“Sorry Baker, I didn’t mention you because I never played with you.”
So less than two weeks after his first draft with his new team, new general manager and new head coach, did Raiders part-owner Tom Brady do a sitdown with NFL Network, which he owns a small piece of? No.
Did Brady do a sitdown with his employer, FOX News or FS1? No.
Did Brady go on a rightsholder broadcast network to talk football? No.
Instead, Brady had a sitdown with boxing and wrestling celebrity Logan Paul on his podcast “IMPAULSIVE.”
Yes, when football’s biggest international celebrity comes up for air to do a sitdown with a podcaster as opposed to a TV network, it’s proof that the MSM and legacy media are no longer the gatekeepers and distributors of news and information, a monopoly they once enjoyed for roughly a century.
(Yes, newspapers were the media for many years. Commercial radio came about roughly 100 years ago and TVs began popping up just after World War II (VE Day was 80 years ago today). All three are now reeling and have been overtaken by websites, podcasts and social media.)
When Paul’s co-host, best-selling author Mike Majlak, asked Brady who his mentors were and if they motivated him, Brady had a predictable response. He rattled off the names of his parents and family and cited past coaches and teachers. But Brady noted that it wasn’t just mentors who drove him to succeed. It was teammates.
Then Brady mentioned three ex-Bucs teammates.
“When you get up in the morning, bounce out of bed,” Brady explained of the mentality he had to have to dominate the NFL. “That’s the way to do it. It’s like, ‘OK, what do I got going there? What purpose do I have to jump up out of bed?’ And I think football.
“You could look at football as a sport, but to me, it was all about relationships and teammates. … I have my teammates who are my motivators, and I didn’t want to let those guys down.
“And it was a lot of those, you know, Rodney Harrison and Ty Law and Kevin Faulk and Randy Moss and Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and ‘Gronk’ and Julian [Edelman].”
Paul mentioned to Brady that his passion for the game gave Brady’s career a “second wind” playing for the Bucs. Brady didn’t disagree but he said he didn’t want to let his teammates down.
When he saw Evans and Godwin and Gronk bust their tails, Brady said he felt a responsibility to be his best.
“There’s an accountability to sports,” Brady said.
Brady admitted he was part “psychotic” for how he pushed himself and took the game so seriously, ignoring no detail, treating minutia as critically important to master. He expected others to do the same.
Joe thought it was cool how Brady gave Evans and Godwin and Gronk a shoutout on such a popular podcast where his words will reach far more people than any newspaper or radio show could ever hope to.
