2015 New England Patriots Thread

EVEN WHEN HE is dressed in a lumpy Patriots sweatshirt and stocking cap, standing before a wall of cameras, Tom Brady manages to look regal. He is so guarded, so calm and Kennedy-esque as he listens, nods and then gracefully says nothing. It's almost easy to forget what a competitive lunatic he becomes on the field.

Put Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. in front of a referee that he believes has missed a holding call, put him in front of a wide receiver who ran the wrong route, watch him stand face mask to face mask with a linebacker who he openly loathes, and he is anything but Clooney cool. His voice, measured and steady in casual conversation, climbs three octaves when it's warmed by the fires of football, becoming as shrill and intense as the squeal of an owl. He is an F-bomb-dropping, spittle-spraying, mini-tornado of fury. He is in those moments -- and this is said with genuine admiration -- a ferocious ass who wants to win so badly that on the field, he cares not one bit about his brand or the image he's supposed to project and protect. It's always been the most revealing and raw aspect of Brady's personality.

TOM BRADY, BY design, does not give particularly riveting interviews. He has always prided himself on his ability to achieve some version of Zen before he walks into news conferences, armor against any annoying question that might otherwise get under his skin. He has told friends, privately, that nothing offends him, that one of his favorite books is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and it has taught him not to take anything personally. He is more spiritual than religious, but he keeps a poster taped to the inside of his locker with a Bible passage, Proverbs 17:17. "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." His belief system, however strong, has been put to the test this season. It was most noticeable during an interview with GQ, for its December Men of the Year issue, when Chuck Klosterman attempted to press Brady on how he felt about the NFL's claim that he was "generally aware" that the Patriots were tweaking the air pressure of game balls, and Brady seemed to become generally annoyed at Klosterman's insistence that he offer up some kind of answer beyond pointing out that he already had said plenty and litigation is still ongoing. "If that's what you want to talk about, then it's going to be a very short interview," Brady said, before he and Klosterman seemed to mutually agree it was time to end what was scheduled to be an hourlong interview after roughly 10 minutes.

"That's kind of our [society's] approach to medicine: Wait 'til you get sick or wait 'til you get hurt, and then we'll treat you," Brady said. "Well, how about trying to find ways to prevent yourself from that even happening? I think that's a much better approach to medicine. When you say, well this sounds like quackery, there's a lot of things I see on a daily basis that I see in Western medicine that I think, 'Wow, why would they every do that? That is crazy. That doesn't work.'"

Brady even went so far as to state that if he had listened to medical doctors instead of Guerrero after he injured his knee in 2008 and developed a staph infection, he's not sure he would still be playing. "In the 10 or 11 years we've been working together, he has never been wrong," Brady said. "I had doctors with the highest and best education in our country tell us, tell me, that I wouldn't be able to play football again. That I would need multiple surgeries on my knee from my staph infection. That I would need a new ACL, a new MCL, that I wouldn't be able to play with my kids when I'm older. Of course, I go back the next year and we win comeback player of the year. I follow the next season, and we win the MVP of the year. I've chosen a different approach, and that approach works for me. ... I wouldn't be playing today if it wasn't for what he's been able to accomplish with me." Brady has already determined that spreading this gospel will be his calling after football. He doesn't want to coach or go into broadcasting. He believes his company, TB12, is going to change the way we think about sports and nutrition. His website, TB12Sports.com, went live this week, declaring in its mission statement that the company offers a "comprehensive and customized method that fosters accelerated injury recovery and performance longevity in a holistic and prevention-oriented way."