Man in the Arena (2021) s01e05 Episode Script

No Guarantees

1
♪♪
You don't know
when they're gonna come up.
You don't know which situation
they're gonna come up,
personally, professionally,
in a game, in a practice, injuries.
What choices are you gonna make
that allow you to give yourself
the best opportunity to succeed?
Sometimes the resilient choice
is the one that's the most difficult
or the most effort
or the most energy.
Let's keep the pressure on 'em,
Keep the pressure on.
Are you gonna be able
to adapt to the situation,
or are you gonna be
fixed to a certain way
and not be able to adjust
to the changing scenery?
Are you resilient or are you not?
'Cause life isn't easy for any of us.
But we all get the opportunity to choose.
♪♪
And the Giants with
the most improbable win,
have won Super Bowl XLII.
The greatest victory
in the history of this franchise
without a question.
Just couldn't get the ball
in the end zone enough, you know.
You score 14 points.
I don't think
That's our lowest total of the year,
and that got us beat.
2007, you know,
we had obviously the tough loss
and, um the toughest loss.
And then you come back
in 2008, and you think
we're just gonna basically
repeat the season.
Last year,
the New England Patriots
were the story of the NFL,
until the very end.
You are still Tom Brady.
You still have Randy Moss.
You still have Wes Welker.
You still have those boys.
Quick pass by Brady.
Complete, across the 35
to Wes Welker.
You know, it's one of those things
where you think it's gonna last forever.
Brady throwing. That's complete.
Randy Moss, and Moss
The group of guys
and the way we meshed
and everything like that,
you know, it was like, let's roll.
And we're gonna play ball
like we always do.
Brady with time.
Hit as he throws the ball.
That is complete. Randy Moss.
Just as my knee
was hitting the ground,
I felt this pressure.
You know, you feel when you get hit.
The difference was this time
was the pain didn't go away.
Tom Brady took a tremendous hit
as he released that ball
right on his left leg.
I was laying there on the field.
The doctor ran out and checked my knee,
and I could just tell
by the look on his eyes.
Like, I knew what it meant.
Patriot Nation right now
is holding its collective breath.
Full ACL repair.
Full MCL repair.
16 snaps, and that was it for the season.
You know,
he played one position.
He played it very well,
and it'll be somebody else
playing that position now.
And, you know, I have
a lot of confidence in Matt,
and everybody else
has to continue to do their job.
It did a lot of damage to my knee,
and I knew I was gonna probably
be out a very long time.
I mean, I took care of pretty
much everything,
I have to say. Let's be honest.
I mean, behind a strong man,
there must be a strong woman.
Three surgeries on my knee,
staph infection, laying in bed.
You know, being gray.
She pretty much helped me
through everything.
Right, she has been the stabilizing force
through a lot of the tough times.
Gisele Bündchen is among the world's
most photographed women,
hailed by Rolling Stone magazine
as the most beautiful girl in the world.
I think we both could understand
the level of commitment
and the level of dedication
that it takes, to, you know,
be really good at something.
From a too skinny 14-year-old
discovered in Brazil to the world's
highest paid supermodel.
I didn't think I'd be married till
I was late in my career.
I thought late thirties, early forties
I was gonna get married.
Then obviously she came into my life.
We became friends first
and kind of went on a couple of dates,
and then he invited me to
go to my first football game,
which was against the Chargers.
You know, she didn't
grow up watching football.
She could care less about that,
but I was there.
She was gonna come
to the game and watch,
And I thought it was
the most boring thing
I've ever seen in my life.
I was like “What are they doing?
Like, why do they stop all the time?
Where is the goal?"
'Cause, you know, Brazil is like, go!
And in the end, I was like,
God, I don't know
what to tell this guy, you know?
He's gonna ask me,
like, "How was the game?"
I was like,
“Oh, you know, it was great.”
But I didn't understand anything.
You know,
she has just always had
In the end just cared about me.
Her being kind of new
to the sport, you know,
seeing how brutal it is.
You know, this is pretty physical
and this is what she was signing up for.
So many times
in my life I fell down,
I had to come back up.
But it's different when it happens
to someone that you love.
You feel powerless.
You feel like, what can I do?
When I was out that whole season,
I realized that playing
the game brought me so much joy.
Touchdown! Touchdown!
There's a big hole in your life
that's missing when you're not
doing what you love to do,
which is to be a part of the team,
which is to ride the buses and the planes
and develop the relationships
and make the memories
and throw the football
and enjoy the time together.
And I wasn't a part of that,
and I felt like an outsider to that team.
I think to him is more importantly
to compete with himself.
Now he knew he couldn't.
I feel like everything is here
to teach us something.
I always say challenges are
opportunities in disguise, you know.
Do you, Tom, think you have
something else to prove?
I think naturally I have
a very fragile confidence,
not that I can play, but that I can
not that I can lead.
That I want to go out
and prove it every day.
If you think you're entitled
to anything in this job,
you know, go sit out a year
and tell me about the entitlement.
There's nothing guaranteed,
and you've got to go out there
and earn the respect of your coaches
and your teammates
so that you have the right
and the privilege
to go out and lead them.
♪♪
After 53 weeks,
New England welcomes Brady back.
When did your friendship with Tom
start to really, like, build?
Well, I think
we always had a good connection.
Pumping, throwing.
It's just very rare to have two guys
that can really get on the same page
on every single route.
No matter how the defense plays it,
there's gonna be a chance.
Brady back to throw.
Fires, open, caught.
Touchdown, Wes Welker!
Wes was underdog,
chip on his shoulder.
Keep the pressure on!
Let's go!
Undersized, but never out-toughed.
He's a great player, isn't he, Duke?
Oh, is he ever.
We're like partners in crime, you know.
That's my boy.
Good job, Wessy.
We're there talking
about football every night.
He's coming over my house.
We have dinner.
We're talking about football.
Your boy's coming for you early and often.
Tom Brady to Wes Welker.
Touchdown!
We killin' 'em!
All day!
Well, it's funny, like, growing up, too,
'cause, like, you sit there
and you think, like,
all right, well, all these
guys are freak athletes,
and it's just like I could
never compete with that guy.
And then you just
keep on working at it,
keep on doing what you do
and a routine every single day.
And all of a sudden
you surpass the freak
because he didn't want to work.
- What's up, baby?
- Let's come back to that smash.
- I'll run a good route and be wide open.
- Okay.
- We're getting on that, right?
- Level.
You know,
it wasn't just run the route.
It was, all right, against this coverage,
this is the way I'm running it.
Against this coverage,
this is how I'm running it.
You know, we were constantly
in communication on things.
Hey, Billy, on the, there was the Utah
- Yeah.
- And he may zig us
2009 was a tough year.
Are we starting out plank?
We had a different team then
and offensively you know, we were okay,
but we weren't totally clicking.
You know, we lost the guy
who was a great confidant
of mine, Josh McDaniels.
Josh got the head coaching job
with the Denver Broncos
and that's when Bill promoted me
to be you know, he called me
the quarterback coach,
but I was like the coordinator.
Doing all the things,
and I was coaching Tom.
You know, Billy
came in with the attitude
of, "Hey, man, just show me
what you are comfortable doing,"
and I was really empowered to have
I think, ownership of what we were doing.
They might blitz us a little more, huh?
Yeah.
So let's try to stay in trips
on the first when we can.
Wanna stay in trips?
- Well, trips helps.
- I know.
I love trips.
He was still young in his role
as far as experience in the offense,
he did lean on Tom quite a bit.
One of the things
that you've gotta learn
right away about him
is that he has a very creative mind,
and so I always felt like
you have to work with him.
If you're a coach
that's gonna come in there
and say,
“Hey, it's my way or the highway,”
you have no chance
of coaching Tom Brady.
Like, no chance.
2010, we drafted a couple guys
that were cornerstones
of our organization.
Got it filled out.
Rob Gronkowski tight end
Yeah, I'm here.
Yeah, go, go, go, go, go.
The New England Patriots select
Rob Gronkowski,
tight end, Arizona.
You know, namely, Gronk
and we still had
some other great players.
Mayo, Kevin Faulk,
Wes, of course.
2010 was really the start
of a different Patriots team.
A new Patriots,
you know, the Patriots 2.0.
Open man,
and that's Aaron Hernandez,
a rookie tight end.
It turned into a different
type of style of offense.
We were really heavily
focused on our tight ends.
Two tight ends. Look at the blocks.
You got two tight ends and Wes Welker.
Who's better at catching
those screen passes
and darting between people?
We started to put together one-word calls
where we could go really fast.
If I said, you know, Chicago,
everybody knew what to do.
Juggle, juggle, juggle.
Peter, Peter!
Joker, joker, joker, joker!
You know,
that was a challenging season,
but we played pretty well through it,
and we won 12 straight to end the year.
We were 14-2.
We're the number one seed.
We got a bye.
We played really good football.
We had played the Jets
in early December
and smashed them,
and we kind of thought,
"Oh, we're playing
the Jets again," you know.
We're gonna go do
what we did to them last time.
Fakes the end around.
Still has the football,
dumps it off, it's intercepted.
And they came in and
they played a different style.
Pressure, and he'll be sacked.
We just didn't click,
we just didn't play and coach
as well as we had been playing.
And that was a very, very difficult loss.
And this one is over.
What a disappointment
for the Patriots, players,
coaches, fans, all of us.
We let the opportunity slip away
'cause you're not always
gonna have the most talent.
You've gotta take advantage
when you do,
and we had really
supreme talent that year,
and we just didn't get it
We just didn't get it done.
How are you, Tom?
I'm okay, actually.
- Huh?
- I'm not great. I'm okay.
You're okay? Why?
Just thinking about that
stupid football game last night.
I think he just
one of those people that
you know, time heals everything, right?
So I think he just
goes down to that place
of questioning himself and
being really hard on himself.
Oh, I love you.
You're the best.
And then, you know, when he's ready,
he comes out of the dungeon.
He just takes
a little longer sometimes.
But she's just been
an incredible supporter of mine
on the field, off the field,
and I learned so much about her
in an early part of our relationship.
In August of 2007,
my son Jack was born.
We had this amazing season going,
and at the same time,
there was an equally
amazing little boy
that I was a father to
that was opening me up
to an entirely different life
and set of priorities.
Good morning.
But I would say
I got pretty anxious,
very stressed out
about I was living in Boston,
his mom was on the West Coast,
and the new relationship with G.
Like, how's this all gonna play out?
I was so in love with him
and I just thought, like,
I never met a guy that is so sweet
and, you know,
so gentle and honorable.
Like, just how he is, you know.
That I felt like, "Oh,
I think I have to really
think about this."
If you're choosing this,
you're choosing, you know,
to have this child
for the rest of your life
and his mom and all of this, you know,
this is all gonna be part of your life.
So I thought about it and I
thought, like, you know, yes.
And, you know, it's been
the biggest blessing in my life really
because I love Jack like
he's my own little munchkin.
You know, our relationship was built
on a really strong foundation
because we learned about who I was
and who she was
at a really early point.
We were, you know, in this together.
And we always talked
about starting a family
and being together.
Like, that's something we talked about.
I thought I found the person
that I wanted to marry,
and we didn't get married till 2009.
We shared a great,
you know, love of family.
We shared a great love of each other,
and we wanted to build a family together.
So it was a home birth,
and it was funny
because he didn't want me
to have a home birth.
He was like "Absolutely not,"
and I was, like, "Excuse me.
You don't get to choose that.
It's my body." He's like
He was like “Who has a kid
at home in the 2000s?”
I'm, like, "I do."
Hi, Benny.
He's squirming.
No, my love, hold him.
I am.
Me being there with G
at his birth in our home,
it lives in my mind.
I think, man, we brought
this boy into the world
in the most precious way.
You know, your life goes from
your priority of career and work
to essentially having the priorities
of being a father
as well as an NFL quarterback.
And it's a lot different,
'cause it's just divided attention.
And you want to divide
the attention,
'cause your family has the right
to have me at home
and available to the family.
And I wasn't sure when that
was gonna happen in my life,
but all of a sudden,
11 years into my career,
I've got two kids, married.
You know, my life was
taking on a different road
than I had thought it was gonna take on.
That forever changed my life.
You'll overcome it.
This little squirt helps me, though.
Look at him.
Vem, Benny.
♪♪
After seven hours before
a federal mediator on Friday,
we have finally reached that point:
pigskin Armageddon.
A federal mediator said Friday
the two sides were so far apart
that he saw no useful purpose
in continuing to meet.
Tom Brady,
Peyton Manning, Drew Brees,
and seven other players
filed a class action antitrust
lawsuit against the NFL.
The union has decertified,
and now the NFL
has locked its players out.
I feel really strongly
about the rights of players in the NFL
and the fair treatment of, you
know, what we do for the game.
And it's hard to take on
32 billionaires, you know?
But, you know,
I think for all players,
you know, we were sticking together
to, you know, to get a deal done.
And, um, over the course
of the spring/summer,
we had no contact with anybody,
any of our coaches, nothing.
And I got everybody's email.
I said I want to do this workout.
It was universal response.
"Yeah, we're doing it."
Brady is back in the area
and has organized workouts
with his Patriot teammates
at Boston College.
I said, “Hey, we're gonna
put together seven on sevens
and team and this
and we're gonna do individual drills
and we're gonna do some conditioning.
He was taking me
through two-minute drills,
and it was "one more, one more."
I mean, we're
going up and down the field
up and down the field.
And we had so much fun doing it.
We joked, like, “What the fuck
do we need the coaches for?
You know, we handled all this."
He could get it the way, like,
he wanted it, you know,
and not have coaches get in the way.
You know, we're all getting together.
We're getting our work done.
We're gonna be in shape.
We're gonna be ready to go.
We have a belief that
the season's gonna start.
It's been a long time coming,
and, uh, football is back,
and that's the great news for everybody.
When we first got back to the facility,
Coach Belichick said,
"There's a lot of teams
that probably haven't done shit
this whole offseason, you know.
The players probably are out of shape.
So what we're gonna do
is we're gonna try to play
a lot of no huddle."
You know, we were gonna go out,
and we were gonna
get off to a fast start.
Play action fake by Brady.
Back to throw, looks,
shoots it long and deep.
Diving catch!
We worked a lot on this fast-paced tempo.
First and goal at the four.
BenJarvus trying
to look for running room.
Spins inside, goes in. Touchdown!
It was a little bit different
than just a no huddle.
It was how fast can we get up there
and run a play?
Right away
Brady into the no huddle.
Calling signals, shotgun formation.
Looks, pulls the trigger right.
Caught. Touchdown. Rob Gronkowski.
That Miami game,
I mean, we were on fire.
Snap to Brady. Looking, fires left.
Caught. Touchdown.
All their guys were dropping like flies,
and we're just sitting here
going as fast as we can.
We used to always go empty
when we were backed up,
which is rare.
It's basically like
no backs in the backfield.
You're telling the defense
you're throwing the ball,
but when you have
a quarterback like Tom,
like, you can do stuff like that.
He loved it. I loved it.
And he threw a seam ball to Welker.
In the gun from the half yard line.
Why not? To Wes Welker.
Wes Welker pulling away!
And he ties an NFL record
with a 99-yard touchdown!
If you don't have that quarterback
that you completely trust,
you won't see teams do that.
Tom Brady record
setting performance tonight.
517 yards.
We had great advantage on the field,
and we were playing really good football.
And I would say our offense was
probably ahead of our defense.
Fitzpatrick looking to the end zone.
Stevie Johnson. Touchdown, Bills!
But we lost to the Bills.
I remember that.
I had a pretty shitty game.
We didn't feel by
any stretch of the imagination
that we were peaking.
And Tom,
he was driving his teammates
to be better and to improve.
Hey, good job.
But you know what?
We can do better than that,
all right?
Let's get in the end zone.
Football was my life
and everything revolves
around the schedule
and the plan and the workouts.
And then all of a sudden,
you decide to have a family and kids,
and then it gets shaped
very differently.
Ready? White, white! Go, white!
You did notice, like, him
becoming more of a father
and more about his family.
Not that football
was ever, like, off the scales
or anything like that.
More time with the family,
more time with your kids,
you know,
more efficiency in football
because you still gotta
get a lot of work done.
You just have to be more efficient
'cause you can't bullshit all day
and play dominoes after practice.
Come on, Tom, come out with us.
Come out, you know,
and he's, like, no.
I gotta go hang out with the
I gotta do this, you know.
You want to get home
to see your kids
before they go, you know
You want to help feed 'em
and help give 'em a bath
before you put 'em down.
And then, you know,
you could miss that,
and you missed that for,
you know, a period of time.
Not that I was the greatest
diaper changer of all time.
I certainly wasn't.
I want him to be very fulfilled.
I felt, like,
very fulfilled in my career,
so I felt like I was okay
to kind of take the back seat.
And I wanted him to have
all the room that he needed
to perform at his best,
'cause I knew that he wasn't
gonna be happy if he didn't.
I say go and do what you love,
and I would take care
of the house and the kids
and the dogs and the parrots.
And, I mean, and everything else.
And the hamsters, whatever.
I will take care of everything else.
Good afternoon, everyone,
from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
Leading the AFC East,
it's gonna be a tough one
for the Patriots.
First matchup against
the New York Giants
since they met them in
the Super Bowl a few years ago.
They were always
the little thorn in our side,
and I think because
there was no fear with them.
Sometimes we imposed
some fear on some other teams,
but never the Giants.
Let's get it going right now.
They came into Foxborough.
We hadn't lost in a long time
in Foxborough.
Play fake. Brady to throw.
Pumps over the middle.
Pass deflected.
Intercepted by Kiwanuka.
It was tipped by Boley.
Draw play for Jacobs.
Jacobs up the middle
to the five, to the goal line.
Standing up. Touchdown, Giants.
Brady back to throw.
Fires to the left, and it is intercepted.
Second interception
of the game by the Giants,
Throwing, I think,
a couple interceptions that game.
This is a tough deal,
'cause that was one of my better games.
That's such
a great route by Wes Welker.
I just remember that game
'cause I felt like they couldn't cover me.
There's not many guys
that can line up on Wes Welker
and keep him from
getting the ball with no help.
Look, we didn't
play great against the Giants,
but I remember we drove down
at the end of the game.
We had a really good two-minute drive.
To Gronkowski.
Got a first down to the 15-yard line.
He hit Gronkowski
on a play called Panther.
Brady slings it.
Caught. Touchdown.
To take the lead, I think, at that point,
and they had time left on the clock.
Eli Manning has four comebacks
in the fourth quarter this season,
and his team is down by three
with a 1:36 left.
Here we go.
Manning rolls to his right.
He's got his receiver Cruz.
Throws the seam.
Ballard makes a twisting catch.
Manning's gonna run.
Manning to the 30,
to the 25, to the 20.
Great drive by Eli and this offense.
Of course, you know, Eli had the ball,
and it was just, like,
"What's going on here?"
Like, why is this happening again?
Instead, Manning throws for the touchdown.
Jake Ballard
We played well enough to win that game.
That was a pretty tough way to lose.
We, I think, went to 5-3 at that point.
And then after that,
I mean, we turned it on.
Brady takes the shotgun snap.
Fires to the end zone, caught!
Touchdown, Gronkowski!
Terrific catch by Gronkowski on a bullet.
Okay, let's go!
He does a great job of sensing
where the team's going.
And again he goes down.
We gotta refocus
where we're at right here.
And the Jets are gonna lose
to the New England Patriots tonight.
The team really started
to just excel in every way.
Brady fires right.
Complete there to Gronkowski.
On his feet at the 15. Touchdown!
And the defense was really starting
to really being that intimidating force.
Practices were sharper.
Both sides of the ball,
there were really
good leaders on that team.
You had Vince Wilfork,
Rob Ninkovich, Jerod Mayo.
All these players that were
part of the Patriots 2.0.
Brady fires. Touchdown.
Another one to Rob Gronkowski.
Days like this,
I want to play
120 minutes today.
The Patriots win it by a score of 31-24.
They improve to 9-3.
We played Buffalo.
Fitz takes, fires into the end zone.
Touchdown, Buffalo!
We were losing 21-0.
It happened so quick,
you know, and it was just
We could turn it on and turn it off.
Touchdown, Rob Gronkowski!
This guy is going to be scary good.
Then we end up winning the game 49-21.
49 unanswered points.
Tack on another one. Pick 6.
Went to Denver. Tebow mania,
where no one thought,
you know, they were gonna lose,
and beat them.
Week 14 at Redskins,
Gronk made some ridiculous plays.
And it is caught by Rob Gronkowski,
a diving catch off the top of the grass.
Heading down the right sideline,
and Gronkowski still on his feet.
All of New England
has fallen in love with the Gronk.
We're driving down
and we get the ball on the 10-yard line
and I call a play that we had run a lot.
We had the lead. Third down.
Tiquan Underwood
is where Tom's supposed
to go with the ball,
and he's going there,
but the guy's not running a great route.
Back of the end zone. Intercepted.
And it got picked off.
And I came to the sideline
and I was pissed
obviously 'cause I threw an interception
and Billy was pissed
'cause I threw an interception.
I kinda did something
that I don't very typically do,
which is, you know, say to the receiver,
like, you gotta come back
and get the ball.
And I had no business
saying that to Tiquan,
'cause it was my fault,
and Billy heard it.
And I'm, like, look,
you gotta shut the fuck up.
That play's over.
I said something like, no shit.
That is a heated conversation.
So he's, like,
"I gotta shut the fuck up?
You shut the fuck up."
"No, fuck that, you know.
That fucking throw, shitty throw."
We had a nickname for Billy.
He was called the teapot.
Started to call me the teapot.
I was like, he's the teapot.
Come on, Jules!
When he would get hot
Damn it!
He would start to simmer.
Wait a second now.
You blow up at me.
Like, hold on now.
You're the teapot, too.
The more and more hot they get,
the louder, louder, and then
finally just the explosion.
Bill O'Brien
not pleased about something.
That was Billy.
Like, you don't know when it's gonna be
or how much it's gonna take.
Usually not very much.
And we actually had a teapot
in the quarterback room.
They made it like the Stanley Cup,
so it's like a bigger teapot.
Every time he teapotted,
we would write down
what he teapotted for.
So they're like,
number one, headset at practice.
Number two
And they're starting to list these.
So I'm on the other side.
I'm, like, I'm going to start listing
your teapot stuff.
And by the end of the year,
we had this full teakettle pot
that was written in Sharpie
all the different things,
almost like a trophy.
I think the fire that Billy brings
there on game day
is the same fire
that, you know, Tom has.
Yeah!
What I love about Billy
is that we could have
one of those moments,
and then two minutes later,
you know, we were cool.
We would fight like brothers.
I mean, you know, brothers fight, right?
And then five seconds later
the fight's over,
and you're back
to whatever you gotta get done.
But that was my nickname for that year.
It's been a long time around here
since the Patriots won a playoff game.
They're gonna have to play well
to beat the Denver Broncos here tonight.
The previous year
we had gone into that game
and then lost against the Jets.
Here we are again 13-3,
going into the playoffs with the bye
and it was like, we ain't letting
that shit happen again.
And that is Hernandez running with it,
and getting free inside the 30.
Brady, end zone.
Touchdown, New England
in less than two minutes.
You know, they didn't know what hit 'em
Before they knew it, they were down.
We were throwing touchdowns.
I don't know how many
we scored before half,
but maybe 35 points before half.
Five first half touchdown passes
for Tom Brady.
They were coming off a real big
win against Pittsburgh
and we just, you know, we smashed 'em.
A thunderous 45-10 blasting
of the Denver Broncos.
The Patriots taking
on the Baltimore Ravens.
The winner moves on to Indianapolis
for the Super Bowl in two weeks.
Certain teams
are just really hard matchups,
and Baltimore was always a hard matchup.
Hard-nosed, tough football team.
Tough players, tough city.
And they had kicked our ass
in the 2009 playoffs,
and they were coming back
to Foxborough in 2011
to try to kick our ass again.
Flacco was a really
great young quarterback.
No one would really know
how he was gonna respond
to the pressure that year,
and that sucker played his ass off.
♪♪
Flacco's pass caught.
Torrey Smith slipped a tackle.
25, 20, hits the accelerator,
10, 5, lunges.
Touchdown, Torrey Smith!
The type of players, the size,
the toughness, the scheme.
Big defensive linemen.
Always a tough matchup.
You know, we were kinda
battling through the game,
and I hit Gronk on a seam,
which is probably one of his best routes,
and just
He was trying to break the tackle,
and Pollard kind of,
you know, rolled him up.
My ankle.
And not a cheap shot or anything.
It just was a weird tackle
and he hurt his ankle.
You know, any time
you lose your best player,
you know, it's gonna have
a setback on your offense.
Snap, over the
middle. It is caught by Welker.
We still ended up kinda
scratching and clawing our way.
I remember I dove over
the top of the pile
for a quarterback sneak.
Brady leaps into the end zone.
And Ray, I mean, just
accelerated into my low back.
I remember on my whole body
bent the opposite direction.
I had this zing
Just went straight through my spine.
But I didn't want to show anyone that.
And the Patriots regain the lead.
They drove down the field.
Flacco throws this pass to Lee Evans
in the side of the end zone,
and Sterling Moore is there.
♪♪
Caught. Touchdown!
Lee Evans. No!
They ruled he didn't hold it.
Reaches his arm in
and knocks the ball out
as Lee's taking a second step
or else we probably lose the game.
And the field goal team
will try to tie this game
with 15 seconds left.
We had so many chances
to lose that game.
- Kick is
- He hooked it!
No good, no good! He missed it!
Yeah, man! Whoo!
I remember our field goal block team
was jumping up on the sideline.
Everyone was. We were going crazy.
I couldn't believe he missed it.
Hell, yeah. That was a play, baby!
You know,
I think we got lucky in a lot of aspects,
and that's what it kinda
comes down to a lot of times.
We're going back, Gil.
Yep, partner.
Going to Indianapolis, two weeks,
for Super Bowl XLVI.
What motivation,
if any, is revenge behind this?
All the games in the past
I don't think really mean
too much at this point.
You know, we knew
what we were up against
going into the Super Bowl,
but, you know,
they again overcame
a lot of odds to get there.
We had a great season in 2011,
and things really seemed to go our way.
Even though we lost to
the Giants earlier in 2011,
we felt like we learned a lot
of different things from that.
Respect, fellas. It's about respect.
One of the cool things
is the night before,
Tom spoke to the team.
Talking about
when you win a Super Bowl,
these teams are remembered forever.
You're a part of a Super Bowl champion,
your life changes forever.
That Super Bowl was really crazy
because I think
there was a lot of pressure.
Not the pressure of going 16-0,
but the pressure of, like,
"I got another chance at this."
And I think that brings a lot of pressure.
Let's go! Let's go today!
You know, again,
I had pretty good perspective,
and I think having a lot
of success early in my career
then having an epic fail in 2007,
followed by a pretty catastrophic injury,
followed by marriage,
children, disappointing losses.
I think you just start to realize
there's an integration
what's going on in your life.
It was feeling like
I was in a really good place
personally, too, with what was going on.
Gostkowski is set.
He'll approach the football
and Super Bowl XLVI is underway.
Here we go, fellas.
Hey, one play at a time, huh?
We would always come up
with the first play together,
and the first play of that game
didn't work out well.
Hand off to no one. Back to throw.
Brady rolls to his right.
For the first play of the game,
we're on our own five-yard line.
We called a three-man route
and we were trying to block.
Someone escaped on
the inside part of the pocket,
and I really didn't have a throw away,
so I kind of panicked
and just threw it
as far as I could down
the middle of the field.
Well
Stayed in the pocket.
He had nobody down there.
He's in the pocket?
Oh, you gotta be kidding me.
They're gonna call intentional grounding.
You know,
they called intentional grounding.
I'm standing in the end zone, so-
Yeah.
- A safety.
- Yeah.
- Whoa!
- He was in the end zone.
A lot of people probably
lost their Super Bowl bets
about the first person
scoring in the game.
They didn't realize
it was gonna be a safety.
I'm sure that was a pretty
long shot on the prop bets.
Takes the snap, back to throw.
Throws one left. Touchdown, Giants!
Victor Cruz on the slant.
They of course, scored to go up 9-0,
and you already feel like
you're fighting uphill.
You know, so much of football
is getting ahead
and playing with a lead.
So when you're playing
from behind like we were,
you know, it just gets tough.
Yeah, hit 'em in the mouth, huh?
Let's go!
Third down and four.
Takes the snap, steps up.
Fires down the field, it's caught.
First down.
To the left, comes to the left.
It's caught at the 45, to the 40,
35, to the 30
and out of bounds.
It's an end around from right to left.
At the 30-yard line to the 25.
That's a heck of a call by Bill O'Brien.
A little misdirection.
We went down
and we kicked the field goal
to get to a one-score game 9-3,
and then right before half,
you know,
we put together a really good drive.
Let's go put one on the board.
93 Rita. Watch both.
Clock running
with 3:12 to play in the half.
Whenever you get in those situations,
it just takes one guy just making a play.
It's caught there by Gronkowski.
Across the 30 to the 34.
Gronk basically played the Super Bowl
with I mean, I would dare say
it was almost a broken ankle.
I mean, it wasn't broken, but it was bad.
15 seconds left in the half.
Brady now rolls to the left.
Now throws. Caught. Touchdown!
That's a big-time drive, guys.
96-yard drive
in the final minutes of the first half.
Good play, boy.
Hey, good play, boy. Nice job.
- Come back to me.
- Nice job.
You're feeling pretty good
about, you know, being in the game,
considering the circumstances
and starting 9-0.
'Cause 9-0 can become 16-0. Quick.
That's a game-changing championship drive.
That's why you want number 12.
So when 9-0 becomes 10-9,
you know, you feel like,
man, if we just play better
here in the second half,
you know, the title's gonna be ours.
That was one of the great drives
I've seen in the Super Bowl
in a long, long time.
After the start of the second half,
we were in a rhythm.
Well, then it just kind of steamrolls.
We had 16 straight completions.
Brady, just masterful!
Any time you complete
16 straight passes, you think,
we're rolling, like,
we got this figured out.
79-yard drive to start the second half.
Yeah!
Brady carving them up.
And the Patriots come out flying
to start the third quarter.
We can beat them all day.
If you gonna do it like that,
though, they ain't got a shot.
This felt like our offense.
Now, after we scored that
to put us up 17-9,
I felt, now, if we just get one break,
we're really gonna put
the pressure on these guys.
The Giants now threatening,
on the Patriots' side of midfield.
♪♪
That is a great hit by Patrick Chung.
Timed the football perfectly.
Manning delivers one left.
Pass complete. Tackle made
immediately on Manningham.
And the Giants will send out
the field goal unit.
Again, in typical
Giants fashion, they
They're just fighters, too, man.
Brady has some time.
Brady's under pressure.
Brady's gonna get sacked by Tuck
back at the 14-yard line.
Go!
You get into these games,
and especially in the Super Bowl,
it comes down
to, like, five or six plays.
Hakeem Nicks in traffic.
He's lost the football. Fumble!
But the Giants fall on it.
33-yard attempt for Tynes.
And that kick is good
to make the score 17-15.
The whole stadium was so tense
I could feel I'm so sensitive.
You felt like
I mean, I was like I couldn't handle.
It was too much for me.
It was, like, a nail-biter.
I was, like, give me some wine.
So I was with Bianca,
Vince Wilfork's wife,
and she's, like,
"G, come on, have another one."
and I'm, like,
you know, drinking wine
because I'm just trying to relax.
It was the most stressful
game ever, I think.
Oh, my God.
And they do get
We got the ball again
in the fourth quarter
and we started to drive
and we got to about
the 50-yard line.
On me. Alpha. Now!
Brady takes the snap from Connolly.
Looks over the middle, steps up.
Kind of escaped the pocket,
rolled to the right,
and then threw kind of
a down-the-field throw to Gronk.
That was the play to me that really
where I screwed up, you know.
Because we had the rhythm.
We had everything.
That was a rhythm breaker for us.
That was the play the Giants needed.
For him, like, the whole season
Gronk's been healthy.
Well, now he's gotta think about,
well, Gronk's not 100%.
What, is he just gonna pull it down?
No, he's gotta let it rip.
A healthy Gronk,
it's probably a touchdown.
Eli Manning in the fourth quarter,
15 touchdown passes,
the most in league history is 16
In that Super Bowl,
our defense came to play,
and that was one of the most
hard-hitting games
I can ever remember.
Our defense was flying around.
The hits, I just remember.
I'll never forget the hits.
They were gonna keep us in the game.
Four-man rush.
That's interference.
And the pass is It's incomplete.
And we had the chance
to really go end the game.
Hey, how about a seven-minute
drive for a touchdown, huh?
And end this on our terms.
Watch the Stan.
59! One, two, hut!
Third down and three,
and Brady will throw,
and that's a huge conversion
for a first down.
Second down, got the ball.
There was some confusion on defense.
They weren't quite lined up over Wes,
and I knew Wes had a seam route.
So whenever you're running a seam,
it's all about speed.
I had him, and I knew I was good.
You know, Wes was running hard
because he knew he was kind of uncovered.
You know, I let the ball go,
and I was trying to
keep him away from the safety
in the middle of the field.
The ball was in the air,
I was just like, "Oh, shit, Tom."
But I was like,
"All right, I can still make this play."
Wes had made
so many unbelievable plays
over the years,
and one of the best players
I've ever been around.
And it was a tough, tough play.
I just had to spin him around
and make it a tough catch on him.
Obviously wish I would've
just stuck it on him.
I thought about flipping
my head around the other way,
but knowing how important the play was,
I was, like,
"I can't take my eyes off this ball."
Walker makes that catch
100 times out of 100.
We probably
complete that 99 out of 100.
Over and over again. Easy.
That's just
the way it goes sometimes.
Oh, that was the game.
That was a huge play in the game.
But at the same time,
there was a play to be made
on third down, too.
It is caught. No, incomplete.
And I didn't do that one either.
Come on, D.
Here we go. Eli Manning time.
Unbelievable it's gonna
come down to this again.
This is the drive.
We've seen something
like this before, haven't we?
Yes, we have.
All's they needed was a field goal.
Four-man rush.
Eli throwing into traffic on the sideline.
Eli sticks the ball on the sideline.
He reaches out
over his left shoulder,
and somehow Mario makes the catch
between two defenders, and then
gets both feet down.
And I think at that point I was pretty
I knew that it was
gonna be pretty tough
to stop 'em from that point on.
It's just feelings you get.
I said, "Aw, shit."
Not the way this one was supposed to go.
This is one of those weird situations
that if your running back breaks out,
you may actually tell him
fall down on the one-yard line
so you can run out
the entirety of the clock.
They're not gonna score.
Second and goal.
And Bradshaw
And he does he
He wanted to stop,
he wanted to stop,
and he gets into the end zone.
That's exactly
what New England was doing.
We let him score
so we'd have time on the clock.
And Tom Brady is going to get a chance.
It's a big mistake.
Our two-minute offense was awesome.
Brady's gotta lead 'em
80 yards in 57 seconds.
You know, I believe
we're co-creating our reality.
I think if we believe we lost,
we already lost, right?
I think we have to feel it,
envision, believe it.
Giants with two deep safeties,
and the pass is dropped
at the 29-yard line.
Snap to Brady.
Stands up in the pocket,
is gonna be sacked.
4th and 16.
Brady slipping away,
throwing, and it's caught by Branch,
and that keeps the game going.
Clock! Clock!
Clock!
We kind of plodded our way
into a position where
we had a shot at the Hail Mary.
Go!
Goalpost 66.
Goalpost, goalpost.
Two half. Goalpost. Two half.
And we called it goalpost.
Four guys run at the goalposts,
and I just gotta hold it as long as I can
until the pass rush gets there,
and then I just gotta launch it.
Just to try for the jump ball
and the Hail Mary here.
From the 49.
Held it, kind of worked to the right,
worked back to the left,
and just as the rush was closing,
I just launched it.
I could just see the ball
as it's drifting down.
I didn't even see what happened
other than I saw their entire sideline
rush the field.
And that's probably the loneliest,
lowest moment you're gonna have,
you know, literally when the clock ends
that, um, you know, you know that,
fuck, man, we
we lost again.
♪♪
I'll tell you, when you watch that play,
it was tipped,
and Gronk is probably
from me to the screen
from being able to catch it off the tip,
and he just missed it, you know,
just a little bit out of his reach.
And that was tough, that was very tough.
Gosh, if I was just, like,
two or three yards closer, you know,
I would have been right there for that.
Incomplete!
And the Giants have won Super Bowl XLVI!
It's a long walk
to the locker room, you know.
You're gonna walk off the field,
and you're gonna have to,
you know, suck it up
and, you know,
go deal with the loss,
go deal with the ramifications
of losing the Super Bowl again.
Finally to get to the moment
that I've been preparing for
where, you know,
where I've made these plays
in critical situations
over and over and over again,
and to not come through?
Like, I was just, like, why?
I'd rather not have any of the other ones,
and just have that one.
When you get into coaching,
you're gonna have great times,
you're gonna have regrets.
And that was obviously a regret of mine.
I wish I could have done a better job
to help us, you know, win that game.
And that's a bad feeling.
And I just remember going in there.
I sat in that locker room forever.
I'd stayed in locker room
for probably an hour after that game
without taking my pads off.
I was really lamenting that game.
I was really, uh
battling that one quickly.
Because, I mean, there were
so many plays in that game
that if any one of those changed,
then we win the Super Bowl.
You know, we had the momentum.
We had the rhythm, we had everything.
That was our game to win,
and we just let it slip away.
There's a lot of what-ifs in football,
and I don't know, we could discuss that
in every Super Bowl, every game.
But there was a lot of
what-ifs in that game,
and unfortunately,
fucking Giants on the other end of it.
So I'm like drinking wine with Bianca,
and then in the end they lost, right?
So now we have to go walk
to the frickin' elevator.
And these guys, who probably had
a few drinks on them as well,
were, like, "Your husband suck.
Eli Manning owns your husband.
He's old. He's gotta retire.
Just tell him to go home
and cry like a baby."
We got back to the hotel,
and I remember laying in bed
'cause I didn't sleep that night either.
And I was just laying in bed
and, you know, she said,
well, I said
"I just want to let you know
that I said something."
I said, “Well, you can't say that.”
I thought I was, like,
mild on what I said.
I mean, it's true,
like, how can he do everything?
He can't, like, you know,
he can't catch and throw
the ball at the same time.
I mean, that's just a fact.
You know, I knew how hurt
he was gonna be,
and you don't want someone
saying that about your husband.
That's a no, no situation.
Don't do that.
The next morning, you know,
when they made it about Wes,
it broke my heart because
it was like, are you kidding me?
That's like the hardest-working
guy I know on that team.
I know where her heart is
and I know who she is,
so I almost agreed with her at the time.
Like, I was just
I was more mad at myself.
Just funny that, you know,
you get remembered
by the one, you know.
It's just something
that I gotta move on from.
There was nobody who could define
what being a great teammate was,
what doing the right thing was like Wes.
You know, Wes had the most
amazing career for the Patriots,
but we didn't win
the Super Bowls at those times.
To me, that doesn't take away
from what his amazing career was
and what his contributions were.
If I'm starting a team
to go to battle with,
Wes Welker's in that starting lineup.
We did do a good job
of getting the Patriots back
to being at the top of the league.
It just sucked that we didn't
We couldn't beat
the Giants one time, so
For those three years, '09, '10, '11,
I was an integral part of
scheming and game planning
and really enjoyed that aspect of growth.
It was a great relationship
I had with Billy
as he moved on to a different place.
But I'd been around
a long time at that point, too,
on the same team.
Different people had come into my life
over the course of that time,
and, you know, you embrace
those people really quickly,
whether they be your wife,
whether it be new teammates,
whether it be new coaches.
Because, you know,
these relationships that I had,
they did carry me.
I just kind of got him to see, like,
look what you have.
Like, don't just focus on
the things that you don't have.
Like, you didn't have this win,
but look at everything you have.
You have a family that loves you.
You have won so many already.
I mean, it's like, you know,
just keep things in perspective.
What happened yesterday is the past.
I mean, the only thing you take from it
is the lessons, right,
is what you learn from it.
You've gotta feed those relationships.
You've gotta nurture your friendships.
You've gotta invest in your family.
Because they're the ones
that are gonna help you
when things are tough
and you need it the most.
That's where resilience comes from.
'Cause you're a team,
and if your team's good,
there is no hardship you can't overcome.
If you're gonna overcome it,
you're gonna do it together.
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