Tom Brady’s ‘mental transition’ has him charged up for 2018 – New England Patriots Blog

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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There was something easily lost in the flurry of headlines sparked by Tom Brady‘s walking away from his news conference on Saturday after what he felt was an out-of-bounds question. It was something he further highlighted with an emoji wink.

Brady has found his conviction to be all-in for the 2018 season.

Many figured this would be the result. But in an offseason in which Brady opened up the personal side of his life in the “Tom vs. Time” docuseries — which showed his evolution as a family man and how he balances that with the full-time commitment of football — conviction was a hot-button topic because of something he had said at the end of the final episode.

“I’m sitting here three days after the year, getting my Achilles worked on and my thumb and you go, ‘What are we doing this for? Who are we doing this for? Why are we doing this?’” Brady said. “You have to have answers for those questions, and they have to be with a lot of conviction. When you lose your conviction, you probably should be doing something else.”

How the soon-to-be-41-year-old Brady ultimately found it in 2018, which he talked about Saturday, has been overlooked because of how the news conference ended.

There was one point, in particular, that Brady seemed to want to stress: He loves football as much as ever. And now the final stretch of his career has become all about how he can continue to play while also being the husband and dad he feels his children — ages 11, 8 and 5 — need.

“Football is very, very important to me. It always has been, and I love being out here with my teammates,” Brady said Saturday. “As you get older, you have different responsibilities, and I think that’s just part of life. Everyone’s got to deal with those responsibilities differently and what works for them. Football is a huge part of my life.”

At the same time, as he detailed on the “Religion of Sports” website (which is the business Brady founded with Michael Strahan and filmmaker Gotham Chopra), his decision to pursue that passion has a significant trickle-down effect on those around him.

“Over the last few seasons, I’ve become a lot more aware of time, in general. It’s not just training camp or football. It’s everything,” Brady wrote in a Q&A on the site. “There’s a lot of sacrifice that goes into this — not just from me, but from my family, too. I’m not as available during the football season.

“For that reason alone, I’m conscious of a certain mental transition that begins to occur as camp gets started; an awareness of what it’s going to take for our team to succeed at the highest level.”

To get to that point, Brady detailed that his offseason approach of maximizing family time (which meant not attending voluntary spring practices) “helped me recharge and get emotionally and mentally ready for another football season.”

And now that it’s here, he looks for pockets of relief within the grind.

Sunday was one example of it, as Brady was greeted on the field by his kids, which provided an up-close snapshot of the balance he’s trying to strike over the final stretch of his career. It uplifted him after having not seen them for 10 days.

“It’s a great part [of it]. I always thought I’d have kids when I got to the end of my playing career. I have an 11-year-old, 8-year-old and 5-year-old. Plans change, and thank god they do,” Brady said on Sirius XM NFL Radio’s “Movin’ The Chains” program.

“I’m blessed with three healthy, beautiful kids. I love when they’re around. It’s great to have them running around the field. … They keep you at this youthful age. That’s what we need, man. We need to laugh more. More joy. More spirit. More happiness. They bring it out in you, no doubt.”

Meanwhile, on the field, Brady is still bringing out the best in his teammates, who continue to marvel at the tone he sets with his work ethic and performance.

In turn, Brady finds himself feeding off them.

“Getting out on the practice field with them and getting our timing right, tinkering with new ideas and plays, figuring out the chemistry with the new guys, going at it with the defense — all of it is what drives me,” he wrote on the Religion of Sports website. “I love it. I guess you could say I found my conviction.”

Instead of an exclamation point, Brady then inserted the emoji wink.

And added, “It’s football season — LET’S GO!!!!”



Source : ESPN