In 1969 Willis Reed hobbled onto the court in game 7 of the NBA finals to face Wilt Chamberlain on the Los Angeles Lakers. Reed had gone down in game 5 with a torn thigh muscle. He didn’t play game 6 and the Knicks were blown out. After about 6 shots of carbocaine Willis Reed could feel no pain. He limped out of the tunnel, played for 20 minutes and the Knicks won the NBA championship. It was discovered earlier this week that Tom Brady had played most of the NFL season with a torn MCL. That with a torn MCL Brady took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl and brought home the Lombardi Trophy. Reed played 20 or so minutes, Brady a whole season. As TB12 is playing he is getting hit by some of the biggest, fastest, strongest men in the world. In addition, he has to complete passes with accuracy and speed. The totality of it is ridiculous. He’s not some linemen plodding forward. He has to move, react, evade. Brady has to do all of these things at a high level to give his team a chance to win and he does.
Brady displays willpower, grit, and determination. A never-give-up mentality and a never-say-die attitude. In this respect, he is a lot like Muhammad Ali. They look good, they smell good, they dress real good. But that look is beguiling. You’ll think them soft and you’ll be wrong. Painfully wrong. They are pretty boys who are thugs. Thugs in the sense that there is no quit in them. No matter what the odds were. Sonny Liston 8-1, George Foreman 7-1. To Ali it didn’t matter You may win. There is that possibility. But he isn’t giving up, and if by some chance the opponent loses focus and gets tired. He’s in trouble. Underneath the ‘pretty’, these guys have a will that surpasses our human understanding. George Foreman was at the height of his boxing power when he fought Ali. He was knocking fighters down and out. He just wasn’t beating them. He was crushing them in spectacular fashion. In a 2015 interview with Larry King Foreman stated. “I had him beat I really did. I really thought I had him beat up in the body. I had him tired. I hit him with everything I had for so many rounds. But he didn’t go down. Then in about the 7th round Ali said to me “Is that all you got George’. Then it became like a nightmare. For that was all I had”. Foreman had brought the pain but Ali wouldn’t give up. He wouldn’t give in. Pain ain’t enough. In the 8th round, Ali knocked George Foreman out and the rest is history
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the right guy at quarterback. A proven winner that rises, not shrinks from challenges. To play the game football is a challenge. It hurts. There is going to be some part of the game where you are hurting, when you are in pain. To play injured is even more of a challenge. It means you are going to be in pain all game. Next, he’ll play a game using only his left hand as Larry Bird did in a basketball game. Or close his eyes to throw a pass the way Michael Jordan did to shoot the ball during a game. Why not? New challenges are what he needs. What he thrives on. The Bucs look even better this season than last. By the end of the 2021-2022 season, it could very well be Tom Brady on the podium again. This time saying to Roger Goodell. ‘Is that all you got Roger?’