Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Tom Brady An American Story The Price Of Greatness From Lars Anderson

Transcript

Tom Brady An American Story The Price Of Greatness From Lars Anderson · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I really do love it when people say, your podcast
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: is all over the place. You're not focused. I know.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: That's exactly the way that we lead our lives, right?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: What are you doing today versus what you did yesterday?
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: How about five minutes from now? How about in maybe
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an hour to three days? We're all
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: over the place. So why shouldn't your podcast? It's about
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your taste. Arrow.net. A-R-R-O-E.net. Enjoy your exploration. There are 21
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: different podcasts to explore. Now, It's time for you to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: accept the journey and go grow forward. Crazy.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: This is Zoom.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: You guys were talking about Zoom, and I'm going, no,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: we need to get something bigger and better than Zoom.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: It's really failing anymore.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I did a radio show for five years, and we
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: did Clean Feed, and Clean Feed was really good.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Do you remember the Zephyr? Remember when we used to
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: do the Zephyr, and then if you didn't turn it off,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: they would just send you an email, or actually they'd
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: just come up and talk to you and say, you
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: screwed up, dude.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: What was it like for you, though, Lars, in the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: way of bringing this book together? Because, I mean, I
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: was watching Fox Sports yesterday. There was Tom Brady. And
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I swear to God, I love him more as the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: announcer than I did the player. And maybe it's because
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I'm a Carolina Panther fan and Tom would just come
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to town and destroy us.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: So, look, it was not my life ambition to take
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: on a project this big, which I kind of felt
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: was a suicide mission at the beginning, because how are
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: you going to tell the story of Tom Brady?
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: But I didn't want to just tell his story.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I wanted to explain how Tom became Tom Brady or
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: how Tommy became Tom Brady, going back to his childhood.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: What could you see in his childhood?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: And also, you know, explore the nature of fame, what
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: fame does.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: And, and, and the whole, the, the.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Price of greatness really didn't, didn't come to me, uh,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: right away.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Uh, I just went where.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: The reporting led me, you know, at, at one point
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I had three young reporters working full time for me,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: conducting interviews, going to different places and writing scenes.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Um, and, uh, and I had, uh, uh, uh.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: An editor, um, um, I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: he used to be the top editor at al.com. And
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I tried to set up this structure that mimicked, uh,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the structure I had when I was at sports illustrated
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: for 20 years.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Where you got one editor.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: One writer, and usually two or three reporters who could
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: help you out. This was back when SI actually mattered
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: and we had money. Right.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Okay. So I tried to replicate all that.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: So we interviewed 350 people and really tried to.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Work the edges as much as possible.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is I wanted to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: talk to the punter who was in camp, say, for
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: three weeks in 2007, that Tom probably doesn't even remember
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: ever seeing. But I guarantee you that Hunter has a
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: story about Tom Brady that he tells at dinner tables.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And sure enough, at dinner parties. And sure enough, everyone
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: had a Tom Brady story. And really, perhaps the most
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: remarkable thing of all these interviews is was that though
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: plenty of people were marked on Tom's social awkwardness, not
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: one had a bad word to say about his character.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, even guys who had axes to grind, even
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: guys who didn't necessarily like him. And it was a
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: tight end who grew up in Tennessee, was a huge
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Peyton Manning fan.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: This was later in Tom's career. And he's playing for
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: the Patriots.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And, you know, he just like never was a fan
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: of Tom as a kid.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: And now he's playing with them. And after and he's
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: only on the team for like three weeks.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: He after a game, he wants to introduce his mom
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: and dad to the great Tom Brady.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, there's a kind of.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: A private cordoned off area there at Gillette where the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: friends and family of the players gather and they got
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: some refreshments and some food. And and so this this
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: tight end brings his parents over to Tom and And
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: before he could make the introduction, Tom extends his hand and.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: Says, nice to meet you.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Nice to meet you, Lisa and Jack. And this guy
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: was blown away, blown away that Tom knew.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: His parents' names.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: And, you know, like the shtick of Tom going up
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: to people in the locker room when they first arrive
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: and saying, I'm Tom Brady.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Nice to meet you. I mean, in a way, it was.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Kind of annoying to some of the veterans who'd seen
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: him do that a million times.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: But you know what?
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: But that right away, it just eliminates any barrier between
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: those two. It doesn't have to be weird because that's
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: how it got when Tom was so big and that
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: he didn't want guys to be afraid to talk to
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: him and and he he he's a very self-aware person
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: and just just finally final point right on this but
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: you know he's the the the the youngest of four
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: and his uh he had three older sisters who were
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: all better athletes than him oh my god And and,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: you know, they would dress him up as a as
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: a doll, put a pop of red lipstick on him
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: and and and, you know, paint his toenails.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: But but but but.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: From that, I I believe it absolutely shaped his leadership style.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Because it really.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Has more feminine characteristics to it than masculine in that he.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: Is a relationship person. He wants to establish relationships.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: He's not going to do this intimidation thing.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Stuff that, uh, that other guys would do. And of
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: course he would get royally pissed and.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: He's, he's got, he's got a temper just like most
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: great athletes. But, um, really what was important to him
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: was establishing relationships.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: And there's a lesson there. There's a lot of lessons
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: in this book.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, and, and, and, and, uh, I, I found
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: myself Sometimes like telling my own kids and I've got
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: an 11 year old and twin nine year old girls,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I would find myself telling them stuff that I just
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: wrote about Tom. And yeah, so I lived inside Tom's
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: head for about three years.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready to pull the ripcord
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: on that one and jump out.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Please don't move. There's more with Lars Anderson coming up next.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: The name of the book, Brady, An American Story and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the Price of Greatness. We are back with Lars Anderson.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, you were talking about that everybody's
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: got a Tom Brady story. I do. I work at
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a grocery store, and cameras have gotten so sophisticated at
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: grocery stores. I mean, every day, I'll bet you about
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: 10 or 12 times I'll go, Tom Brady couldn't get
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a flat football by these cameras, I promise you. But
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you know what, though? Every person I tell that to,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: people will sit there and laugh about it because they
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: know Tom Brady. It's like he's that guy that everybody knows.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Yes, and I've seen this with my own two eyes.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: He has to arrive late at events, and especially when
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: it's events that he's there.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: To support somebody else.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I wrote basically two books with Bruce Arians, former head
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: coach of the Bucs, and our first book was when
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: he was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. And
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Bruce has a foundation, Ariens Foundation. And, you know, there's
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a thousand people there. And the entire time, everybody, and
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: this is for the foundation, everybody's just looking at the
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: door waiting for Tom, waiting for Tom, waiting for Tom.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: And I mean, and think about like, if Tom just
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: wants to, you know, just going to a movie.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Like, he can't go through the front door. Right. Because, look,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: you have obviously come in contact with him. You know
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: how tall he is. Yeah. That is one thing that
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: I don't think people understand. Like, he sticks out because
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: he's so freaking tall. Yeah.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: And, you know, he looks really good.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: And all that.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And and so he has to arrive late and leave early,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: not because he's being a jerk, but he is literally
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: trying to deflect attention away from him.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: And imagine like he has to do that. And I'm
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: not I'm not saying like this.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Is a woe is Tom Brady book.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: At all.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: But I'm just trying to describe what his life is
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: actually like.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: See, I can really relate with him only because I
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: spent three, three and a half years with Roman Gabriel
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and we got we got to know each other. And
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: so and of course, that's who I measure Tom Brady
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: up against is Roman Gabriel. And I just just the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: stories that Roman would share. And now that I see
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Tom in this shape that he's in now and I
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: just go, oh, my God. If more people spent more
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: time with these quarterbacks and heard their real stories, and
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I think that's why I'm embracing Tommy's story here too.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm glad you call him Tommy
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: throughout the book. I'm so glad because that's the way
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I want to know him because that guy is still
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a kid inside.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Man, you're the first person to say that. Thank you.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Seriously, you're the first person to say that. And I
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: felt I just wanted to make this more intimate.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: And and also I had the fact that his dad
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: is named Tom Brady as well. So there's Tom and Tommy.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: But even, you know, to his family, he's still Tommy. Yes. And,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: you know, there's a I think there's a line in
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: there just like Tommy couldn't be Tommy anymore.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: He was just Tom.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: You know, that Tommy was slowly dying because of this fame. And,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: you know, a bunch of his friends, they weren't mad
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: at him, but once he married Giselle, everything changed. A
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: level of fame that I don't think he could have
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: fathomed and spent a lot of time talking to David Nugent.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: Great guy.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: He lived with Tom his first I think three seasons
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: in New England they were roommates and you know he
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: just said that and he knows Tom very well and
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: he just thought to himself when he heard about the
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: engagement he's just like oh no this isn't good this
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: isn't good Um, just because it's just, uh, again, it's,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: it's just a level of global fame that I don't
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: know if Tom was necessarily ready for. Right. Right.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Are you going to do a followup book called Tommy quotes?
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Because you're right. He's a very wise man. And he
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: says things that it's like, if I don't get a
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: highlighter and keep it with me while I'm reading this book,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I'm going to miss out on it in five or
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: 10 years when I need to come back and get
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: a Tommy quote.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He he's a smart, smart dude. There's no question
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: about it, which makes the decisions he did.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: All the more intriguing.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: You know, I've always been I've always been fascinated by
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: the idea that, you know, sports ends for everybody.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it ends in grade school. Sometimes it ends in
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: high school, sometimes.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: In college, sometimes, you know, first year in a professional league.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: But it ends for everybody. And when it does end and,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: you know, I played athletics, all that stuff.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: When it ends, it hurts like hell.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it does.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: It hurts like hell. And it's like you don't want
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: that feeling. You know, and I and I understand that.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: And Tom just didn't want it to end.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: And, you know, football.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Became his identity, the rhythm of his life. And I
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: think in his mind, he was kind of living under
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: a constant state of siege because it it wasn't the
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: championships that were so big.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: That were really keeping him in there, although to this
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: day he still talks about, oh, I can go win
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: number eight. And I would not be surprised. He could
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: play right now. There's no doubt in my mind.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, he could. He could play right now.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: And the only reason he retired was because of the divorce,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: because he knew that the.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Dynamics of his life.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Yep. were shifting so rapidly. He could not devote himself
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: to football and take care of his kids.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: And that, that was the moment at which.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: His kids absolutely became his priority. You know, and people
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: have asked like, Hey, you know, was Tom a good dad,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: bad dad.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I understand it. Right.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I would have made the same decisions,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: but look, I personally have been through a divorce with
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: small kids. My kids are now 11, and I have
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: twin girls that are 9. And going through that experience
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: was absolutely the worst thing in my life. I lost
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: my dad when I was relatively young, and losing my
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: family was far more difficult. emotionally devastating than losing my father. And, um,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: you know, I think one of the most powerful scenes
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: in the book is, um, the day before the divorce
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: is announced, Tampa loses a game. And for 15 full minutes,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Tom just sits in front of his locker, full uniform
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: on head bowed, just staring at the ground coach, after
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: coach player after player comes up and just reminding him.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: You're Tom Brady, man, Tom Brady.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: And, and, but, but never, I mean, it was a
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: portrait of a broken man and never had Tom F
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: and Brady looked less like Tom F.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: And Brady than at this moment. Right? Like this is,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: this is the bottom.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: This is the rock bottom of the consequences of, That
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: of his actions.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Now, if you ask him, was it worth it?
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, and I have not had a chance to
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: ask him that because he chose not to participate. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: I totally respect that. I don't think I would participate
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: if somebody was writing.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: I get it. But I think his answer would be, hell, yeah,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: it was worth it.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Dude, you've got to come back to this show any
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: time in the future because I would love to break
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: it down with you when it comes to Drake May
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: because Drake is from Charlotte, and we got to see
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Drake when he was in high school. And to be
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: in that role of where Tom Brady once stood, I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: would love to have your point of view of how
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: that whole entire football team and atmosphere is even going
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: to get into the veins of a Drake May. You
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: are so close to this story that it's like I've
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: got to break into your thoughts on that too on
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a future episode.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Hey, I'd love to come back on. Seriously. Love to.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Excellent. Well, you'd be brilliant today.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, sir.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And thank you so much for doing this book because
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: it really, you're giving, I'm going to call him Tommy
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: from now on and I'm going to blame you, but
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: about their people will understand once, once they see your book,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: they're going to understand. And I can't thank you enough
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: for doing that.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much. Very kind of you. And
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: I know I'm serious. Uh, offline. Let's, uh, let's exchange information. Excellent.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: You'd be brilliant today.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, sir. All right.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Errol.