“Success is where preparation meets opportunity.”
Preparation helped separate Tom Brady from the rest of the pack during his 23-year NFL career, leading him to win a record seven Super Bowl titles. Now, as a broadcaster, Brady continues to prepare at a high level, which has also made him a great interview, too.
That was apparent in Brady’s sit-down with Joel Klatt on the most recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show: Big Noon Conversations.” In his nearly 30-minute interview with Klatt, Brady was highly opinionated about the state of college football, while also delivering honesty and self-reflection in his first season as FOX Sports’ lead NFL game analyst.
Here’s a look at the highlights from Brady’s conversation with Klatt, which you can watch in its entirety here.
Brady is unsure if he would’ve finished his college football career at Michigan if he were in Ann Arbor today
With the college football landscape rapidly changing, stories like the one Brady experienced at Michigan have become rare. Brady went from a seventh-string, redshirt freshman to having to split reps with Drew Henson by the time he became the team’s starting quarterback.
When Klatt asked Brady if he would’ve stuck around at Michigan, Brady didn’t give a definitive answer. However, Brady reflected on his time at Michigan as a good period of self-growth, teaching him to overcome adversity.
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“It’s such a hypothetical situation to think about,” Brady said. “The only thing I can answer is to say that, based on what my experience was, I wouldn’t want it any other way than the way that I did it. My college experience was very challenging. It was very competitive. The lessons I learned in college that I referred to earlier, and certainly about competition, those traits transformed my life as a professional.
“I was ready to compete against anybody because the competition in college toughened me up so much that I had a self-belief and self-confidence in myself that whatever it was I faced, I could overcome that.”
Would Tom Brady have finished his career at Michigan if he played in today’s landscape?
As the transfer portal has become more prevalent and a popular option for players when they don’t win starting jobs, Brady implored parents of student athletes to allow them to face an uphill battle.
“You can’t expect a 17 or 18-year-old to make these great decisions. They’re young. They don’t have life experience,” Brady said. “It should be the parents. Be a good parent. Teach your kid the right values. What’s going to sustain them in their careers over a period of time?
“Whether it’s football or whether it’s business or whether it’s teaching or law school or medical school or a trade, whatever you want to do, you’re going to have to go through hard things in your life. You’re going to have to make tough choices.”
He’s also unhappy with the state of college football and QB development
As Brady shared that he enjoyed his college experience despite his hard path to becoming Michigan’s starting quarterback, he expressed an overall distaste with today’s college game. He called out those who value money above all else in the name, image and likeness (NIL) era, placing some of the blame on those who enable student athletes to think that way.
[Read more: ‘Priorities Are a Bit Messed Up’: Tom Brady Speaks on State of College Football]
“When I was in college, I got a $400 scholarship check. It seemed like I was rich,” Brady said. “We got pizza cards to go to dinner, and we had a training table, and it was an amazing experience. We didn’t think about the money. These kids are such young ages. Their frontal lobes aren’t even fully developed yet, and now we’re tempting them with real-life, adult situations and their parents, and now they have agents.
“I’m sure it’s a very confusing time, and I’m sure a lot of parents are confused. I’m sure a lot of kids are confused, but because we’re just talking about money, money, money, money, like, that’s the only value in college? Is that what we’re saying That, to me, [shows] the priorities are a bit messed up.”
Tom Brady analyzes the challenges of today’s college football landscape
Brady’s also a bit unhappy with the on-field product. He called out coaches for failing to develop quarterbacks from a mental aspect, but also said the NFL hasn’t been great in that regard, either.
“Physically, they’re developed. But the mental learning of how to study the game, learning the tactics, learning how to watch film, learning how to deal with the emotions of a competitive program going up against a school rival, failing in front of 70,000 people — I think we’re lacking the mental, emotional development,” Brady said. “Physically, they may look developed. Mentally, emotionally, they’re very underdeveloped. Sometimes, their emotional growth is stunted by the fact that everybody is telling them how great they are all the time, or that it’s not their fault all the time.”
Brady thinks Bill Belichick will have to adjust to one particular area of the college game
While Brady criticized college football in his appearance with Klatt, someone who he was close to in his professional career has made the jump to the college game. Belichick, who won six Super Bowls as Brady’s head coach with the Patriots, has never held an official coaching position in college football, but Brady thinks his players at North Carolina will grow to appreciate him. Still, he could see Belichick struggling to adjust to one element of the college game.
[Read more: Tom Brady Breaks Down Bill Belichick’s Bold Leap to UNC — And What Comes Next]
“What they’re going to get is, obviously, the most prepared, the most hard-working coach that I had ever been around,” Brady said. “If you go to that school, you will be prepared to play at the next level. He’s going to teach you the right fundamentals, the right techniques. He’s going to have a high expectation for you, and you’re going to develop a lot. That’s what I know.
“I think the challenge for him is he’s dealing with a lot of probably underdeveloped players, because he’s dealt with guys that are four, five, six years further along than what he’s normally had to deal with. So I think there’s probably a learning curve for him, and this is just me hypothesizing. I don’t have much knowledge of it, but I’m sure it’s different coaching a 17 or 18-year-old than even a 22 or 23-year-old.”
Brady added that while Belichick is a “deep thinker” of the sport, he’ll have to find an efficient way to convey his thoughts due to the time constraints.
“How much can these young kids retain? That may be an interesting challenge as well, because in some ways, they’re not professional,” Brady said “They don’t have as much time as we had as professional athletes to go in there and study film and practice and meet and all that. They don’t have that amount of time at the college level.”
Brady hints that Patrick Mahomes is the current NFL QB most like him
As Klatt moved the interview to focus on today’s NFL landscape, he wondered which quarterback reminded Brady of himself. Brady didn’t provide a direct answer, but he singled out Mahomes for the work he’s willing to put in.
“From afar, I can only tell so much, because if I was in there every day, I could see their habits,” Brady said. “Everyone wants to win, but what are the habits and the daily habits and the actionable things you need to do every day to put your team in a position to win?
“Patrick Mahomes is the one that does that the most often. Obviously, his physical talent, how he understands what he needs to do offensively and he brings a consistent winning attitude to work every single day. In the biggest moments, you can depend on him the most. That’s clear.”
Super Bowl LIX was the game Brady was most prepared to call in his rookie season as an announcer
Much of the second half of Brady’s discussion with Klatt focused on his young broadcasting career. Brady’s first season ended with him calling the Philadelphia Eagles‘ win over the Kansas City Chiefs, which drew an audience of nearly 128 million on FOX. Despite the record viewership, Brady felt at ease going into that call thanks to his rich success from his playing career.
“I think, ironically, for me, I was very fortunate that I played in 10 [Super Bowls]. So there’s nothing about the feelings and emotions of preparing for a Super Bowl game that I hadn’t been through,” Brady said. “So, actually, I felt the most prepared I’d been all season. It was the only time that I had two weeks to prepare for a game, so I actually felt like I was ready to roll, and I felt great.”
Tom Brady explains why he was the most prepared to call the Super Bowl
Still, being the competitor that he is, Brady always feels like he’s got room to improve.
“When I watched the game back again, it wasn’t perfect,” Brady said. “I wish I could have gone deeper in some areas or laid out a few times, but I’m like, ‘OK, I really was clear with the information. A lot of things were done well, and the game kind of got out of hand at the end of the first half.’”
Brady admits that very few of his passes from his playing career were perfect
While Brady felt that he saved his best for last in his debut season as a broadcaster, he shared that he went through some growing pains along the way. He said he’s still figuring out what the audience wants from an announcer, adding that it’s the “tricky part” of broadcasting.
[More: Preparation, Motivation and Growth: How Tom Brady Approached Year 1 in the Booth]
However, Brady accepted the idea that everything he said might not be viewed as great when he reflected on his playing career.
“My last three seasons in Tampa, I was throwing 700 passes a season, and I would throw 20 of those passes exactly the way I wanted – with the right arc, the right pace, the right position on the receiver. Twenty of 700, and I worked all year round to get my throwing mechanics the way I wanted. I worked with my receivers. So then you go into broadcasting, and it’s like, why would you think you’re gonna hit 350 of the 700?”
[Read more from “Big Noon Conversations”: Marcus Freeman, Tony Petitti, Best of 2024 season]
Now, Brady’s seeking to find the right moments to be perfect as a broadcaster, something he perfected during his playing career.
“In the end, you’re probably only gonna hit a limited amount. And I think that’s what you’re searching for, those parts of the season, or those parts of the game where you’re like, ‘I really got that,'” Brady said. “You don’t want to have, you know, these terrible moments where you completely miss it. And I think maybe I was really conscious of that early, and then I got to be a little more freed up as the season went on.”
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