Tom Brady- "Sometimes Success is just as Challenging as Failure", The 7x Super Bowl Champion on his football journey, life after the rings, takeaways from the roast, lessons learned, being a father and self growth

Big Big Day!! As the guys said, the end of our MixTape Era now the album drops.... To kick off our new partnership with Fanatics, hosts Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder sit down with none other than the 7x Super Bowl champion and NFL icon, Tom Brady. While the world has seen glimpses of Tom's personality, most recently on Netflix's "Greatest Roast of All Time", The Pivot Podcast dives deep into who Tom really is off the football field and beyond the headlines and storylines. Reflecting on last week and his takeaways from doing the roast with former New England teammates and coaches, Kevin Hart and other celebrity comedians, Tom is learning to let go of the control he used to have as Quarterback and learning to live in the grey area of life, learning but improving on the decisions he makes each day. Fanatics and The Pivot gift TB with a special memorabilia from the 1981 NFC Championship that brings him back to the innocence of his childhood when his reality was just a dream but a dream ignited by passion for football and love for competition leading him to be one of the greatest to ever step on the field. After commanding the field for 22 years, Tom became a master of the sport, but our conversation reveals how he continues to evolve as a man, friend, and father away from the game. He discusses the importance of personal growth and reflects on the lessons learned throughout his illustrious career with a strong focus on the quality time with his kids and being there for them in anyway possible. Opening up about the profound influence his parents had on him, instilling his drive and motivation to succeed from a young age. From his humble beginnings to his meteoric rise in the NFL, Tom shares the difference makers in his life that kept him focused and determined throughout his career. To celebrate Fanatics Sportsbook going live in its 20th state, starting from 14th May for 20 days, they are offering over $5m in customer bonuses as well as a number of extra special surprises along the way. Simply download the app to get involved. This episode is brought to you by Fanatics along with Cymbiotika, the #1 leading Wellness Brand creating the best, high-quality supplements without any artificial fillers or toxins. Get 20% off the supplements taking the industry by storm using code Pivot20. New episodes drop on Tuesdays at 12 p.m. ET and Fridays at 3:30 p.m. ET on YouTube, with audio available on all streaming platforms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 1:00Ryan Clark?

  Fellas, it's a big day, man. We already had the Fanatics announcement, so now people know we done went from the mixtape era, right? And now we about to drop a couple of commercial albums, but we gonna stay real. But man, think about the journey, bro. We've just come a long way.

• 1:14Channing Crowder?

  Brother, y'all think we supposed to be here? Look at this, man. Look at these, us three out here sitting in the penthouse. Man, I appreciate y'all, boy.

• 1:21Fred Taylor?

  Listen, if we gonna keep going, man, it's about longevity, wellness, health. I just did an 88-hour water fast. And Symbiotica with these packs here, they got the Molecular Hydrogen Tabs. Perfect for me.

• 1:32Ryan Clark?

  Molecular what? Look at me, I'm a graduate now.

• 1:36Fred Taylor?

  Come on, bro.

• 1:36Ryan Clark?

  I have a sociology degree. But nah, man, I've been on the golden mine. You know, when you do what we did for a living, man, to have somebody like Shahab and Dorana sort of introduce you to Symbiotica, and have these easy packets for the road for us, it's been great and it's been a part of this journey.

• 1:51Channing Crowder?

  Bro, y'all know I don't do all that working out. I don't do all that eating good. You know, you know, I messed off. But man, I appreciate Symbiotica. Y'all know I don't do all that damn working out and all that stuff, man. You know I don't do all what y'all do with the biking and all that. But man, I appreciate it. And y'all always ask me how I stay so sexy and so cute.

• 2:09Channing Crowder?

  I got my pack, my super green.

• 2:10Ryan Clark?

  Hey, here on the way up, we gotta go.

• 2:12Fred Taylor?

  Let's do it, let's do it.

• 2:16Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. Mmm, it's big time. We got the, we in the penthouse, fellas. Wait. Boy, I feel like Eddie Murphy on Trainee Places. Man, I feel you. I feel it.

• 2:30Ryan Clark?

  My legs. Oh, you crossed your legs? Yeah, I'm crossing my legs in this one. Y'all know I'm crossing my legs in this one. Oh, because you feel bougie, you feel bougie. Bro, dawg, I watched the roast again, dawg. Crazy. Like, ain't no way. I can't do it. Why they do that? I only got one of them things. He got seven. I guess you just be secure in yourself.

• 2:54Channing Crowder?

  Got to jump it off, though, it's a roast.

• 2:55Ryan Clark?

  Hey, it is. Speaking of jumping off, I mean, it's probably the right person to jump this off. Yes. I mean, shoot, we were rude, you were fanatics. I mean, hell, we got this guy on the show. This like one championship ring away from the white party. I'm making funny now. Nah, we not making funny now. We just gonna do what the pivot does. Yes, sir.

• 3:20Speaker 05

  Fellas?

• 3:21Channing Crowder?

  Hold on, there he is.

• 3:23Speaker 05

  Well.

• 3:23Fred Taylor?

  Make it. Yes, sir, man.

• 3:26Speaker 05

  We will not roast you.

• 3:27Ryan Clark?

  Don't hit me, you know.

• 3:29Channing Crowder?

  Hell, no.

• 3:30Speaker 05

  Okay? Although I still feel those muscles in you right there.

• 3:33Ryan Clark?

  I need to get on that TV.

• 3:34Speaker 05

  We put you in the big twist.

• 3:35Ryan Clark?

  Tom, I started my butt too big.

• 3:42Channing Crowder?

  More butt.

• 3:42Speaker 05

  Hey, when I don't work out, I'm like, what happened?

• 3:44Fred Taylor?

  I know, right? But you just still get at it?

• 3:47Speaker 05

  No, I still try to.

• 3:48Fred Taylor?

  Yeah?

• 3:49Speaker 05

  I mean, I've always loved it, thank God.

• 3:51Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 3:51Speaker 05

  Working out and trying to stay in shape. So that's never been a problem. It's just I can't ever build anything.

• 3:56Ryan Clark?

  Shoot, he's 40 better, though, than he was when he ran it.

• 3:58Speaker 05

  I know.

• 3:59Ryan Clark?

  That's crazy, bro. It ain't that much better.

• 4:01Speaker 05

  Not much. But I haven't slowed down that much. I was never fast to start, so I was like, you look slow. I'm like, well, I've always looked slow. I was was slow.

• 4:10Fred Taylor?

  How does that work, though? Like, how do you get faster? That's just credit to Alex?

• 4:14Speaker 05

  Just me and Alex?

• 4:15Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 4:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, I just, every day. He's out in Vegas now, but there's someone that I still work with and I just, it's more than I was doing sprints.

• 4:24Fred Taylor?

  Wow.

• 4:25Speaker 05

  Just because I like it, you know what I mean?

• 4:26Speaker 06

  Why? It doesn't make sense.

• 4:28Speaker 05

  I know. I'm a psycho, bro, that's why. I'm fucked up.

• 5:03Ryan Clark?

  Well, brother, first off, man, thank you so much. Welcome to The Pivot, right? I would, I'm gonna introduce you.

• 5:09Speaker 05

  Okay, go for it.

• 5:10Ryan Clark?

  Even though I'm pretty sure the whole world knew you before the roast, now even more people know you. But seven-time champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time league MVP. Just legitimately one of the best to ever touch a football, man. We are honored to have you here. It's a big day for us.

• 5:30Speaker 05

  Good.

• 5:30Ryan Clark?

  Fanatics announcement.

• 5:31Speaker 05

  Congratulations. Amazing for you guys. You guys have worked really hard.

• 5:34Ryan Clark?

  And you got to start the big day with the best. And that's just exactly what we did. We partnered with Fanatics now and Michael Rubin and all that he's doing. And they only do big things, whether it's Mitchell and Ness, whether it's TOPS, we're talking about their collective sports betting. To be a part of this company as it grows and grow with them, being the first of many podcasts that are gonna come under this umbrella, it's exciting and this is the way to start it.

• 5:57Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, we just trying to be legendary, man, just like you.

• 6:00Channing Crowder?

  Man, we had some big guests, fellas. We had Kevin Hart, we had The Rock, we had Shaq. We had some big shows and now we got TV, man. I'm excited.

• 6:07Ryan Clark?

  We have a gift for you. I know a while back you posted about Dwight Clark and about being at the 1981 NFC Championship. Kind of complaining a little bit, maybe like you may have did to a couple of refs.

• 6:20Speaker 05

  To my mom and dad, I wasn't happy.

• 6:21Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, so Fanatics and The Pivot wanted to give you, this is an actual seat.

• 6:26Speaker 05

  No way.

• 6:27Ryan Clark?

  From the, from the game, bro. And it's signed by Dwight Clark before he passed, man.

• 6:31Speaker 05

  Unbelievable.

• 6:32Ryan Clark?

  Joe Montana. You know what I mean, so you looked out for us, bro.

• 6:36Fred Taylor?

  Thank you.

• 6:37Ryan Clark?

  Michael Rubin and Fanatics family.

• 6:39Fred Taylor?

  This is amazing.

• 6:39Ryan Clark?

  Freddie T.

• 6:40Fred Taylor?

  Yes, sir, love.

• 6:41Ryan Clark?

  What a treat, man. This is unbelievable.

• 6:43Fred Taylor?

  That's 16 on here. This is dope, too.

• 6:45Speaker 05

  Now, I wouldn't have called that play. I didn't like that play very much for me. But Joe could make it happen, so. That was unbelievable.

• 6:52Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 6:53Speaker 05

  Thank you, guys.

• 6:53Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, no doubt.

• 6:54Channing Crowder?

  But why are you so amazed? You Tom Dan Brady. Do you understand who you are?

• 6:58Speaker 05

  I think that I still see myself as that kid that loved football growing up and wanted to be, you know, out there on that field. And I still can't believe a lot of things that have happened in my life. It's very different than probably how we all grew up. We always had dreams and hopes and ambitions, but it's like you put one foot in front of another and then finally you look back and you're like, wow, how did that happen? Because you told me it would happen that way. Or to be a champion like I've been or to have all these crazy experiences. Believe me, I still pinch myself all the time. And sometimes you gotta accept that, okay, my life's different. It's not the way that it was when I was 10 years old. And I think a lot of us still want to go back to that when we were young and we didn't have as much responsibility and life was so fun.

• 7:43Speaker 05

  And now we have all these big lives and big responsibilities. And sometimes it feels a little overwhelming for all of us. And believe me, I'm like, I have that sense, too. Sometimes I'm doing way too much. Sometimes I feel like I'm failing in this area, I'm failing in this area, and always just trying to recalibrate where my priorities are.

• 8:00Ryan Clark?

  In 2017, you mentioned your father being your hero. And what I love the most about sitting down with these people I admire is getting to know the human. And with all that you've accomplished, to be able to say that my hero doesn't wear pads or my hero didn't do this, to be able to say that you grew up in the same household with someone you admire in that way. For people who are trying to raise the next Tom Brady, not just on the field, but off the field, talk a little bit about what your parents sowed into you to help you be who you are.

• 8:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, you know, I just had two days with my mom and dad and my three sisters. First time I'd say it was just the six of us together. In a long time without spouses or grandkids and things like that. And it was just, it felt like we were back in the house growing up. And we were just all sitting there as, as we always did as a family. And it was so fun and sweet and we're so comfortable with one another. And I just look at my parents and I'm so grateful for the foundation. You know, that we all still want to be together and that we'd all still love each other. We're so invested in each other's lives and care about what's going on. Not what everyone may see or think it might be, but really what's really going on in your life. So my parents instilled like a family value in us.

• 9:19Speaker 05

  And I just remember, you know, why my dad was my hero. I just always remember, like, I was never, as you guys know, like, the most athletic kid. I wasn't that way in high school. I wasn't that way in college. I wasn't that way in the pros. But I did have a determination and I think he, he was a hard-working man. Show up every day at home and then when he'd get home in the afternoon after work, you know, I was always there and he'd be like, "Come on, let's go up to the baseball park. I'm gonna hit you ground balls." And me, I was like a Labrador Retriever. Yeah, I mean, I could do that literally all night.

• 9:49Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 9:50Speaker 05

  And there was never one day where he came home and was like, you know, "I'm too tired." You know, like, my priorities as a kid, my parents made them their priorities. Whatever I was interested in, and I think the only advice I could give for parents, and so many amazing parents do this, is whatever's most important to the kids, that's what, that's what you should be. That's your priority. And I feel like when, when you have the responsibility of your children, whatever they want to do, we got to empower them to go out there and be that and then not discourage or, or, or, you know, one thing my parents also did, they never thought like, "Mom, Dad, I want to go to college and play football." It was never like, "Really? That's gonna be really hard. Let's go to, you know, some smaller school where it might be easier for you." It was always like, whatever I wanted to do, they were there to support it. And I think-

• 10:35Speaker 05

  It's all long odds for all of us to get to this point, to play in the NFL, for you guys to have the success you had. It wasn't because your parents were like, wow, you shouldn't do that. Now, sometimes maybe that is, but that wasn't my experience. My experience, my parents were like, go for it. And they were all in right behind me.

• 10:51Fred Taylor?

  TB, it's um, mental health month. And when we see Tom Brady, everyone sees Tom Brady.

• 10:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:57Fred Taylor?

  I want to ask, how is Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.? How is that kid? How is the kid from San Mateo?

• 11:05Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I'm always, I would say I'm just doing my best to check in with myself as often as possible with my physical health, my mental health, my emotional health. It's something that I'm working on. Every year, I think I start something a little bit different. I think this last year, I I uh, I wanted to kind of rebuild my body because it got, you know, I lost a lot of weight in my last season. It was challenging and I was like, alright, I'm really focused on rebuilding that. And I think next, like this year is like a lot of work stuff. I think next year, I'm like, okay, I'm really going to settle into like a better, more sustainable rhythm to life. Uh, between,

• 11:47Speaker 05

  you know, like again, all our responsibilities. When's it too much? When's it not enough? And I think we're always like, man, I want to be, you know, you're juggling all these balls in the air. Certainly for former athletes, we never know how it's going to go when we retire. It's always like, man, prepare for what's going to happen at the end of the journey. So it's like, alright, let me start figuring it out. And you don't know which balls are going to land.

• 12:08Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:08Speaker 05

  And then finally one lands and you're like, oh shit. That was a good one. I really wanted that one. And then sometimes you come, one lands and you're like, okay, well, maybe I'll do it. I don't really, it's probably not my favorite thing, but I'll do it. And then something else comes in, you're like, I'd rather be doing this. And I think I've been so fortunate to have different opportunities, but I didn't know what any of those would be. So it's like, I'm taking this broadcasting job and I've and like, I'm really excited about that. It's really a good challenge. It's a way to still obviously love what we've loved for so long, but also like, express. Exactly what you guys are doing here. Different parts of you to express through your words and not through this physical part. We made our living being physical beings. Yeah, behind the scenes, we were communicative. We were teammates.

• 12:52Speaker 05

  It was very mental, it was very emotional. But now we have to actually use our voice. That's a different skill set. And, you know, it wasn't non-verbal communication. It's very verbal communication. So, something like being a broadcaster on Fox, I'm really looking forward to that. Among, you know, some other cool things that I've been really fortunate to be able to be a part of.

• 13:10Channing Crowder?

  When we played against each other.

• 13:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:13Channing Crowder?

  And you wore my ass out a couple of times.

• 13:15Speaker 05

  And you did mine too, so.

• 13:17Channing Crowder?

  I got a picture on my wall of me and Jason Taylor high-lowing you. Which would have been a penalty right now, but back then it was good. I got it on the wall right in my playroom. But, were you, like, we thought, we used to joke about you being plugged in at night. Because you never, like, you were just, you said exactly what everybody was gonna say. You were always in shape, you played every game.

• 13:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:38Channing Crowder?

  But now, it's off-the-field Tom Brady. Were you ever, are you ever worried about, like, showing your true personality? Because I saw it kinda in Tampa, we had Byron Leford down there. And we started seeing more of, you know.

• 13:51Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:52Channing Crowder?

  Tom Brady, and then we started seeing more, oh, and everybody, he called you TB. He just said that y'all were teammates. And seeing that, were you, did you, what was the transition of being that kid coming from Michigan?

• 14:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:04Channing Crowder?

  And getting in the league and trying to be successful, and then being successful, and then really showing the world who you were? And I think in the roast, that's when I pointed, what's the Leonardo DiCaprio meme?

• 14:14Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:15Channing Crowder?

  When you went to snapping, I was like, I wanted this guy. I wanted to talk to this guy. Was it any, I won't say fear, but was there any trepidation in showing the world who you really are?

• 14:25Speaker 05

  I think I've always shown the world parts of me. And I think there's other parts which I didn't really feel like was the right place to express it too. Because even when I went to Michigan, it was a very team-focused program. It was like all about the team. Bo Schember, like you say, the team, the team, the team. Then I go from that program for five years, right to the Patriots. And Coach Belichick was the team, the team, the team. And that was 28 years where. It really wasn't my voice. It was the team's voice. And I felt like as a leader of the team, well, this is how we should do it. And in a lot of ways, I like that because it does. We, I thought we always did a good job of doing our best to keep the distractions at a minimum.

• 15:06Speaker 05

  You know, when, when you have different factions within a team, I, I never, what, positive or negative, I don't ever think like that's the clearest path to success. The team is, it's very challenging to go beat the Steelers, to beat the Dolphins, not Jacksonville, isn't it? I'm just kidding.

• 15:23Fred Taylor?

  I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Freddie, you know I love you. I know, but you sound like these guys and we were teammates.

• 15:31Speaker 05

  I loved it. Believe me, I love playing with you every single time you were out there.

• 15:35Channing Crowder?

  Freddie T, he just came from a roast.

• 15:38Fred Taylor?

  And he's still hot. He's still on fire. But no, I guess, um, let me just say this real quick then. 2017 AFC Championship game. And the Jags fans probably loved this. I'll take opportunity. Miles Jack, was he down?

• 15:53Fred Taylor?

  Was it the knee?

• 15:54Speaker 05

  On the, on the, uh, oh no, I don't think he was down. Oh God, I don't think we were catching him either. I ran away. I sure as hell wasn't gonna tackle him.

• 16:01Fred Taylor?

  Thank you. Jaguars Nation, there you go.

• 16:03Speaker 05

  I know.

• 16:04Fred Taylor?

  From the man. It's not your fault. It's the ref's fault.

• 16:07Speaker 05

  I know. They're, they're trying to get it right, but.

• 16:09Channing Crowder?

  We're letting the world see who you really are. Like, it was wild to me.

• 16:13Speaker 05

  For all of us, it's just finding your voice again. Like, again, who's the young kid in all of us that really just wants to be one of the guys? Like, when we're growing up, we just want to fit in. We want to be a part of a group, you know, and we did, and I was, and I did that. And I, and I still am. I'm still part of different groups at different times. Certainly, I think the group that I'm most want to be a part of is my kids. You know, like, it's, it's us and, and, and I think in general, our family, so. You know, a lot of it is just, what am I responsible for? What are my responsibilities? And really, what are my values? And, and do my priorities and do my actions reflect really what my priorities and what my values are? So, professional part of my life, very important. My personal part of my life with my children, very important. I don't want to let too many things get in the way of that.

• 16:56Speaker 05

  So I'd say now, going forward, I feel like, because some of those balls have landed, I can be more selective with my time to make sure that, talk about mental health, Freddie T. Like, okay, this is really, I feel like I'm overwhelmed. I feel like I'm tired, I'm irritable, you know. Not sleeping, there's a lot of ways that it takes different tolls on us. So, how can we always just check in with ourselves to make sure that we're living the life that we want to live? And we could be a good example for the, for the kids, but also for the next generation of people who want to be sitting in these chairs. How do we help other people get to what their dreams and goals are in life? And what are all the things that I've learned in my life and the people that I've been around, very fortunately, that have instilled in me

• 17:38Speaker 05

  things that I can pass on that other people can value too?

• 17:42Ryan Clark?

  You, you know, you mentioned checking in on yourself. Let's go to Patriots 1, right? Patriots 1.0. Because it was like different phases of who you guys were. You retooled teams, won championships with different teams, broke records with different teams. You've said publicly before, after the back-to-backs, you were sort of relieved. The first, you said the first time, I think it was '03, you were excited, you were ready to go do it again. And then you win it in '04, and it was almost a relief that, okay, we did it, we won it. But you had to reset. Because people think that when you're succeeding and you're getting deep in the playoffs, they don't talk about the toll it takes on you mentally, emotionally, and physically, even when you win it.

• 18:24Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 18:25Ryan Clark?

  What was the mindset behind trying to reset after such a hot start to your career?

• 18:31Speaker 05

  Yeah, and I think the, the point is, I think, and earlier we talked about like what my parents provided, which was a foundation that win or lose, I can find my way through my life, you know, in the best possible way. Or that gave me the best opportunity to succeed. Sometimes success is just as challenging as failure. Failure is challenging because you don't get what you want. And sometimes that kind of chips away at our self-esteem and our self-confidence. You may have self-confidence in some areas when you win, or let's say you win a championship, but now comes all this other stuff. You get invited to this place, you get invited here. Oh my God, I don't want to turn that down. Now people know that you have money or you have contributions. Can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? Now you feel like you have a responsibility because people ask.

• 19:14Speaker 05

  And then now, you know, so much, I think the early part of my career was trying to fulfill other people's new expectations of me, and me still being the 14-year-old boy. That wanted to fit in and I was like, I just want to be like, I just want to go to the to the field and like play and now there was all these other things to choose from some were actually really fun to be a part of go to the ESPYS the first time get invited to the White House you get invited to different parties and you're like, man, I should try that out because everyone seems like it'd be a lot of fun. Next thing you know, you're overwhelmed because you didn't sleep, you didn't eat right, you're partying and I'm like, God, I don't, I don't really like the way I'm feeling, you know, how do I get back to the way that I want to be so that I can feel the way that I want to feel. So I think we're all challenged with that all the time. I don't think you're out of the,

• 19:58Speaker 05

  out of the woods in your teenage years or in your mid twenties, your mid thirties, like every year we go by, this is my first year as a forty six year old man in May. This isn't my fifth time through it. I don't always know how to act. I don't always have the right answers for every place that I'm in or the right behavior. So a lot of times something happens, you're like, man, I really like that. But there was these things that I would probably change that I would do differently. So I'm always trying to reflect back, what would I have done a little differently had I did it all over again? And that to me is like being your own self critic. That's the person you look at in the mirror every day to go, did I live up to my own expectations or where am I falling short? And then why am I falling short on my own expectations? So a lot of it is, you know, for ourselves

• 20:41Speaker 05

  as long as, you know, I think last year I put this big poster up in my, in my, in my bathroom was the man in the glass, you know, is really that's the person at the end of the day that you're most accountable to.

• 20:52Ryan Clark?

  Fellas, we've had a couple of big time number twenties on this show. We had B-Dog, we had Ed Reed, and I mean, everybody's going to go to a guy like Barack Sanders when we talk about the number twenty. Speaking of that, Fanatic Sportsbook just went live in New Jersey and now that's twenty states for the Fanatic Sportsbook and to commemorate that, they're going to give away five million dollars in customer bonuses and they have some special offers throughout the NBA playoffs.

• 21:19Fred Taylor?

  What I love the most about it is you got twenty days to do this. You got twenty days to get a part of the five million dollars in bonuses. All you got to do is download the app. It's simple. Download the app.

• 21:28Channing Crowder?

  And the NBA, they got some specials. I know you talking about football dudes. I gotta throw my boy Ray Allen today. I gotta throw my boy hitting from the Honda Ark in there, Ray Allen. That's my 20, but Fanatics Sportsbook app, you gotta go get it. 20 states, 95% of the market, y'all gotta go download that.

• 21:46Ryan Clark?

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• 22:08Speaker 07

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• 22:21Channing Crowder?

  I gotta ask him, Tom, you jumped on me. You said partying. I didn't think your ass partied. I thought TB12, I heard stories that you haven't eaten a strawberry in 22 years. I know you've heard the stories. You know what I'm saying? I know you've heard those stories. The TB12, the extremes of it, and those stories of how you really treated your body. Are they extreme stories or did you really lock into that shit? Because you can kiss my ass, bro. I'm eating me a chicken wing. I'm gonna drink a beer.

• 22:51Speaker 05

  I would too.

• 22:52Channing Crowder?

  You know, okay, you would?

• 22:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean, I think so much of that got blown out of proportion. Because like everything, they want to make it to the extreme. And I would say, when I started in 2000, I was like everyone else. Going 2001, 2002, 2003. Well, then I was like, well, my elbow was killing me. How do I start getting my elbow to feel better? Okay, I gotta get more muscle work on it. Okay, great. Now, why did I not feel good after I traveled and I drank alcohol? Well, I got super dehydrated. Okay, how do I improve that? All right, how do I get to be more fit? Okay, I gotta change my diet a little bit. So it wasn't like it all happened like I was some robot. Like, this was 23 years that I had to refine all these things.

• 23:33Speaker 05

  And I think over time, like all of us, I would say in our playing career, hopefully we got better as we went. Because you ran some plays, you didn't like them. Now you ran other plays, you took good footwork, you learned how to catch the ball, you learned how to read quarterback better. You're better in your sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth year than you were in your first or second year. So to me, it was like off the field. Because I had this goal of playing and I really loved to play the game. How can I sustain my body over a period of time so that I can keep playing? And that had just to be decisions and choices that I was making. Ultimately, those choices led to different behaviors. When I saw those behaviors pay off, I made more money. I made more money in the last 10 years of my career, like a ton of money. And I try to express that to all the young players. That's just not about playing. If you're playing because you want to make it a career and you want to make money,

• 24:18Speaker 05

  you're going to make money if you play well. Well, if you play well for a long time, you're going to make a lot of money. So like the last 10 years of my career, even though I never, I would say, went for the most money in my contract, I still ended up making way more money than I ever thought just because I played for as long as I did.

• 24:32Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I was just telling the guys the other day, man, it's about longevity, wellness, health. Even in your post-career, you got to make those sacrifices. And for me, I'm all over symbiotica. I think it's a great product. It does me amazing and that's my go-to.

• 24:47Channing Crowder?

  Freddie, man, the vitamin C, super green, bruh. I take them all the day. You know I have the best diet, but I take them every single day.

• 24:54Fred Taylor?

  We all know if you're not getting better, you're getting worse.

• 24:57Speaker 05

  Getting worse, yeah.

• 24:58Fred Taylor?

  Tom, you gave the foreword in Greg Harden's book, Stay Sane in an Insane World. And a quote stood out. I think you said, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." How do you apply that in retirement, in your life, right now in that transition? How do you apply that quote?

• 25:20Speaker 05

  I think every, now that I've been kind of removed from football for, I don't know, a year and a half, it's quite a bit different than the life of playing, of being an athlete. And the regimen and the things I'd be thinking about. Sometimes I feel like I'm a little bit in a washing machine right now. Not quite sure where you're going, what the schedule looks like, you know, the...

• 25:41Fred Taylor?

  Creature of habit.

• 25:42Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 25:42Fred Taylor?

  Structure.

• 25:42Speaker 05

  And that's good, the structure, the habits, all those are really, I would say, positive for all of us at different times, certainly. When you don't have that, you bounce around, you're like a ping pong ball too. So for me, it's like... Again, now I think we have to be our own teacher in a way. Like, the teacher will appear when you recognize within yourself, hey, I really don't like the way that this is. I don't like the way that this is going. You know, and I think I recognize some of those things, like, okay, that wasn't my best self. I didn't show up really who I was in that moment, or who I want to be, or would my dad be proud of that? Would my mom be proud of that? Or are my kids gonna be proud of that? And I wouldn't say I make all the right decisions all the time either. You know, so there's plenty of things I mess up. There's plenty of mistakes that I make

• 26:25Speaker 05

  that I go, okay, I tried it, actually stupid decision. Why didn't I change that? And then you try to go forward that way. And again, it's... None of us are... Success is never linear. We do go too far to the right, ah shit, go too far to the left, okay, back too far to the right, and you bounce around. It feels good when you're in the middle. I wish we could all stay there all the time. But I think the challenge of life is that there's a lot of circumstances that happen in our life that challenge us, who we really are, where our center is. I would say I'm really not in my center right now. I'm really not. I'm sometimes on the fringe going, what the hell? I'd never thought anything like that.

• 27:01Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 27:01Speaker 05

  You know, and like, how can I get back to where I can be centered? Come from a good place where I'm making a really great decision, and it's nice to have... I think the real great positive thing for me in my life, I have a lot of people that I feel like tell me the truth and can be really honest with me. When I do fuck up.

• 27:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, that's important.

• 27:18Speaker 05

  And they're like, no, man, you're fucked up. Like, you gotta change that. Okay. I listen to that. So, I think we should all be receptive to the people in our life, that we value their response. Not every person who's gonna hate on you about something. But if you really value those people in your life, and you value the people that do have a thing to say that you agree with, and it's a meaningful observation or critique, like, I think we do need to embrace. I was at an hour and 30-minute conversation this morning with one of my friends that I was like, open my eyes to a lot of things, and I needed to hear that.

• 27:53Speaker 00

  Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis, or E O E, can mean you're stuck in many ways. Like, cutting your food into tiny pieces.

• 28:03Speaker 00

  Or stuck, chewing food for a long time.

• 28:07Speaker 00

  Dupixentipilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least 33 pounds, can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats EOE so you can get ahead of it.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing, or wheezing, or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Tell your doctor of new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 28:40Speaker 00

  Feeling stuck with EOE? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 28:52Fred Taylor?

  We had JJ Reddick on the show, and we asked him about pivots. And he spoke about life being linear, but operating in the gray. Learning to accept that, and then ultimately what you said at the beginning of that, being able to face that man in the mirror. Yeah. And have those tough conversations. And I think that's kind of what I had to do when I retired. Because that routine wasn't always there. Again, people will pull you left and right, favors, all sorts of stuff. But I had to find a way back to the middle and find something that I fell in love with, which is this. Like, I love doing this, and I'm loving this opportunity to sit down and chop it up with you.

• 29:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, same here. Same here. I feel like I've always had this... Think about naturally as a quarterback, probably a lot like a safety, too. Like, I was in control. I wanted to make sure we were in the right formation, and we were running the right play. We were lined up, we were going on my cadence, I was gonna throw the ball where I wanted to. I had so many things that were in my control. I loved flying the plane, being the operator. Think what you realize in life is you're not in control that much. And like, what do I need to do more in my life? I need to be better with less control. And I gotta be better operating in that gray area. I can't be so anxious when things aren't going exactly... Things aren't going exactly the way that I want. I don't sleep, I don't eat, I don't work out. I get angry when I'm not in complete control.

• 30:17Speaker 05

  And like, think about it, all this hardwired for all these years. Like, "Coach, I wanna run these plays." When I was a senior in college, I went in before the Ohio State game, and I was like... Must've been 6:30 a.m. on the Thursday before the game. And I walk into the coaching office, during a staff meeting, and I'm like, "Coach, these are the plays I wanna run. I like this, this is..." And he's like, "Go to bed." You know, and I look at myself back then, and I was like, what was going on with me? Like, you know, it was so much of like, I wanted it to go so well that I felt like if I tried to control everything, then it would go well. But the reality is, that's not life.

• 30:53Channing Crowder?

  Yep.

• 30:53Speaker 05

  What goes well is really what's inside of you. I need work on that. So I had so many years of like, and you think about it, you do have some control. And look, there's the success you have. So now I fall back and I look and I'm like, the more I can control, the more I can succeed. But did my really succeeding if other parts of my life, if I'm so worked up and so out of balance? So I think a lot of these things, I'm trying to check in with like myself. And as I go forward in life, I'm not going to have that total control because it's not really there anyway. You know, you're not really in control. You are in control of what's inside of you, and that's what I, you know, am certainly trying to get better at.

• 31:27Channing Crowder?

  With that mentality, can you enjoy success? Because you just said something like when you have success, now it's, okay, that's what it takes. And you've just got to do more of that. Do you, did you enjoy all this damn success you had?

• 31:39Speaker 05

  Absolutely. I never took any of the, I wouldn't say I took the success for granted. Maybe I took some of the wins for granted, like in the playing career. I mean, the reason why I fell in love with football was what you gave me earlier in the show. Like, it was never to be a champion. I love just throwing the football. I still, when I throw the football and I see that ball spiral out of my hands, I'm like, ooh, love that. Love that. I'll do, you guys want to go to the beach and throw the football? I'll have a hell of a time. We would run, we would laugh, we could probably play for three hours out there. I would love it like I loved it. In fact, when I got older, I actually liked the practices more than the games because I felt like I had such high expectation in the game.

• 32:23Speaker 05

  Like, if I went out and threw two interceptions, oh, Tom Brady threw two interceptions. You're, Tom, you're supposed to be perfect out there. You can't fuck up in the game. But in practice, no one was watching, man, okay, I could have a little more fun. I could be a little more lighter. It's even when I look at myself later in my career, I had this face, it was a scowl all the time. And it was me just being super self-critical because I felt like I had this expectation for myself that if I didn't go for 303 touchdowns, then I let myself down and I let the team down. So practices actually were enjoyable. Games were like... Fun, absolutely fun because the energy and excitement was there. But then at the end, it was like, it could only really go one way. You know, we won, we expected us to win.

• 33:08Speaker 05

  When we lost, it was a huge upset.

• 33:11Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 33:11Speaker 05

  Probably tough, and I'd rather have that than, you know, try to be surprised that you actually won a game. But what I would have changed was, okay, this part of me that I actually still love, like when I see these young players, I see like Patrick, you know, out there at quarterback, running around, laughing, having fun. I'm like, I used to be like that. What the hell happened to me? You know, and I just got too serious and, and, you know, but again, I can only look back and think, okay, if I had, if I do it again, which I'll never do it again, I would be different. But the reality is you can't. So you just learn from it and go, okay, now next phase of life, enjoy it a little more.

• 33:43Ryan Clark?

  It's always great to see these great players and these leaders be talked about by their friends. You know, and I always said too, like, all my friends weren't my teammates. All my teammates weren't my friends. You know, you're in the locker room with people who have one goal. But I remember watching The Last Dance with Michael Jordan.

• 34:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:04Ryan Clark?

  And people talking about who he was at practice, the way he challenged people. The Edgers, you mentioned them on Man in the Arena, you know, the Vrabels, the Bruskys. They talked about like giving it to you at practice.

• 34:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:17Ryan Clark?

  How much fun was that to be on a team with great players that had great success, but also great competitors and go back and forth with those dudes to sharpen your sword?

• 34:28Speaker 05

  I, I loved it. I loved it. I loved, I loved all those guys that I played with that challenged me every single day. Rodney Harrison, oh my God, talking shit to me. Ty Law intercepted me, wagging the ball in my face. It just, that's what I, that was the drive. You know, I loved the competition. I loved the practice. I loved, and then on game days, I love, you know, we could never taunt in the game or, you know, that wasn't the right thing to do against. I would never taunt you if I didn't know you. Now I'd taunt you if I did know you.

• 34:59Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 35:00Speaker 05

  You know, I'd be talking shit in practice.

• 35:01Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 35:02Speaker 05

  Because it was fun because those are your guys, you know? And I, and I always felt like when I was really comfortable with people, I love when people mess with me. It's like my favorite thing in the world because I know they're comfortable with me. And when they're comfortable with me, now I know I can let my guard down. Okay, now I can have fun with you. I don't want to have to come here and be like, "Oh, my God, so great to see you. Oh, my God, it's amazing." I want you guys to fuck with me so that now I'm like, "All right, now we're good." Like, we're good. We can have fun and laugh and joke, and I think that's like what I always had with my teammates. We had, there was nothing better than the locker room, but really, the reflection of locker room was really just, you got to be that kid again. You got to be yourself without judgment. And people would bullshit and say things that weren't true and exaggerate things, and everyone laughed. The only thing you were trying to do with your friends was crack a smile.

• 35:46Speaker 05

  You know, you'd say stuff in the locker room just to get laughs, just to get jokes. And there was such a freedom and comfort that inside of those walls, we were totally protected and insulated. It was like, I had my son go to, uh, he goes to camp in the summer, and when I drop him off,

• 36:02Speaker 05

  and I'm like, "Oh, my God, is he gonna make it?" And like, three weeks later, he comes back. He's at the time of his life. Why? Because he just got to be, he just got to be a boy. And like, that's all we always wanted in the locker room. We just wanted to be a boy. We wanted to be like everybody else.

• 36:15Ryan Clark?

  I'm gonna have to make a confession, bro. So I didn't truly get to meet you until my last year when I was in Washington, and we met at training camp. And then we talked before the preseason game. Neither of us played, so we talked for like 30 minutes. From the locker room, and I know I shouldn't have been using my phone, but I was like, "I'm not finna play in the preseason." I called Troy. I said, "Bro, I feel like a traitor." And he was like, "What's up?" I was like, "I really freaking like Tom Brady." I was like, "He's freaking awesome." And having that conversation, it lets you know that you don't get to know these people. But I'm gonna have to call bull crap on you, TB. I wanted to say all those good things before I sort of called you a liar. So, me and Troy are hurt in '07. You guys are scoring a million points a game.

• 36:59Ryan Clark?

  Anthony Smith, who was my replacement, he didn't really guarantee that we were gonna win or that the Steelers was gonna win, but he got kind of coaxed into it, right? I think y'all went out, hung up like 50. You throw the touchdown to Jabar Gaffey. You run all the way down the field. And Anthony was swole, too.

• 37:18Speaker 05

  I know, big boy.

• 37:18Ryan Clark?

  He was swole. And you got in his face, and I was like, "Tom Brady got some shit to him." You know, you mentioned using anything to get a chip, man. Stuff like that. How much did you actually use that for motivation? Like, not only for yourself, but for team?

• 37:34Speaker 05

  I liked, so to me, that was my... Anger was a great way for me to approach the playing field. Like, I could not look at you on the field and I like Ryan off the field when you take your stuff off, great. Ryan the Steeler, like, you wanted to kill me and I wanted to kill you. That's just the way it was.

• 37:50Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 37:50Speaker 05

  Not literally, but just, I wanted to make sure that we did our job and, and I think it was, when you're out there on the field, that's, that was a gladiator persona for all of us. You know, and when it, when I walked off the field, I didn't have to be that person anymore, which was good, because I didn't want to be that person in my everyday life. So I just feel like anger was the one, the one thing I could always tap into that would get me way more focused. And even when I would get mad at my teammates, or myself, or it was always about, how do I get my focus and concentration better, make a faster read, a better throw, more locked in on a coverage? Man, if I could get myself all riled up, oh, man, I'm gonna be focused.

• 38:34Speaker 05

  Because the last thing I want to do is just go out there and bullshit around like, oh, yeah, and then throw the ball and get one of my receivers blown up. So it was like, I, I, I had to do that, and if, if, if I got mad at Freddie...

• 38:45Fred Taylor?

  Oh, you did.

• 38:46Speaker 05

  No, I didn't.

• 38:47Fred Taylor?

  Yes, you did, brother.

• 38:48Speaker 05

  Not often.

• 38:49Fred Taylor?

  No, no, no, not, not, not that.

• 38:50Speaker 05

  You weren't out there.

• 38:51Fred Taylor?

  I was, I've been waiting to tell this story. I believe it was, uh, maybe my second year there, 2010, preseason.

• 39:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:01Fred Taylor?

  Third game versus Washington. It was a meeting that I didn't go to, Kevin went to. But Kevin didn't play in the preseason game, so I had to have, I was in the F position. I had the, uh, versus covered two, Tampa, Tampa two. I had an inside hook, but I had to play off the mic.

• 39:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:18Fred Taylor?

  And you wanted me to run a skinny out.

• 39:21Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:21Fred Taylor?

  But I hooked it in.

• 39:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:23Fred Taylor?

  He chewed me the fuck out in preseason. But, but, but, being the great teammate that you are. You came and apologized because you recognize, or Billy O said Freddie wasn't in that meeting. So he shouldn't have known that adjustment and you came and apologized.

• 39:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:38Fred Taylor?

  But yeah, you were always fiery.

• 39:40Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:41Fred Taylor?

  And I would tell people all the time, you practice just like you for the game. Like the game and practice, they're identical. You couldn't tell the difference in your approach. And that's why you became the type of player that you were.

• 39:54Speaker 05

  I think for me, football was super serious. Like there was a professional aspect that I wanted to bring that it wasn't like run around and fuck around. And because then I just didn't think we were giving ourselves the best chance to win too. Like, why are we working so hard if we just want to come out and run around and goof off and lose games? Like, and a lot again, I learned that through college. I learned it through the early part of my pro career, through Willie McGinnis, through Teddy Bruski, through Vrabels, through Seymour, you know, through Troy Brown, like David Patton, I mean, Antoine Smith. Like, man, we can't mess around. The margin there is too thin. And then as we got better and more people were taking shots, I felt like we had to actually hunker down even more.

• 40:37Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 40:37Speaker 05

  Like we had to lock in and man, everyone's after us now, like a lot with the Chiefs are facing now. At first you win, oh, it's amazing, what an underdog, blah, blah, blah. Second time, man, they're pretty good, unbelievable. Third time, they're like, can somebody else win? You know, and like all you're doing is like trying to do your job. And like, I love the fact that we won it, but then everyone's now, now everyone wants to take you down. Okay, and I'd rather be in that position, but you really better lock in even more. Cause I was that young, hungry kid that wanted to take down the top guy at one point. I was, I was the kid that was overlooked in high school, overlooked in college, overlooked in the draft. So I always had that mentality and still do today. Well, believe me, there's a kid out there that's coming for me.

• 41:21Speaker 05

  So like the only way for me to stay ahead is to keep. Going, rather than to go, okay, well, oh, man, I made it. Great, I made it. Now what? Well, you're, you, whatever happened last year happened last year. Whatever's gonna happen this year is gonna be this year. How do I put myself in this position this year to still have the same level of success? And if I do that, that'll give us a great chance. And I was able to carry that discipline, you know, through whether it was in the offseason, like with how I was eating, how I was training. I changed, you know, I got married and kids and there was no time to party anymore. You know, it was just like, okay, it's some work that I had to do and I just got much more focused. And I liked the results of a lot of those things. Those are a lot of things I'm still tinkering with, trying to figure out how to be better in different areas.

• 42:05Speaker 00

  Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis, or E O E, can mean you're stuck in many ways, like cutting your food into tiny pieces.

• 42:15Speaker 00

  Or stuck chewing food for a long time.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  Dupixent Dupilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least 33 pounds, can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing.

• 42:32Speaker 00

  How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats E O E, so you can get ahead of it.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing, or wheezing, or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Tell your doctor of newer worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 42:52Speaker 00

  Feeling stuck with E O E? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 43:04Channing Crowder?

  But then you, you honestly, and it's my words, but when you're talking about like where the Chiefs are now and where you were, when you was coming down, well, Moss hitting my ass for 450 and all that stuff, you become the villain.

• 43:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:18Channing Crowder?

  So you're, you're that young kid grinding, going through, working through college, getting drafted late, playing behind Drew. And then a couple of years later, the entire football world is chasing you.

• 43:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:31Channing Crowder?

  What does that do to you? Because I remember, I didn't like you.

• 43:34Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:35Channing Crowder?

  Because I, I didn't know you as a person, but I just knew if you go and play the Patriots up there, when they come to Miami, this dude, you used to sit back there with no emotion and just send people in, in motion, smile at them.

• 43:51Channing Crowder?

  First down, look over to the sideline. You know what I'm saying? Like, you became a villain in my mind. How did it change you when you were being chased? You were the rabbit. When you were the greyhound for years.

• 44:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:03Channing Crowder?

  And then you became the rabbit for, what, 15 years? You were the guy everybody was chasing. 15, 22 of them. Well, he played for 22, but the first couple of years, they weren't chasing him.

• 44:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, I agree.

• 44:17Channing Crowder?

  And then I was looking at him like, "You raggedy bitch."

• 44:22Channing Crowder?

  But how did that, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, then you were the rabbit at one point in your career. That change, when did you know that change happened? And how did it change you?

• 44:30Speaker 05

  I think it was after, probably, the third Super Bowl we won. Then it was like, it was no more, there was nobody that was hoping we'd ever win another game. And then '07 came, and we went undefeated, which I thought, we were so talented. It was unbelievable. It was the most fun I've ever had playing football. And the fact that we can have probably the most fun we have playing football, and have the most success, and then not win. Man, that's like a, you know, I remember that was, you know, that was still a tough loss. But, you know, I give the other team a lot of credit. They beat us. So like, even when I see Strahan, or Eli, and they joke, I'm like, "Man, respect." Like, good for you. Like, I'm happy when other people win. You know what I hate? I hate haters.

• 45:14Speaker 05

  I really, that bothers me. It's like, everyone's just trying to win. When you win, give them the respect they deserve, man. Like, at some point, just, they did it. You beat me, I would always say, "Hey, man, congratulations, you won," if I saw you. Now, if I didn't see you, you know. But at the same time, like, there were plenty of times where you beat us, where I was like, "Well, we just fucking didn't get the job done." I wasn't gonna go, "Oh, the ref this, or the crowd this," or, you know, "We should've got that call." No, we just, we couldn't handle it. And I always did appreciate that about the Patriots. We never made excuses. And I really give Coach Belichick a lot of credit. He would never let anyone off the hook. The refs made a bad call, he didn't care. Someone made a great, he didn't care. He's just giving their credit. And I always wanna still do that now, even as I'm going into broadcast. Man, people are trying to succeed in their life.

• 45:59Speaker 05

  Why the [bleep] would you get in people's way of that? Let them enjoy it, they deserve it.

• 46:02Channing Crowder?

  Integrity that you have, you know, just watching from afar and talking to people, Sammy Morris, and just so many people that went back and forth from the Dolphins-Patriots. The respect that people have, and the way you hold yourself.

• 46:15Channing Crowder?

  I think it was 15 years ago going on that I stole something from you. And I wanted to give it back.

• 46:29Speaker 05

  Did I throw you something? Oh, no, let's see, December 6th, 2009, I remember that day.

• 46:36Speaker 05

  And a game ball, first career interception. It's deflated. I figured that was the joke. Let me punt this thing off.

• 46:46Speaker 05

  I'm taking this one with me, too. That is pretty sick. Now, your second time you caught a ball from me.

• 46:52Channing Crowder?

  I appreciate you, brother. Yes, sir.

• 46:54Ryan Clark?

  You mentioned not, you know, giving people their credit.

• 46:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 46:58Ryan Clark?

  You know, and the Giants and Eli and Strahan and all of those things.

• 47:04Ryan Clark?

  When people look at your career, they do talk about the accolades, the accomplishments, the successes. Because there are so many. You come off of, at that time, the greatest quarterback year ever. The greatest regular season we'd ever seen. You fall a little short and then you're hurt.

• 47:19Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:19Ryan Clark?

  You know, and it's, okay, I'm recovering from injury. I think Jack came along.

• 47:25Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:25Ryan Clark?

  Around that time as well, in a new relationship. Like, you have all of these things going on, man. What was like that part of your life like? Because that was sort of the beginning to seeing this Tom Brady. The Tom Brady that had so many entities and so many things to deal with.

• 47:41Speaker 05

  I think all of our lives changed when we'd become parents. Because we grow up and there's different responsibilities. Instead of after the game, you go out, you go home and you put your kids to bed. You know, after the game, it's not like, hey, what do I want to do? It's like, did the kids have fun? Are they good? Okay, let's get, let's get home and, and, and get on with our day. Because even I remember, we won the Super Bowl in 2014 against Seattle. Flew home with my family. It was the day after the game, get home, flood in my house. Like, water just pouring on the roof. And, and, and I'm like, what? You know, like, a day ago, we're on top of the world. And now it's like real life, boom. And you just realize every day, and I think the perspective I have now is the sun comes up the next day. You know, and it's gonna like whether you win that Super Bowl,

• 48:26Speaker 05

  whether you lose that Super Bowl, whether you win the game, lose the game, that sun's coming up. So, and when you got kids, they need to be tended to. And I think that's what we allude to as we go. How do you keep the discipline over a period of time? What changed with my diet, my, all the TB12 stuff, you know, that people exaggerate? It was just like, I had to get better and more efficient. If I still wanted to play, then I had to do things better and more efficient. So, the responsibilities changed and I felt like I just had to adjust and adapt with those responsibilities. And certainly when Jack was born, like the greatest gift in my life, you know, was him coming into my life and forcing me to look at parts of myself that again, that I needed to grow up. You know, I was not growing up and I grew up more, but still a lot different than when I had my second child, then my third child, and then

• 49:10Speaker 05

  other parts that of my life. And, and all these moments like that happen, they all change us. They change your perspective, change your attitude. You know, every time you mess something up, hopefully you learn from it. And then that mistake becomes an area for growth. You know, and I feel like that's the stage I'm in now. Like, what are all the mistakes that I've made the first 46 years of my life? And hopefully if I can keep going for another 46, how do I want to apply those going forward so that I can live the life I want to lead?

• 49:38Ryan Clark?

  We sat with Caleb Williams before the draft. And at this point, he obviously knew he'd be going to Chicago, at least felt that he would. And he said, now that I'm going to a place that I plan on being for 20 years, right? Things people didn't say before you, that they wanted to play football 20 years. You made that seem possible. And he did it so well at such a high level for so long. And he said, and now that I want to chase one guy. Right? It's, it's to the point now that people aren't thinking about their peers. When they play your position, they're thinking about you. Patrick Mahomes, and I wish we could allow people to win individually. Patrick Mahomes will always have to answer questions about can you catch Tom Brady?

• 50:23Ryan Clark?

  Right? If you're Brock Purdy and you're Mr. Irrelevant, you got drafted late, you've taken your team to a Super Bowl. Tom Brady. When you look at some of these young quarterbacks, the way CJ Stroud was speaking to you, he's like, I have a question for you. And the way they sort of. Feel about you, what are some of the guys you actually enjoy watching play because of the way they approach the game?

• 50:48Speaker 05

  I mean CJ is a good example, like I really appreciated where he came from and all the expectations that he had and then what he's gone and put together last year with a lot of humility and I could see like when I watch quarterbacks, the first thing I watch is are, does he endear himself to his teammates? What are the things that he's saying, what are the things that he's doing to endear himself to his teammates? So that he does feel like one of the guys. If he wants to separate himself from the rest of the team, it's not gonna go, you're not gonna play 20 years, just not. Because the only way you're gonna play is your teammates. Cause there's only so much you could do, you can't, there's so many things I suck at.

• 51:30Speaker 05

  But the only way that I could get to where I wanted to get to was to have the best teammates. And the only way I could get the best teammates was if I was the best teammate. So you have to talk the right way, hang the right way, celebrate the right way, lose the right way, you know? And I think that's what the bonding, that's the gift in sports. Like there's nothing better than being a great teammate. And if someone said, man, you were an unbelievable teammate, you'd be like, thank you. Because they know you so intimately. You can't fool people in a locker room. You can't bullshit your way through a football season. Maybe you can for one year if you're a good actor, but people really are gonna know who you are if you show up early, you put the time in, they see you how you are when you

• 52:12Speaker 05

  win, right after the game when you lose, how you are the next day, how you approach the week after. Everyone in the media is firing at you, Brady, you suck, you did this, you did this. They're gonna know who I am by the way that I approached the next week. So I always felt like the best teammates were the ones that they, they were with you no matter what, you know? And I was fortunate, that was the best part about playing with Freddie T. Like I know what he's all about. I'd go to war with him any day. I love being out there on the field with them. I, I mean, when he was out there, man, I, you couldn't have him out there enough, so.

• 52:42Fred Taylor?

  I wasn't, I wish I could have been out there more. I don't have any regrets, but I look back, I felt like Randy watching the roast a little bit, like fuck. Two years before I get there, they go to Super Bowl. Two years after I leave, I think you go like three within five years or something like that.

• 52:58Speaker 05

  It was your fault.

• 52:59Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I mean.

• 53:00Speaker 05

  You brought that Jacksonville to New England.

• 53:01Fred Taylor?

  That's that. But no, seriously. Well, on the theme of teammates, locker room, that whole deal. Watching the roast, it reminded me of that. You know, we asked each other on the show, we did, if we could be, sit there and have gotten roasted. I said, just remind me of the camaraderie locker room, all that other stuff. What did you, what's your biggest takeaway from that? Like, did you learn anything new about yourself? Or any of your? Just throughout the whole, throughout the whole part.

• 53:28Speaker 05

  Of the roast?

• 53:29Fred Taylor?

  Of the roast.

• 53:30Speaker 05

  I, you know, like I said, I loved when the jokes were about me. I thought they were so fun. I didn't like the way that affected my kids. So it's the hardest part about like the bittersweet aspect of when you do something that you think is one way and then all of a sudden you realize I wouldn't do that again because of the way that affected actually the people that I care about the most in the world. So like it's, it makes you in some ways a better parent going through it. Cause again, you don't, sometimes you're naive, you don't know, or you get a little like, oh shit. You know, and like I said, I, when I signed up for that, I, I love when people were making fun of me. And I, and I always said like, when I was going through all the Deflategate stuff in 2015, 2016,

• 54:15Speaker 05

  I watched three things on TV. I watched Premier League soccer, I watched golf, and I watched comedy shows. Cause every time I turn on sports, I was like, are you fucking kidding me? So it was like, I just wanna like laugh. And I, and so I wanted to do the roast, cause I, the guy Jeff Ross became someone that I knew. And then I, you know, you just, you don't see the full picture all the time. So I think the, it, it's a good lesson, like for me as a parent, I'm gonna be a better parent as I go forward because of it. And at the same time, I'm happy everyone who was there had a lot of fun. And I do think for me, just outside of, let's say that, it always is good. Like if we're not laughing about things, we're crying. And I think we should have more fun, like the guys, like what did we love? We love laughing in the locker room.

• 54:59Speaker 05

  Let's do more of that and love each other and come on, man. And celebrate other people's success. That to me gives everyone a lot of hope and joy.

• 55:05Ryan Clark?

  It doesn't hurt when they give the microphone to you last and your entire life is actually a brag. You know what I'm saying? Like legitimately, just pointing out the facts of who you are is talking trash. He lit their ass up. Yeah, you could just basically say, you could just read your accolades and be like, yeah, that's practically funny. Because I have none of those, I have none of those things. And so I think like that is, like that is, you know, truly just a dope experience. I do want to say this, man, you know, and I said it on our show Fridays, like greatness, right? Brings people together, you know?

• 55:43Ryan Clark?

  And there was so much said from the outside about your guys' dynasty and what happened in your building, departure, all of those things. The two best things from the entire night for me were to see you, Gronk and Coach Belichick take a shot. And then Robert Kraft and Coach Belichick get an opportunity to do that. Like when you accomplish what you guys did, man, like I only won one of them and I went to two. But going back to Pittsburgh and seeing all those dudes and what we shared and what we accomplished. I would never want anything to change who we could be to one another. And so I thought, man, that part of what you did was that. And I think you should be proud that your accomplishments could do that, but also you, you know? And, um, you know, man, thank you for doing this.

• 56:26Speaker 05

  Thanks, Ryan.

• 56:27Ryan Clark?

  Thank you so much, bro.

• 56:28Speaker 05

  Really happy for you guys.

• 56:29Ryan Clark?

  Nah, we appreciate that.

• 56:30Speaker 05

  And believe me, it's hard work. All this is putting all this stuff together. It seems like it comes off so easy. There's a huge commitment to make to everybody and certainly to get the guests and to prepare and to make it great. So, so happy for you guys.

• 56:43Ryan Clark?

  Now, you made it extremely, extremely easy, actually, just being dope. The show started with a gift for TB, but it's going to end with a gift for us. From our dog, Michael Rubin and Fanatics, Freddie T. What'd you said about them surprises?

• 56:56Fred Taylor?

  Man, just like the Fanatics Sportsbook.

• 56:58Ryan Clark?

  Man, we got some more surprises here.

• 56:59Fred Taylor?

  Hey, full of surprises.

• 57:01Ryan Clark?

  My dog, Chan, this is going to be hanging up in the New York Fanatics office. We wanted to get you. Appreciate you, Mike. Old sign, Channing Crowder. This is Freddie T.

• 57:09Speaker 05

  Oh, boy.

• 57:10Ryan Clark?

  This should be in the Hall of Fame, but until then, we'll keep it in the Fanatics office. He in my Hall of Fame. You know what I mean? And we got the RC joint right here. You know what I mean? So I'll tell you what, bro. This is alright, bro.

• 57:23Speaker 06

  This hard, man.

• 57:24Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, man.

• 57:24Ryan Clark?

  This is alright.

• 57:25Fred Taylor?

  Y'all like y'all photos? I love the black on black jersey.

• 57:28Ryan Clark?

  Hey, by the way, guys, these two photos came from the Super Bowl.

• 57:33Ryan Clark?

  Just thought I'd tell y'all that.

• 57:34Speaker 06

  My number celebrations, I ain't even making a play.

• 57:37Fred Taylor?

  This is nice.

• 57:40Speaker 06

  Appreciate you, man.

• 57:40Fred Taylor?

  That was really fun.

• 57:42Speaker 06

  That's really cool, man. Appreciate you. Freddie? I don't know, man. Appreciate you. Yeah, man. Really fun.

• 57:47Fred Taylor?

  I love that part about you the most, though, brother. I was, what, was it year 13? I took a lot of that back to Jacksonville.

• 57:54Speaker 06

  Absolutely.

• 57:54Fred Taylor?

  You know, I tried to tell these guys, I have asked. I could have been better as a pro. So I appreciate that. Those two years there taught me a lot.

• 58:02Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 58:03Fred Taylor?

  Taught me a lot about team and myself, so I appreciate it, man. For sure.

• 58:10Speaker 06

  Alright, I'm gonna bounce. Stand up, guys. Yeah. Good to see you. Thank you so much, man. Enjoy the family, okay? Freddie, see you, buddy. Love you, man. Thanks, guys.

• 58:19Speaker 08

  Thank you, Sandy. That's for white people. Awesome, thank you so much.

• 58:22Speaker 06

  Channing, thanks, partner. Man, I appreciate you, bro. Yeah, man. You still live down here? Yeah, I live in Davie. I'm from Davie. Remember? I'll give him a TV show. I ain't gonna have TV show. Man, you stick with those chicken wings. I get on that.

• 58:46Fred Taylor?

  Congrats, you're lucky.

• 58:51Speaker 06

  I'm getting lucky.

• 58:58Speaker 06

  I appreciate you, bro. How you doing? It's awesome, man. Yeah, sir.

• 59:05Speaker 06

  Thanks, guys. Love you. Thank you.

• 59:34Speaker 00

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• 59:44Speaker 00

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• 59:48Speaker 00

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