Man in the Arena (2021) s01e06 Episode Script

1
I remember doing
a 60 Minutes piece after, I think,
we won our third Super Bowl.
Maybe a lot of people would say,
"Hey, man, this is what it is.
I've reached my goal, my dream.
My life is "
Me? I think, "God,
it's got to be more than this."
Is there anything more
to the NFL than this?
This can't be what
it's all cracked up to be.
I've done it at 27, and
what else is there for me?
When you're on top of the mountain,
you're thinking,
"Well, this can't be it. You know,
There's got to be more than
the top of the mountain."
Then, ten years go by
where you get beat up,
Throws it up, and intercepted.
We're going to the Super Bowl!
Physically, mentally-
Giants, with the most improbable win,
have won Super Bowl XLII.
Emotionally, life changes
A 100 times out of a 100.
There's a lot of perspective you gain
from things not going your way.
And I think what I recognized, in 2014,
was, "Man, this is really hard."
Yeah, there's a lot more to winning
♪♪
With the 21st pick in the 2004 NFL Draft,
the New England Patriots
select Vince Wilfork,
Defensive lineman, University of Miami.
It's funny, because
I'm a defensive lineman nose tackle
on a New England Patriots team
that won two Super Bowls
before I got there.
Man, they drafted me first round,
so I have to live up
to its expectation, right?
Come in as a rookie, I win one.
So, of course, my mindset is
we can do this every year.
Well, three, four, five years go by
and you start getting an appreciation,
not only being in that game,
but what the Patriots have done before me.
So, I'm, "Man, every time we get there,
we got to make sure that we cherish this,
we understand,
because this never
come along like it had."
We had great teams,
the processes were getting better,
I was improving,
I had a little more ownership,
but we were going to have to
keep taking it to the next level
if we're going to win the last game.
After losing the last two
Super Bowl that he's been in,
and, you know, to steal
a My Cousin Vinny line,
his biological clock is ticking.
He might not get too many chances.
For 14 wonderful years,
the only professional football I've known
has been Colts football.
Peyton was someone that,
throughout my career,
we were on similar paths
of the same Conference
and degrees of success in different ways
you know, for both of us, but, you know,
really two of the better teams in
the Conference for that whole time.
Peyton Manning, one of
the greatest players in NFL history,
was cut by the Colts
because of concern about his health.
An injured neck,
operated on time and again,
simply made him
too great a financial risk.
Peyton Manning's successor
is in fact Andrew Luck,
with Peyton Manning gone.
Watching him have to go somewhere else,
and 2013, he comes out
Manning throws. Wide open.
And sets, like, every passing
record in history of the NFL,
I'm just watching what he's doing,
and really in awe.
What a year for Peyton Manning.
And there's the record.
Peyton Manning's
51st touchdown pass of the year.
Move over, Tom Brady,
that chair belongs to Peyton Manning.
55 touchdown passes in one year?
Like, how prolific they were on offense.
I was on the other side of that,
having really a down year.
For Gronk!
We had lost Gronk.
We had a lot of young receivers.
Josh came back in a 12th season.
We had to work hard
to really relearn each other.
We ended up playing in
the AFC Championship game,
and I thought we had
a good chance going in.
Broncos and Patriots in two
very different positions as organizations.
The Broncos sold out
to get Peyton Manning,
and they have to build
their team around him
in whatever window he has left.
The Patriots are humming along
on this same program
for the last 10, 12 years.
In the end,
we just weren't quite good enough.
It is Super Bowl XLVIII
between the Seahawks
and the Denver Broncos,
The number one ranked defense
versus the number one ranked offense.
And the ball goes into the end-zone.
And the Seahawks get two points.
2013 Seattle,
they were an incredible team,
coach, quarterback, defense.
Whoo!
The Legion of Boom-
And the Legion of Boom steps up again.
Steps up in the pocket on the blitz ball
And the ball's intercepted
at the 40-yard line.
Kam Chancellor.
Whupping they.
They think we going to
get scared of them.
We're going to eat their hearts.
Great player after great player,
and they destroyed Denver.
43-8, in an absolute pounding.
Peyton Manning
and the Denver Broncos know
they have been thoroughly
throttled tonight.
We were going to have to work
really hard to put together a team
that can compete against
the best teams of that time.
With the 67 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft,
your New England
and my New England Patriots
select Jimmy Garoppolo,
quarterback, Eastern Illinois.
Wow.
Interesting position
to get taken by the New England Patriots,
with Tom Brady at his age.
You know, I think we drafted
Jimmy, and I just thought,
like every other time, you know,
you embrace him, and you
You know, they're your teammate.
To draft a quarterback that high,
I think Tom Brady has a reason to be a
bit miffed at that selection.
Now, we drafted Jimmy higher.
You know,
Coach Belichick referenced my age,
and me, referenced it to the media.
In my mind, I was thinking,
"What are you talking about?"
And I think he was just referencing, well,
not many quarterbacks have ever played
and been successful late in their career.
And that's just a fact.
And of course for me, I was, like
"I don't care about any of those things."
I think he understands
how he got his job, all right?
When Drew Bledsoe
was scrambling out to his right,
I was right there on the sideline,
Mo Lewis came, and boom, hit Drew.
He went on the ground, and in came 12.
From the team standpoint, again,
you're always looking to
What's going to happen if Tom retires,
what happens if Tom
isn't the player that he is?
Tom already has suffered a knee injury.
You've got to look ahead
and project also to be successful.
And no one in New England has heard this,
but Tom Brady, it turns out,
cannot play forever.
I never thought about those things,
because I didn't think of myself as
aging in a traditional way.
I was really beginning to understand
how to take care of myself.
I was really beginning to
understand the game,
how to study, how to be more efficient.
I was really beginning to
understand how to train,
how to communicate more
effectively with my teammates.
Things are maturing in my life.
And my boys are getting a bit older
where they're starting out
to be a little more self-dependent.
My daughter was born December 2012,
so she's getting a bit older.
We built a home,
and it got finished in 2014.
Like, this is where we're gonna be.
I really felt I was giving my heart
to the team, the city.
I felt I was setting down my roots,
because I had committed to
being in Boston,
and that I didn't necessarily feel,
"Oh, that's reciprocating,"
but I recognize I'm no different than
those other positions on the team.
I've still got to go out there
and perform at a high level
and earn my you know, earn my job.
There's always somebody
going to take your place.
There's always somebody
stronger, faster, smarter.
That's just what it is.
Anybody that take my spot,
they deserve it,
because I'm going to
take them to the ring.
You have to beat me to take it.
Tom Brady is the worst in the league
on accuracy to this point
through three games.
Now, we lost to Miami.
We won two others, which were not,
I wouldn't say our best games.
Then, we went to Kansas City,
a Monday night game
I had a feeling that was going
to be my last year in New England.
And I was, "You know what?
I'm going to go out with a bang,
and we gonna win the
We gonna win the Super Bowl."
to get Jamal Charles going.
To the left, got a good block from Fisher,
and gets the first down.
It is Charles towards the end zone.
Touchdown, Kansas City.
They pounced,
they played at home, they had the fans.
Scott snaps to Tom.
Pocket starts to collapse.
He loses the football.
It bounces across the 22 of New England.
Under Russell at blindside.
Ball is stripped by
I think it just snowballed.
It's down to Jamal Davis, Jamal Davis.
One man to beat. Davis
Man, it felt like death.
Because I pride myself on the run game-
Jamal Charles
Another Kansas City touchdown.
My job is to stop from a nose tackle,
that is my bread and butter.
Has time in the pocket.
Throws to the far side.
And that ball is intercepted.
Edelman cut off the route
They beat our ass, you know,
and there's no way to say it.
Brady for intercepted.
Coming underneath,
Hussein Abdullah,
all the way home.
Kansas City touchdown.
You know, some days
it's just a bad day at the office,
and it's just not your night.
Tom Brady's done for the night.
Jimmy Garoppolo is going to come in.
And these are rare moments.
Left, Gronk. Three, two, one, Gronk.
And Jimmy Garoppolo has his first
National Football League touchdown pass.
And, you know,
in the end it was, like, Patriots over.
There's something wrong with this team.
Last night was a sign
that the end is near.
Tom Brady doesn't seem to be on target.
Over-throwing, under-throwing passes.
The New England Patriots,
as we have known them, are defunct.
"This is the end of the Patriots era.
This is the end
of the Patriots dominance."
If this continues on for another
five or six weeks,
believe the rumblings will start
that this could be
Tom Brady's last year in New England.
You know, I think people were
so excited to tell that story
because it was a story that maybe
they hadn't been able to tell
in a long time.
When you look at how
they played in the playoffs,
listen, Tom Brady's not getting younger.
I think the window's over.
I think everyone was really
looking forward to us not succeeding.
Everyone was looking forward
for the Patriots to,
you know, finally go away.
Sir, do you think having a 37-year-old?
We're on a Cincinnati. It's nothing about
the past, nothing about the future,
it's, right now,
we're preparing for Cincinnati.
Okay. Do you feel the talent
you have here is good enough?
We're getting ready for Cincinnati.
Well, I mean, I'm just asking,
do you think you've done enough
to help Tom Brady?
We're getting ready for Cincinnati.
A season's not over
if you lose one game, it's just not.
You've got to stop the bleeding,
and you've got to win,
and then get back on track.
And I think that's what that
was about for us.
We're on to Cincinnati," was,
we're focused on
what's ahead because we're not going to
let one game become two.
I stood up and
I said something to the team.
I said, "You know what?
Remember this feeling.
We're gonna get it together,
and we gonna get back
to playing Patriots football.
You don't think of the nose guard
as someone who could rally a team,
but Vince had an
incredible presence about him.
He was a great leader.
I came in with leaders around me, okay?
I had Tom offensively,
I had Willy McGinest,
Tedy Bruschi, Vrable,
and Rodney Harrison in the back.
So, I got the chance to learn early
what it took to be a professional.
So, as years went on,
now I become the captain,
and I didn't say much,
because I was a young guy in there.
And, Tedy Bruschi pulled me to the side,
he said, "Hey, listen,
you have to start being a leader.
You're a captain for a reason.
So you have to open your mouth.
You have to talk."
Well, ever since that day,
it was like, boom.
Something clicked in me.
Let's play ball. Let's make a play.
In so many ways he's a gentle giant,
but on the field, I mean,
he's unstoppable.
I don't care if you're Tom Brady,
if I can hit you, I would tell tear your
head off, every chance I get.
I was lucky to play with him.
I learned a lot.
We sat in on a lot of
captain's meetings together.
We talked football a lot.
Over the years, we talked family a lot.
I felt at sometimes, where my voice
was heard more than Tom's voice.
And it wasn't a lack of anything Tom did,
but sometimes people look at it
I don't wanna
He keeps defense,
they don't know what we deal with.
He never had to make a tackle.
Where here I am, there's no question.
When I speak
Vince Wilfork.
Vince dropped into coverage
and he just pile drives Donald.
I was coming from a rugged individual
that played the dirtiest position
on the field,
and I demand respect.
When Vince told you to get
something done, you got it done.
I bet would be that sleep was in short
order in Foxborough this week.
The problem tonight is
a 3-0 Cincinnati Bengals.
I just felt that,
if this don't get nailed now,
we're gonna have problems
for the rest of the year.
Let's go, guys.
Hard to call many of these games,
four or five weeks into it, must wins.
When I look at this game
with the Patriots,
today is a must win.
In an I-formation set,
they have on the fullback for Rildey,
off the counter play.
Play fake for Brady, looking to throw.
Fires down the middle. Open receivers,
Right in the bell, 20 yards
and a first down.
Man in motion, wide left. Brady.
Gives to Ridley, up the middle.
Into the end zone.
Touch down. Patriots.
And there are 68,000 major
sighs of relief in the stadium right now.
That year, we were beat up pretty early.
You know, we were beat up as a team,
and we had to look at each other,
and nod and determine
how we wanted that season to go.
As leaders, we're the ones
who called those meetings.
We're the ones that said,
"This is what we need to do."
As I looked around,
and when I was talking,
, you could just tell everybody was
locked in and focused,
because they felt the same exact way.
Makes the grab in front of Revis,
and then the ball's come
Deatrich picked up by
Runs it to the ten. He lost the ball.
It's loose at the ten-yard line.
It's picked up by Kyle Arrington!
Good bye, it's to the end zone.
Touchdown. Patriots.
We went through that week,
we was just a train.
Shane Vereen
This is gonna rank
right up near the top,
in terms of satisfaction, considering
everything that went on this week.
The best things happen
when things don't go your way.
And we developed a lot of resiliency
over the course of that season.
You know, you could try to bury us,
but it ain't gonna happen.
To turnaround 41 to 14,
to 43 to 17, is extraordinary.
We hear all of it, but we don't care,
because at the end of the day,
we always "We all we got."
Nobody knows what we do,
and the work we put in this locker room.
One win, and you get a little more
confident like,
Wow, that was a good style of play."
And then, that one win leads to two.
That is a spectacular grab!
Two leads to three
- For the Patriots!
- Stiff arms to
three leads to four.
You start winning
four in a row in the NFL,
I mean, you're on something.
Four games ago, people were saying that,
“Oh, wait a minute,
it's over for Tom Brady.”
People were against us,
people were burying us, people were
And, look at us now, you know,
they're not saying it now.
Look out, the Patriots
are starting to come together.
You know, you're
the worst team in the league,
and then you win three games in a row,
and "Oh, this team's going to be
the Super Bowl Champs."
They are the best team in the AFC,
and in the NFL.
Jimmy Garoppolo was going to come in
- And how did that work out?
- As an understudy.
-It didn't
-What breathless..
And I think that
rollercoaster of emotions,
is what really derails a lot of teams.
Do what you’re supposed to do.
It wasn't pretty, it wasn't perfect,
but you could see guys trying,
and you could see things
starting to form and come together.
And once I saw that, I knew we had a shot.
I'm seeing a defense
that's starting to look like
it could be about as good as any defense.
Whoever we played, it was onto that team.
And Brady wants it even
worse than he wanted it a year ago.
You know, we went to Lambo,
we took one on the chin.
We didn't really dwell on that,
we flew to San Diego.
Stayed a week there to play the Chargers.
That was a tough game,
but we pulled that one out.
So now, here we are, here we are,
we're getting close and closer.
I don't see New England
losing to anybody in the AFC.
You know, as we're building
momentum through that season,
we started gaining
a lot of confidence in ourself.
Well, boy, it's been a long time.
It's been ten years since
they won a Super Bowl.
- Yes, ten years.
- Message sent.
You know, we finished
like championships teams finish.
You know, you play well after
Thanksgiving, gain a lot of momentum.
You have some real character wins.
Tom Brady has never, ever been better.
That was pretty sweet.
And it really came together
when it mattered most.
That's what I'm talking about!
Let's go, baby!
♪♪
How does it feel?
Whoo! AFC East! Championship!
Oh, yeah!
Whoo!
The Patriots try to play
their way to February.
How long ago September seems now.
New England lost to Kansas City
in week 4, 41-14.
The Pats have since risen from the ashes,
and soared to the top seed in the AFC.
You know, the Colts
were kind of an indoor team,
a dome team,
and the weather is really crappy.
We always felt like we had an advantage
when things weren't perfect.
Go Patriots!
They were pretty predictable on defense.
Until you face the bully and hit him back,
all that bully's going to do,
is find you every day in that schoolyard,
and continue to take your bike,
and take your lunch money,
and take your ticket to the Super Bowl.
Defensively, we played great.
They struggled in the conditions.
So, here's a pick off by Darrelle Revis
Left sideline, 30. Revis to the 20.
The game really was a blowout.
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots
are back in the Super Bowl,
after a 45-point day
in the AFC Championship game,
it wasn't even close.
In the aftermath
of last night's Patriots victory
citing league source said,
the NFL quote was investigating
the possibility
the Patriots deflated footballs.
The thinking here is that a
deflated football would be easier to grip.
This morning on WEEI,
Tom Brady addressed the topic.
Well, I think the next morning
is when I heard about it.
Did you get the sense
that you were able to grip the ball
better than The Colts last night?
I didn't know what was going on.
I didn't know what
they were talking about.
So I kind of, uh,
just laughed it off.
I think I heard it all
at this point, so, oh God.
Interesting Tom Brady's reaction to all
of this, is to laugh it off.
What does it mean if they were doing it?
What's the protocol for how footballs
are brought into the game?
I think everyone was trying to figure out
exactly what was happening.
What was, you know,
Obviously what we were
being accused of doing.
His team under fire for the alleged
cheating scandal known as deflate gate.
The star QB now forced to play defense.
I just remember walking in,
and there I mean, there was a lot of
different cameras there than ever before.
You know, this was not, like,
a football story anymore.
When and how did you
supposedly alter the balls?
I didn't, uh, have any
You know, I didn't alter the ball any way.
You know, when you're
being accused of something,
first of all, you're trying to figure out
exactly what happened yourself.
You're so familiar with the equipment.
How could you not know?
You don't think about it,
you're just reacting to the game.
I don't certainly
think about the football.
I just assume that it's the same one that
I approve in the pregrame.
How can we possibly believe
what Brady and the coach are saying now?
What's up with our hero?
Is this just a moment
to just say, "I'm sorry."
So can you answer right now?
Is Tom Brady a cheater?
You know, we had accomplished
so much as a team,
and here we are talking about
something that,
you know, we didn't know
much about at the time,
and all this is, is negativity
and people trying to take us down.
And, I think in that part,
that was familiar.
Because of Spygate,
you've got people who still question
the legitimacy of
New England's success.
After Spygate, that's '07,
we go run the table.
So, they threw that against us,
and we come out,
and beat everybody across the head.
They threw the Deflategate out there,
you ready to talk about a football?
Like, really. Okay, next question.
This normally, if inflated,
would be the same size.
You know, people don't
want to believe that there was
great positive things
behind what we have achieved.
You know, I think, people want to
believe that there's always
shortcuts to take, and so forth.
So I think, everyone was just trying to
answer what we could answer,
and then move on,
so that you could really focus on
the preparation for the Super Bowl.
Out pops this story about,
whether the Patriots used legally
deflated balls.
I don't know anything about that, buddy,
I don't touch footballs.
I tackle.
You feel under fire, the team?
From all angles here.
Nah, I'm more worried about Seattle,
and what Seattle does on defense.
♪♪
Here we go! Here we go!
Oh, yeah!
Seattle's like, have they forgotten
who the hell the Super Bowl champions are?
They got that kind of attitude.
It was going to be our toughest game.
You know, they were
the best defense in the league.
They were the champs.
They think it's going to be just like
it was in 2013,
which it basically was for them.
Looks to help.
You got a man in the end zone.
The ball is picked up by Richard Sherman
in the back of the end zone.
He's going to throw down the middle.
He's got a man.
Game over, baby!
Touchdown. The game is over.
The Seahawks
are going back to the Super Bowl.
This might be it, huh?
I feel like it's more normal this week.
How's the Super Bowl week?
I guess the five weeks,
so they give us a little bit more.
Last year
when you guys played the Patriots,
what was it that Brady was
saying during that game?
He was just pretty much
saying we were nobodies
and that we should come up to him
after they got the win.
You guys have taken that?
Well, we take that.
We should take that pretty well.
We should just, "Ah, cool,
can we get his autograph, too?"
I just wanted to win.
And at the end of the day, where I'm from,
you try to get your family out,
then it's really seeing how great
you can become,
seeing how far you can take it.
Sherm was a great player,
leader for that team,
leader for that defense.
He was someone who plays with
the chip on his shoulder, too,
so I could relate to that.
It's like, what if you would've
got picked high? I don't know.
I don't know if I've got picked high,
because I didn't get picked high.
So, the chip has always been there,
will always be there.
You don't get to go back in hindsight,
and redo
and say,
"Oh, man, he's a first round talent."
No, you got it wrong. So, now you
pissed me off, and now I'm pissed forever.
This is the third and seven.
They do have a first down on this drive.
Brady, fires, incomplete.
Tried to squeeze it in.
Sherman draws the coverage
and comes up with a play.
Well, they're in the NFC West.
We're in the AFC East,
we don't play them so often,
but you understand at that 2012, like
"Oh, God, these guys are the real deal."
We played them.
Man, they were really good.
You're young, dumb,
and you don't know any better.
So, you're, like, whoever's
in front of you is got to get it.
So if it's Tom Brady,
if it's Joe Blow from down the road,
you know, they got to get it.
Almost intercepted
I don't know anything about
Earl Thomas or Richard Sherman
but damn, those guys could play.
Has time, has time.
Looks, fires long and deep.
Oh, big caught! Ten, five and in!
Touchdown.
That game,
they were winning by 14,
two touchdowns or something.
And it was a TV timeout
and Tom's like,
halfway walking towards the sideline,
he stops halfway between
the huddle and sideline.
And Tom was kind of like, hey, you know,
Like, "Hey, who are you guys?"
You know, "You could have got the
interception, you didn't get it.
You see the scoreboard, like,
come see me after game."
Brady, dials up the deep ball.
You know, he didn't say, like,
"Come get my autograph"
but, it was like,
"Come see me after the game.
Like, you guys seem like fans."
like we were kids
and it had pissed us all off.
From the ground, Brady
intercepted, a rarity.
Tom Brady gets picked off
by Richard Sherman
Brady fires. Intercepted!
Earl Thomas for Seattle.
It really bursts him
onto the scene, too, you know.
Young Richard Sherman had a lot of energy
and a lot of emotion
and I really respected out about him.
Fourth down,
here's your ballgame right now.
Brady rifles, it's short of the line.
Welker makes the catch,
the Seattle defense has held.
The number one defense in the NFL
is gonna win this match up
against the top-rated offense.
It's kind of our arrival
to the rest of the world.
"Hey, these kids are
something to deal with."
And I think it was my arrival in ways,
because obviously after the game,
you know, they get the,
"U mad bro?" meme going.
Seahawk's corner Richard Sherman said,
quote, "He told me and Earl to see him
after the game when they win.
I found him after."
U mad bro?
After the game, they didn't win,
but I still came and saw him
as I promised.
And everybody got mad at me.
Your fault.
Did you ever send one to Tom Brady?
I tried to. They wouldn't give me the
address, so I got to send to the Patriots.
I don't know exactly what I said back.
I think he thinks that
he remembers everything.
It doesn't quite sound exactly
what I think I would say back.
So, we might have a difference of opinion
of exactly what was said.
Apparently, didn't remember
what he said, et cetera, et cetera.
But I'm sure in those moments of him
yelling at the ref,
he's just saying, "Good job,
you're doing a fantastic job, keep it up."
With days to go until
the big game near Phoenix,
this scandal over footballs and
professional football will not go away.
You know, there's a lot of perspective
you gain from things not going your way.
They allow you to really see
who's closest to you.
That the footballs were under inflated.
Deflategate investigation.
They allow you to see
deeper inside of yourself.
You had to find areas of growth that
maybe you didn't know
that you were capable of.
And when things get hard,
you got to figure out
who can I count on the most.
Super Bowl 49 underway
I look at this game pretty much the way
I looked at last year's game
in which a great defense
goes against an aging quarterback.
I'm taking Seattle.
All right. Let's go boys!
Zack!
Seeing them in the Super Bowl in 2013,
I'm like yep, they're the real deal.
I could see why.
Here they are again,
so now they're one of
the perennial teams
that are like, these guys are phenomenal
and they were going to play like it,
but we were going to play like it, too.
Soon we knew we was playing Seattle,
Tom said,
"Vince, I'm going to light 'em up.
I'm going to light 'em up."
Let's go, O.
Come on, Tommy boy.
When we had played them
where he was, basically, like, stunned us,
it really showed a side of him
that I didn't
you know, I had never played him
so I didn't know who he was
or how he dealt with stuff
or how he, you know,
interacted with people.
- What.
- What.
- What.
- What.
That's what.
And it was cool to see because
it was similar to how I am.
You going to talk your stuff
You suck boy, you wanted this noise.
You wanted this noise.
I'm the best quarter in the game!
When you try me with
a sorry receiver like Crabtree,
that's the results you going to get!
You going to say with your chest
and you going
You going you going to be a competitor.
Brady, good clean pocket throws.
And that'll be the game’s first
first down.
Tom was kind of like, "Hey.
You come for king,
you better kill the king."
And I can respect that.
And this is exactly the kind of game
that Tom Brady wants to play here.
You have to get the ball out of your
hands quickly against Seattle.
But it showed a human side of him,
because when you show
a side that's emotional.
That's It shows, "Oh, it's human."
Like, it bleeds. He bleeds.
♪♪
It's intercepted in the end zone.
It's Jeremy Lane at the five-yard line
looking for running room.
Turns upfield near the sidelines.
Seahawks defense
stopped the Patriots drive.
I think it was the first,
second drive of the game.
He threw an interception to J Lane,
that was, you know, a huge play for us.
But then we lost the player,
who was a huge part of what
we were trying to do that day.
Jeremy Lane injured
on the tackle by Julian Edelman.
That's a blow right there
for the Legion of Boom.
Once we lost him,
everything was thrown in flux.
So who then, who puts him inside?
We ended up,
you know, getting down there
on the first drive of the game,
I threw an interception in the end zone,
which was a bad play by me.
Stupid.
But then we get the ball again.
He's going to take what defense is given.
He's not going to force things.
And so if you understand the smart play,
then you know where he's going with
the ball just about every time.
He gets to the line, he knows the defense.
I know your play, too.
And I know where the ball should go.
Can we get that all communicated to each
other and get it stopped?
The injury showing up already here now.
Jeremy Lane would be in that position.
Now it's Daryl Simon.
Has Blount to his left of play.
Play-fake to LeGarrette.
Quick throw, underneath.
Touchdown Patriots!
He finds LaFell in the slot.
Yeah!
Hell yeah!
New England
strikes first in Super Bowl XLIX.
The quarterback in his fifteenth year.
Go down, we take the lead.
And our defense is playing
phenomenal football.
Wilson on the play-fake to Lynch.
In the pocket, under pressure
by Chandler Jones
and brought down from the backside.
A sack for
Defensively, we thought
we had the better match up
against their offense. We just did.
And our main goal was, listen,
stop Marshawn.
They start this drive with the Seahawks
You have Marshawn, who's one of
the all-time dominant power runners.
They were doing a lot of the zone read
stuff because Russell could run.
And Lynch, he's
They had a good passing game,
but it all centered off the running game.
We can't let him get going.
We cannot allow him to get going.
We do that, we win the ball game.
The handoff inside to Lynch,
he's down inside the five, now the two,
he dives in. Is he in?
He is! Touchdown Seahawks!
From three yards out, Marshawn Lynch.
I don't think either side
ever felt comfortable.
I don't think either side ever was, like,
“Oh, we got them."
You know what I mean?
Because you never did.
Watch Tom go away in this two minutes
or he might go off in this two minutes.
Yeah.
Give to Edelman on the jet sweep left.
Julian high steps out of a hit
and heads out of bounds.
Drops back for the pocket under pressure,
dumps it off underneath,
good catch by Vereen.
Stumbles, maintains his footing.
Snapped to Brady.
He lobs it to the right side
for Gronkowski.
He has a step, has a touchdown!
Patriots back in the lead.
We go up 14-7,
and then we got like
30 seconds left on the clock.
31 seconds to go and
the Patriots have a 14-7 advantage.
Come on throw us one, Russell.
They're trying to basically
run out the clock.
And then Russell runs for
like this 20-yard gain
on a zone read and a two minute drill.
Next thing you know, they had a pass down
like the nine-yard line
with, like, a few seconds left.
Lockette's in the far side,
Russell out of the shotgun
Looks like he's going to throw hard.
Ball is reached out front.
It is Matthews! For a touchdown!
They score a touchdown
with like a few seconds left.
And it was like, ugh.
We played them basically perfect.
And it's 14-14.
Get Lynch back in the game.
It's third down and long.
And Lynch is going to get stopped
and that's going to set up fourth down
and here comes the field goal group.
And that gives the Seattle Seahawks
their first lead of the night.
Let's go boys. It's our time.
It's our time. Let's go.
To me. It's
There are certain teams in sports
that do things a certain way.
Always, like a robotic consistency
in what they do.
Brady quickly to the outside.
They're always going to have
these kind of players.
They're going to be sound.
They're going to be disciplined.
They're going to
They're almost regimented.
And if you're sitting there
making excuses like,
"Oh, man, they didn't
deflate the ball enough."
then you probably
weren't going to win, anyway.
Third down and nine.
Brady over the middle
and it's picked off
at the 42-yard line by Bobby Wagner.
You know, there was a phrase they used.
"Nothing deep, nothing cheap."
They were going to get up there
and challenge you.
And every play felt like it was
a tight-thrown catch.
It's hard to call.
First and ten for the Hawks.
Leading by three, Russell turns,
hands to Lynch left side,
makes a man miss, stutter step!
He's inside the ten!
He's down inside the five-yard line.
Marshawn Lynch is pounding
the Patriots down inside the five.
We understood. Hey, this is football.
Is he going to make a run?
Is it going to come down?
This is a Super Bowl.
They're going to make some plays.
It's a Super Bowl.
You're gonna be in a tough situation.
Russell drops back, looks fires,
got a man in the end zone!
It is caught for a touchdown! Seahawks!
That year was about defining
who we could count on the most.
And if there's players
you want in the game
in the fourth quarter
of the Super Bowl,
who are those guys gonna be?
We were going to show everybody
that we were going to fight today.
It's a one-score game.
One play at a time, guys.
Hey! One play at a time!
You going to be challenged.
You going to have to get out of it.
Who's going to make the play?
The Seattle Seahawks,
trying to go back-to-back
in the Super Bowl.
Up by ten.
Brady throws and the pass is caught,
Edelman.
Edelman showed
a lot of toughness and scrap.
You know, always blue collar,
does things right. Scrappy.
He's very consistent and reliable.
You know, he's always going
to be there third down.
He's going to be the look,
either he or Gronk,
and you got to stop him.
Throwing on first down,
Brady's gonna get hit
and go down. He took too long.
You do a lot of talking, bro.
You do a lot of talking.
Julian has the ultimate chip
on his shoulder.
And one of the great competitors
I've ever played with.
Tom has the step, under pressure,
moves up, moves up,
Brady fires down the middle,
catch by Edelman!
He takes a hard hit, stays on his feet.
He's collared down inside the 40.
Damn it!
And we got down there
and tried to pass to Julian.
And missed Julian.
Bad throw by Brady there. He had him.
And then came back on the next play
and threw a touchdown to Danny.
Danny Amendola.
He got life and that's all
he can ask for at this stage.
7:55 left.
I try to steal any type of information
from a formation, from a guy saying
something to a quarterback,
how he's looking from the running back.
I try to get any pre-notion of anything
that they can tip me off.
Always.
Hawks at their 27, down by ten.
Handoff goes to Lynch out of a shotgun,
goes over the center.
Fends off bodies like
A lot of that comes from Bill Belichick.
He made us learn formations,
motions, running back action.
He made us learn offensive line,
blocking scheme,
he made us learn all of that.
Because when a quarterback come out
and he says something that I've learned,
thinking I'm a defensive lineman
with defensive players,
we're not going to know that,
here I got an edge.
Third and five,
Wilson is sliding over right,
and then throws that one out of bounds.
And so it's a very fast three-and-out,
exactly what New England was looking for.
Hey, we need a big
championship drive.
That's what we need.
Go, Brady!
The running backs
had to play a huge part of the game.
And Shane Vereen had I mean,
every time the ball was thrown at him,
you know, whether it was
a little low, he caught it.
Whenever it was a little too far
in front, he caught it.
When it was a little behind him,
he caught it.
First down, there's
That made all the difference
in the world for us
because it wasn't long you know,
go-routes to Shane.
They were jabs,
but those jabs made him come up.
Brady will swing it out. Vereen.
And there is Richard Sherman
doing that one time. Once.
I wasn't going to make
any mistakes around him,
I wasn't going to try to force the ball
into the the strength of their defense.
We had a lead for, I think,
a good portion of the game,
but you still never feel comfortable
because you're so beat up
and it's like, you know
they're going to rally.
Be smart. Be smart, TB.
I just remember Tom, just
just on fire.
Hey, 50! 50.
It's caught!
Touch down. Julian Edelman.
Came back to it, Al.
It came right back to it.
Yeah. We scored to
take the lead for 28/24.
Just over two minutes left.
I'm thinking, "Man, this is"
I knew it wasn't over
because this is one of the great
two-minute teams.
Here we go. Two minutes to go.
We got three time outs.
We need a touchdown to win.
We've been doing this all year.
Let's go do it again.
Brady, telling us yesterday,
"There would not be a game
I would want to win more than this one."
And like the first play, they hit the
double move
to Marshawn on the slant go.
Russell looks left,
throws the wheel route.
Lynch down there, makes a catch!
Out across midfield to the 45-yard line.
Before you know it,
they're on the 50-yard line
with two minutes left and I'm like
Three time outs from the 50-yard line
and touch down to win.
We never give you one this easy.
I remember saying to Josh,
"Man, we got to make a play.
We got to make a play."
He's got to make a play.
♪♪
Ball is snapped.
He caught it! It fell into his arms!
Holy catfish!
It was tipped up in the air,
and Kearse on his back
at the five-yard line.
Are you kidding me?
He makes the catch!
I already lost two Super Bowls
in '07 and '11.
On the end of the game, you know,
the other offense on the field.
How many different plays
are the Patriots gonna have like this?
Mario Manningham, David Tyree
- Right?
- And now Kearse.
When you lose in the last drive
of the Super Bowl,
you realize, "Man, we're right there.
Why don't we just get over the top?
Which play are we going to make that's
going to just get us over the top?"
Russell Wilson from the five yard line.
Marshawn has done
a fair amount of damage today.
He's run the ball well.
They hand it off to Marshawn.
Dont'a Hightower somehow makes a tackle.
And now New England
has to think about taking a time out.
Coach Belichick said
he looked over at their sideline
and they looked like
they were a little bit confused.
They weren't going to call a time out.
I don't think they wanted us
to have any opportunity
to get the ball back and go down
and kick a field goal.
So they were just going to
let the clock run down.
Malcolm, go!
They're going goal line.
Call Bronco or something.
We put eight run defenders in there
and we had three pass defenders and it's
basically an all-out
We're going to stop the run.
They’re bleeding
the clock all the way down.
They're bleeding it right down
to about half a minute.
Second and goal.
Like I said,
I've always wanted to be great.
I never settled for being good.
But greatness come with taking chances.
There's nobody in sports or in the world,
the real world that can call themselves
great if they never took a chance.
I knew that you had to be
obsessed with
what you wanted to do
in order to be great.
And so the opinions of others
and how they felt about things
and how they work, never really
affected how I felt about things,
because I knew that there were
only few people built to be special,
built to go get it.
There's no easy climb.
We've got to make a play.
No one's dropping you at the top.
No one's carrying your shit to the top.
You got to do it all yourself.
When we lined up in gun, I was like,
"Oh, are we running 'Shawn?"
They snapped the ball
and passed the ball and then it was like,
"Well, that's an odd play."
Russell Wilson extends the hands he has.
Wilson quick throw. And it
Intercepted!
Intercepted to Malcolm Butler!
Butler has it at the one!
It looks like it just went to traffic,
so you can't really see what happened.
And then you're like, "Did he catch that?"
And then you see him come up to the ball
and you're like, "Oh, it's over with."
I was on the ground
and I think I turned around
and I saw them hugging
and picking up Malcolm
and I'm like,
"Did he just pick that ball?"
And I just dropped to my knees.
I'm like, "Thank you, Jesus,"
Like, man, because at that moment,
I knew the game was sealed.
Malcolm jumps it,
makes one of the great
plays in the history of the NFL.
Oh, my God. We did it.
I think you look at that situation
and a lot of people say,
"Oh, I can't believe that, you know,
they didn't hand it to Marshawn Lynch."
You are on the one-yard line
and you have number 24
and you drop back pass.
Are you kidding me?
And everybody's like,
"Why he didn't run it?
Why he didn't run it?"
I tell you straight up,
I would've ran it four downs straight.
I would've.
I would've. That's what I would've done.
I would've ran the ball.
You got the best back in the league.
Only need two, three yards.
Let them deal with it.
The Super Bowl is in the books.
At that point I took a knee,
then there was all that,
you know, extracurricular stuff
and I remember just standing there
and I'm looking like,
"Oh, God, I ain't getting up
and getting involved
because I'm going to be thrown
into the first row of the,
you know, end zone.
You know, I'm out of here."
And then Sherm came over
and extended his hand,
which I didn't see him for a second.
♪♪
I have a tremendous amount of
respect for the man, the player.
And I just go out there
and try to, you know, do my best
to to make his life
as miserable as I can
and help my team win and, you know,
get lined up and play again.
Great player, man.
Great player.
It wasn't like we got cheated.
It wasn't like we
Something crazy did happen
but they won it fair and square.
So you shake the man's hand
and you walk away.
And that's what I did.
You know, I was comfortable
holding my head high,
knowing that I did everything I could.
You know, we we fought hard.
We got bear.
- We did it.
- I love you, man.
We did it, bro. I love you. I love you.
Ten-year journey to reach back to the top.
It just speaks to I think what our team
and organization was all about,
which was the ultimate physical,
mental, toughness
and ignoring the noise.
Don't believe what they
say about you, good or bad.
And dealing with adversities,
And dealing with adversities,
whether it was press conferences
or, you know, pundits and ESPN
after games where we lost saying
that we were never going to be the same.
It encompassed everything
that I had experienced
and wanted to achieve again.
And you know, you work really hard
to get to the Super Bowl.
You get 59 minutes
and 30 seconds into the game.
And the difference between winning in
a Super Bowl and losing a Super Bowl
ends up being one and a half yards.
Way to go, man.
That's tremendous. Great job.
- What a win.
- Great job.
It took every second.
- You're damn right.
- Way to go.
And I think that's an amazing thing
to think that we fought for seven months
for the season to be decided
on one and a half yards.
All the backlash we get,
we done, we can't do this, can't do that.
But it just goes to show you
how locked in and how focused
and dedicated the team was
for us to come out
and run the table basically.
How mentally tough can you be?
In 2014, I kind of became the one that
I think maybe you go from like a brother,
they're all my brothers, you know,
when I was younger
and you get to the point where you're
more like the father
you know, to the kids,
you're more the mentor.
You know, as you get older,
and not many people get that point,
you're like the grandfather.
I felt like I was just starting
to get into the place where
my family was settled.
I had a home that was built.
I wasn't going to have any more kids.
A lot of things were coming together
in my life.
I was starting to figure out my body
and how to prepare.
Now, I really get to enjoy
the knowledge of the game.
When most people physically decline,
they start to really understand the game.
I was physically, I felt like,
going to improve
and my knowledge
was going to improve.
So I wasn't thinking ever
about not continuing to play
because I felt like my best
was still ahead of me
and I could still achieve a lot more.
♪♪
Tom, I'm just curious how you feel like
the findings of the footballs of
the AFC Championship Game
should reflect on your legacy?