More reasons while Brady will always be my favorite athlete of all time, in any sport. This stuff isn't anything new. It's how he's always done things and treated teammates.
Despite the fact that Brady has won six Super Bowl rings, in contrast to 75% of the players on the Bucs' roster who haven't even been to the postseason, the QB doesn't regard himself as better than his teammates.
He thinks their input is as important as his is for them. Earning and keeping their respect is just as important as it is for them to earn his.
"Us being around one another, learning different things about one another, just only develops trust, dependability, consistency," Brady said. "Then, these guys [are who] you go to battle with and you compete hard with. You gain a different level of love for them as people because you see the way they compete, the way they treat people, and the competitors they are on the field, what they do off the field with their families and the community. It's just been really great to see."
Evans gushed, "He's already up there as one of my favorite teammates," after just a few practices, but also noted that underneath it all, Brady wants to be seen as a normal guy, as "Tommy," which Arians called him for the first time at the podium Sunday.
"He's the GOAT, on and off the field. It's crazy. He's a superstar -- the most accomplished player in our game in history, and he's just like everybody else," Evans said. "He loves his family. He loves family time. He's just cool. He's a real down-to-earth guy."
Jensen added, "I didn't know what to expect at first, but when
first met him, he's a down-to-earth guy. One of the boys in the locker room. That's who he is, and it's nice for sure."
Those relationships Brady is developing mean as much to him as they do to his teammates.
"What you have with this sport is you have your memories and you have relationships -- that's what it comes down to for me," Brady said. "To have the opportunity to come here and develop relationships with a different set of people -- and that's happened in my 20-year career, but to come down to Tampa, to join a team and to be embraced the way that I've been embraced -- it's been amazing for me.
Scotty Miller, a sixth-round draft pick like Brady but in just his second year, believes what separates Brady from others is the way he treats people.
"He's never treated me like I was 'sub-Tom Brady.' Nobody on this team gets treated like you're beneath Tom Brady," Miller said. "He treated me with respect from the very first day I met him. He just treats us like we're equals. To me, that makes me want to play incredibly hard."
Awestruck by Brady? His Bucs teammates got over that, but the six-time Super Bowl champ won over the locker room with his energy and sincerity.
www.espn.com
