Tom Brady generated headlines this week for his New England Patriots Hall of Fame Induction speech, an appetizer for perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time, who has a far bigger induction waiting down the line in Canton, Ohio when he crosses into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"To be successful at anything, the truth is you don't have to be special,” Brady, famously the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, explained. “You have to be what most people aren't: consistent, determined, and willing to work for it. No shortcuts.
"If you look at all my teammates here tonight, it would be impossible to find better examples of men who embody that work ethic, integrity, purpose, determination, and discipline that it takes to be a champion in life."
Brady was never the most physically gifted quarterback for even one season of his brilliant 23-year career but the Michigan product turned into the default setting for the most important position in sports, a three-time Most Valuable Player, a six-time All-Pro, a 15-time Pro Bowl selection, and most importantly the leader of a record seven Super Bowl-winning teams.
A week earlier in Philadelphia, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni had expressed a similar sentiment at his team’s minicamp.
“All our players in this room have talent,” Sirianni said. “But the best teams have something else. They have something else, and it's the culture. It's the things that -- it's your daily habits of being connected, having accountability, being extremely detailed, being tough -- we're trying to drop in the bucket over and over again.”
Sirianni is captaining a 2024 Eagles team that many believe is in the conversation for having the most talent in the NFL but the coach, who turned 43 on Saturday, cautioned that you can’t just roll the footballs out on the field and expect success.
“I think sometimes you can lose sight of that, of like, ‘hey, we're not just going to win games because we're talented.’ It takes everything,” said Sirianni. “... .t's never just about the most talented-- not in football.
“... We all realize that and it's just about going to work every single day, making ourselves better coaches and better players every day, but doing that and also making ourselves to have the best culture every single day.”
