next day, I arrived 15 minutes early and the same thing happened. The next day, I arrived at 5:45 and he said ‘Good afternoon’ twice. Finally, I arrived at 5:30, and before Brady could open his mouth, I said, ‘I don’t care what you say, Tom. There’s no way I’m going to be there before 5:30!’ We both laughed.”

A good relationship with teammates is also a factor that helps Brady reach the top. He sets high standards for his teammates on the field, but shows concern off the field. When Sebastian Vollmer joined the Patriots in 2009, he was surprised to be welcomed by Brady himself. Vollmer said: “In the locker room, of course everyone knew who Tom was. But he still came out to introduce himself to the rookies: ‘Hi, I’m Tom Brady. I play quarterback.’ Tom didn’t try to act like he was the boss or arrogant.”

Matthew Slater was even more surprised when he first turned pro. “On the first day of the draft, I felt lost and didn’t know what role I would play on the team. But Tom came up to me and said he knew me and my career at the University of California. I didn’t expect a star like him to take the time to get to know a young player. That says a lot about Tom’s character,” he said.

Obsessed with winning

At an age when many other players are retiring, Brady still wants to continue playing until he is 45, even 50. He still has a burning desire to win, as he has shown throughout his career. On the field, Brady is always known for his passion and likes to swear to vent his anger. He once admitted that he hates the feeling of losing and has to practice his body language so as not to scare his teammates too much. Brady once had a pep talk with his teammates so they wouldn’t lose in a charity match against local firefighters.

Patriots teammate Darrelle Revis even likened Brady’s desire to win to a disease. “I think Tom’s disease is always wanting to compete and destroy everyone,” he said. “From the outside, you can see that he’s a loser. But you have to train with Tom every day to see how much that desire is. I can see why he’s so successful when I see how he approaches the game every day.”

Brady’s high demands make his teammates better, because every practice game with them is no different from an official game when Brady is on the field. According to Business Insider , Brady even sacrificed more than $ 60 million in salary in his contract with the Patriots to help the team have money to strengthen the squad, thereby creating a stronger team.

Brady doesn’t just hate losing in football. He hates losing in… everything. Former teammate Danny Amendola said Brady once broke his racket after losing a game of ping pong. Another story comes from Wes Welker, who played for the Patriots from 2007 to 2012. He said: “On the plane, I played a game for fun with Tom and beat him in the first few rounds. He lost $200. I started to make fun of Tom and he got really upset. He even threw the board on the floor before coming back to play with me.”

“Finally, he won back $300 from me and smiled happily ever after. I took out the money to pay, but Tom refused to take it. He just wanted to win.”

On March 20, Brady signed a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers worth $50 million. On social media, most Patriots fans sent their blessings rather than resentment toward Brady. For them, it was a blessing to see a living legend like Brady play, and many expressed hope that Brady would return to the Patriots for one more season before retiring. 

But that day is probably far away.