01x02 - The Toughest Things

[bunniefuu]

You know, when you're young,

thinking about whatever,

20 years ago, 19 years ago,

the relationships that I had,

it was really singularly focused

playing football and trying to be

the best I could be.

He says

"I don't want to be a one-shot wonder."

To get to the Super Bowl is hard.

But to win the Super Bowl is even harder,

and, uh, you know I realized that

a great team can only achieve

through different things

and that's off the field, too.

You have to put people around you that

are gonna help you be the best you can be.

And if those aren't the people, then

you know, you gotta to move on.

And I realized that the toughest things

that I've faced in my life

have been the best things for me.

♪♪

In 2002, I really had free rein.

There is no outside thought about

what my role in the world was

or what my

responsibilities were to people.

You know, I look at those as some of

the easier moments,

you know, in my life, and,

you know, the relationships that I had,

it was really, you know,

singularly focused at that point for me.

The priorities were basically

playing football

and trying to be the best I could be.

And then I think life starts happening.

I became a little more of a celebrity,

per se,

and I got invited to different events

and be a part of different campaigns

and I think my life

took a little different turn.

It's too early for cameras. Oh

The unique thing is

I didn't feel like I changed.

We're going to Disneyworld! Whoo!

I feel like a lot of situations

changed around me

and I applied whatever I had learned

growing up to these new situations

so I was still very naive to, you know,

why would I be invited to that?

That's pretty crazy, like,

I don't know why I'm here.

The Super Bowl MVP

and New England's

favorite Patriot, Tom Brady.

You know, I had definitely felt

a different sort of focus on me.

So, at that time you're really taking

other people's advice.

Showdown, baby. It's a showdown.

Time for somebody else

to take over the throne.

At that point I was

the leader of the team.

Testaverde gets sacked again.

This time, Lawyer Milloy

Our championship team.

Dropped him like a champion, today.

That's all.

Nothing more, nothing less.

When I went into the locker room

and I saw the culture,

the one thing I knew that was missing

was was toughness.

And we're heading to

New Orleans as the American Football

I realized that's why they drafted me.

To change some of that persona about

the New England Patriots being soft.

Because that's not what I was all about.

The only way we're going

to get our respect

is not even just making it

to the Super Bowl.

That's to win it.

We just gotta stay focused on us.

The New England Patriots.

You say

who is the leader of this defense,

it's number 36, Lawyer Milloy.

And he's that strong safety.

If you're gonna bring a tight end

or someone in the middle,

they are going to be there waiting

and unload on you.

And I had been the four

out of five years at the Pro Bowl,

and then ultimately holding up

the Super Bowl trophy.

And the Patriots are Super Bowl champions!

Me picking or trying to

pick Bill up was just an appreciation,

what he did for me individually,

and, you know,

what he meant to us as a team.

Brady completes

You know, I moved from

where I was in California to Michigan

for a few years out to the East Coast.

And I connected with different guys

in my rookie year

that were kind of in my class,

but by the time I was in my

third or fourth year,

a lot of those guys had moved on,

and Lawyer and I had really developed

a great relationship

because we had

a lot of similar interests.

We were very competitive.

All you guys that say we're lucky?

They give us a chance?

Hey, just stop it. Beat us. Beat us.

We're the A Team.

After we won the Super Bowl,

you kind of knew that he was the guy

and that the money was coming,

so we had conversations about

how to balance

life outside of the locker room

and obviously on the field.

He had a lot of questions

about being in the NFL,

all this newfound stardom, relationships.

You know, he was just a sponge.

We lived five houses down

from one another,

so he was really one of

my close friends on the team.

He was older than me,

he was the leader of the defense.

I was becoming the leader of offense.

The people really respected him,

it's because of his work ethic,

and his attitude.

And I think he really wanted to prove to

everybody every year that

he was gonna bring it every single week.

So I really looked up to him

in a lot of ways.

And I really admired him.

In order to be great,

you know, that chemistry,

those relationships that you build,

that takes time,

and it needs to be genuine.

Let's go to work, Lawdog.

Now we can get off the rock.

- One, two.

- Break!

I felt his desire to be great.

He watched and studied me

and other people that

were in leadership positions.

That's right! That's right!

He took the good stuff,

fine-tuned it, refined it,

and all the bad sh*t, he just

He got rid of it.

And we were pretty similar,

even though we played different positions,

had different upbringings and all that.

The one constant that me and Tommy have

is the desire to compete.

♪♪

One champion teeing up another.

Tom Brady and the Super Bowl champion

Patriots against

I remember thinking in 2002,

we won, I think, our first three games.

The jury's in now.

Tom Brady's pretty good.

Yeah, Tom Brady is real good

as a matter of fact.

It all got capped off on Monday night

And now the Steelers looking

for revenge against the Patriots.

It didn't happen.

We went to San Diego

to play in our fourth game,

we were 3 and 0.

Coming off the Super Bowl.

And I was like, telling the guys, like,

"Guys, I mean, we're gonna go

undefeated this year.

I mean, that's just that's the way

it's gonna be."

Who would've thunk it?

The San Diego Chargers, 3 and 0,

with the best defense

of the National Football League

as they play

the Super Bowl champions,

also undefeated, with the best offense

of the National Football League.

All we gotta do is do what we do.

Worry about us.

Everything will be all right.

Exactly what we're waiting for right here.

Our defense is gonna come strong.

We're gonna hit 'em right in the mouth.

Junior runs out of the tunnel

full speed before the game,

high-stepping,

I was like, holy sh*t, it's on.

And they ended up kicking our a*s.

And Rodney was a big reason why.

He and Junior were, like,

the tone-setters for that team.

Number 69 punched me my mouth.

- You good?

- Huh?

- You good?

- Felt good, though.

How about this?

The last time the New England Patriots

lost a football game

was November 18th of last year.

Then we lost to Green Bay,

we lost to Denver.

I don't know if we lost three straight

or four straight.

Hey, man, we're finding every

way to lose the game.

We can't give up long passes

and big plays.

And, uh, it ended up being a bad year,

and then I think that was like, holy cow.

That was that was tough.

Right now, w-where we are,

we obviously need a pretty good

overhaul on everything

because there's not

there's not much good going on.

I think a lot of times after you come off

such a successful season,

you can kind of fall back on

on maybe an excuse of,

"Oh, we'll figure it out."

We already know what to do.

You know, we've already proved it.

And now it's coming off a season

where we're 9 and 7,

you don't make the playoffs.

And there's kind of

a bitter taste in your mouth and

you know, we're trying to get

back to winning football games.

The team and the organization knew

how to batten down the hatches,

and regroup,

and add players of significance

that could help us be more consistent,

be more dependable, be more trustworthy.

I was physical. I came in,

I was trying to knock everybody out.

I played hard, I played tough.

I played physical,

and if you didn't like it,

I didn't give a sh*t.

♪♪

Big game today. Physical.

Get 'em right in the mouth.

You don't want to touch it, do you?

There was times there

that I went above and beyond

because I was immature

and I was really trying to prove a point

as a fifth-round draft choice.

It's very tough to come in

and try to prove yourself,

'cause you always have people

telling you what you can't do.

Yeah, I crossed the line a few times.

But at the end of the day,

I wasn't a dirty player.

I was not a dirty player,

I was a hell of a player.

I remember warming up,

and hitting one of my guys,

and knocking his helmet off.

And Coach Belichick,

when I was sitting in his office,

he sat down and he said,

"I remember in warmups, you hit that guy,

and knocked his helmet off."

And I said, "You remember that?"

And that little attention to detail,

that was the key moment

that made me sign with

the Patriots because I said,

this guy sees everything.

If he saw that and he remembered that,

this is where I want to be.

I looked at my agent and I said,

"Let's work out a deal."

And I heard everyone talking about

I was washed up, I was done.

And I knew I could still play.

When he came to us, you know,

Rodney made no apologies

for what he was gonna bring,

and it was early in mini-camp

where Troy was, like,

running a route across him.

It was Troy Brown, you know?

It's the guy, 2001,

incredible player of 2002,

was our best receiver.

And Rodney we have no pads on.

Like, he gives Troy a shoulder elbow

after he's catching a pass

across the middle.

And everyone's like,

"What the f*ck are you doing?"

And then Rodney, talking sh*t to him,

as he gets up,

and it was just like,

"Oh, it's gonna be like that."

Anybody that moved,

I didn't care if you were

my teammate, Troy Brown,

Kevin Faulk, I was trying to

knock your freaking head off.

I was trying to get my respect.

And that was what Rodney brought.

'Cause Rodney didn't give a f*ck.

"Why did Belichick bring him in?

He plays the same position as Milloy.

He can't run, he can't do this."

And Belichick believed in me.

And he trusted me

and he gave me an opportunity,

and I wanted to prove him right.

Rodney was the heart

of the Chargers' defense

just like I was the heart

of the Patriots' defense.

I knew the kind of player he was,

I respect the way he played.

As a safety, I'm looking at

who's gonna be my counterpart?

And I thought they went out

and got a good one.

He was the epitome

of mental and physical toughness.

You know, he just he played the game

one way, and that was all out.

Practice, games,

it didn't matter if he was going

against your team or the other team.

I've managed to, I guess,

make a couple guys not like me very much,

but, you know, I don't play the game

for people to like me.

You know, my mom likes me.

That's all I need.

You got to remember, I played against,

like, Joe Montana in my career,

Steve Young. John Elway, Dan Marino.

I played against all these legends,

all these Hall of Famers.

So I'm like, what's so special

about this dude?

He's a good player but I'mma talk trash

to him and try to frustrate him.

That was our goal on defense,

is to irritate Tom

because we knew that Tom was

a really up-and-coming,

just a really good quarterback

quarterback and we wanted to test him

to see if he was the right guy.

I didn't come there to be friends

with Willie McGinest.

I came there to win football games,

to make a difference.

- Hello.

- You guys ready?

How do you feel different this pre-season

as opposed to last?

Just another year on offense,

and another year knowing my guys,

and knowing what my responsibilities are,

and knowing how to approach

being an NFL quarterback.

And, um with that comes

a little more comfort

and hopefully a little more success.

I respected Lawyer,

I knew Lawyer was one of

the top safeties in the league.

But quite honestly, I felt like

I felt like I was one of

the top safeties in the league.

I felt like I was one of the top two

or three safeties in the league.

No question about it.

No, we talked about that,

that was a great suggestion.

Suggestion of the year.

You're out in front, and I'd say

a pretty comfortable lead on that one.

I felt like, you know,

we would be interchangeable.

Uh, and, you know

be a dangerous backfield.

I just really felt like

felt really, really good.

It didn't matter who was there.

It didn't matter. I was gonna get mine.

And I came in there with a motivation

and a focus that no one could stop.

A real stunner from the Patriots today.

The team cut Lawyer Milloy,

one of their most popular players.

His locker was already bare

by the time the media

got to the locker room late this morning.

Lawyer Milloy, he met

on Tuesday in his office

and out of that meeting, he was cut.

Not because of money

- Lawyer left.

- It was a battle of wills.

Exactly!

That was, for me, that was

the one that hit hard.

You know, I remember driving home

after that happened,

and I drove right over to his house.

I didn't even know what to say.

He showed up every day,

never missed a game,

never missed a practice,

never complained.

It was the first time that

I recognized that this was,

you know, a really tough business.

Oh, man. That was

That was a rough two days. Um

He literally signs with Buffalo that day,

and then we're playing against him

in the season opener.

The football folks in these parts

are still shaking their heads

in disbelief.

Lawyer Milloy, Pro Bowl safety, heart

and soul of the Patriots' defense.

Captain, still a young age at 29,

cut on Tuesday,

a Buffalo Bill on Thursday.

More than the money,

I looked at the roster and the team.

They had a quarterback

I was familiar with,

and knew that he had some proving to do.

Even if he never throws

another touchdown pass,

Drew Bledsoe should be a hero

and a role model for the class and dignity

with which he handled himself

as Tom Brady

marched the Patriots

to a Super Bowl title.

But make no mistake:

Bledsoe wants to

throw more touchdown passes.

And he's going to get

his chance in Buffalo.

The thing about

Bill Belichick, what is he thinking?

It's like cutting Curtis Martin

or Brian Young from the 49ers.

It's like the heart and soul of your team,

when you're going into the season,

and emotionally, this whole team

is flat on their back.

You know, as a head football coach,

I make a lot of decisions,

and I make a lot of hard ones,

and that was as hard as any decision

I've made as a coach.

But again,

as we like to say in New England,

it's not collecting talent,

it's building a team.

I didn't know they brought

Rodney in to replace Lawyer.

I thought they brought Rodney in

to complement Lawyer.

I just was so mad that we let him go

and I just couldn't understand

why we let

this guy go who had

meant so much to the team.

And, uh, you know, that was kind of

the "welcome to pro football" moment.

And here we go,

they said they hadn't been this excited

about opening day in a long time,

Why? Lawyer Milloy introduced

last with the defense.

And safety number 36, Lawyer Milloy.

It was the first game of the year,

so you don't know how that's gonna go.

I mean, really, everything that

could go wrong went wrong.

There's Brady

Oh! Intercepted.

Lawyer Milloy

gets an arm up, and hits the football.

I threw an interception return

for a touchdown to Sam Adams,

you know, 330-pounder.

Here's a page

from Ripley's Believe it or not.

Woomba, woomba!

You know, you throw

four interceptions in a game

and that's a pretty bad way

to start the year.

The cover of Sports Illustrated

was Sam Adams

running the ball back into the end zone.

We went out there,

got our butts kicked against Buffalo.

Um, and it really humbled us.

It made us forget about Lawyer,

because you saw Lawyer,

and I said, "Look at Lawyer!

"He's out there celebrating,

he's sacking our quarterback.

Getting up, going crazy for the fans.

He's gone. We gotta focus on

what we have to do in this locker room.

We can't worry about Lawyer

and what he's doing."

Final score, 31 to nothing, Buffalo.

Like, the hype machine at the

point starts and, then, you know,

it's the first week of September,

and everyone's predicting

Super Bowls after one week.

It definitely feels good.

I prayed on it all night.

You know, I thank all my teammates

for having me, man.

But this is like a blessing in disguise,

man.

It feels really good, it really does.

You know, that was a pretty

shitty way to start the year.

Some of the players

in that locker room believe that

you compromised their

ability to win by doing that.

What's your reaction to that?

Do what is best for the football team.

Now the question, what kind of locker

room do they have now in New England?

I want to say this very clearly.

They hate their coach.

And their season could be over

depending on how quickly

they can get over this emotional

devastation they suffered

because of Lawyer Milloy.

He said that going into our Philly game,

in week two,

and he said that on,

whatever, NFL Countdown.

Which was a big show,

probably the only show.

You know, that was

that kind of rocked

the locker room a little bit.

I didn't believe that.

It didn't matter what Tom Jackson said.

That's one game

and then we have to stick together

and we can't point fingers

and we can't worry about

what the outside people say.

I don't think that message

when someone says something like that,

"They hate their coach," or whatever

proclamation someone may make.

We've always said ignore the noise.

So, living by and practicing that,

rather than "This is our rallying cry,

and this is our source of motivation."

The Lawyer Milloy situation

is deadly to your psyche,

your football team.

Plus Tom Brady threw four INTs,

what has happened to Tom Brady?

The reason why we win

is not because someone insults us.

The reason why we win was because we

ignore everything that everyone says,

and we actually focus on

the tactical things that matter.

And impact on

the Lawyer Milloy situation in that game?

Do you think the Patriots compromised

the teams' ability to win by cutting him?

Is it possible to gauge

the emotional response?

This team looked flat.

That was early on in my career,

but it's just another sense of bullshit.

More people who have no idea,

who aren't in the arena

who can't influence anything,

where it's just another example in life:

Ignore the noise.

Like, no one knows. Believe in yourself.

Believe in what you're doing,

believe in your process.

Believe in your teammates.

These are the things that are important.

These are the things that matter.

Hey, what the did we talk about?

Hey, rise up! Hey, take it to

another level, all right?

Our leadership stepped up. Lawyer's gone.

Forget about what the media says.

It's up to us, we gotta go to work.

We practice, we walk through.

We went in the weight room,

we worked hard.

We got to be mentally right

to go out there and play,

to play for another 30 minutes

Hey! Watch him!

One, three, six!

Brady back to throw

Stands in, stands in.

Shoots it long Troy Brown,

he got it at the five, he's in!

♪♪

Mental toughness

is how you deal with adversity.

What is the attitude of your heart?

Are you gonna be grumpy?

Or are you gonna embrace failure?

Are you gonna embrace challenges?

♪♪

Tom never blamed his teammates.

He never said, "Oh, Rodney

should have made the interception,"

or our defense

could have done a better job.

He says, "No, we as an offense, we stunk.

We need to play better.

I need to play better.

I'm the leader of this,

I need to do a better job of leading.

It's accountability.

You had to be, baby.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the RCA Dome

in Indianapolis, Indiana,

where a sell-out crowd

will be on hand to watch

a pair of 9-and-2 football teams.

I was friendly with Peyton, you know,

going back to when I met him

in 2001 on the field,

but when I was at Michigan,

he was at Tennessee,

and he was a first overall pick.

The 1997 National Quarterback award

Scholar athlete of the year.

College player of the year.

With the first pick of the draft,

the Indianapolis Colts select

quarterback Peyton Manning.

So if you were a young quarterback,

that was the guy you looked up to.

And then he went to Indy.

And they were prolific.

It'll need

all of them today to put the clamps

on the Colts' Peyton Manning,

and the best aerial attack in the NFL.

We probably felt

we were gonna see them again.

If you see them again

in the RCA Dome at that time,

that's different than seeing them again

at Gillette Stadium.

So it wasn't a playoff game,

but it was gonna go

a long way to determine

who was going to be in the playoffs

and where that game

was going to be played.

Brady, on the play action fake.

Fires to the right.

We played them late in the year

and ended up having really a sh**t-out.

Peyton takes the snap. Touchdown!

Everyone needs to be

mentally right, all right?

Be mentally right for 30 minutes,

all right?

Direct snap to Brady.

Fires, it is gone! It's tied!

Touchdown, Patriots.

This football game

comes down to this play.

So much at stake, fourth and goal.

Edgerrin James behind Manning.

Ted Washington penetrated

the line of scrimmage.

Willie came off the edge to stop

Edgerrin James from getting in.

And he didn't get there! Willie McGinest!

Willie did such a good job of disguising,

because you have to think about it.

If Indy wins that game,

maybe they have home field advantage.

If you could beat

the Colts on the road,

you know, you could beat anybody.

That play changed

the course of our, just our future.

I really believe that.

It was really an incredible win

for us, to get to 10 and 2.

And I think that gave us

a lot of confidence.

That's heart!

They didn't believe we could win!

The offense put up a lot of points

on a very good defense.

It was up to us to stop them at the end,

and we did.

When I look back at that time,

it was a really growth stage

part of my career.

It was a development of,

you know, myself as a player,

but also as a person off the field,

and I was soaking up all the information.

And even today, I look at some of these

young players, and they're like,

"What do you think of this guy in his

third year or fourth year?"

And in my mind I'm thinking,

"Okay, he's talented,

but who's going to teach him

how to evolve and grow?

Who's going to assist him in his learning

of what football's all about?"

What his knowledge is.

As soon as he made the ball ready for play

after the ten second run off,

he wound the clock.

All right? So you want to make

all the point-outs and everything

and let them go, right?

All right, here we go.

I had Coach Belichick there to teach me.

Every Tuesday,

we would meet and go through

the entire defensive starting line-up

and their strengths and weaknesses.

What we could attack, what he was watching

and how I could see the things

that he saw,

so I could gain confidence and anticipate.

Tom was very blessed because

he had structure for his career.

And that's what Coach Belichick gives you.

He gives you structure,

and he gives you expectations.

And he knows the game, and he's going

to surround Tom with players that are

They're willing, unselfish guys,

guys that are willing

to put the team first.

And that's how you win.

Fiedler on first down, fires.

Intercepted, touchdown! Tedy Bruschi!

The fans are throwing snow into the air.

You know, the last game of the

year is always kind of like,

it's almost like the last day of school.

For most teams, whatever,

20 of the teams, season's over.

But for the teams that are moving on,

it's like, it's bonus time.

You know, all I want to do is

create different situations,

keep them alert, keep them thinking.

I don't want to hear about

what any of the situations are.

You just play 'em.

I don't know exactly how we're going to

do it, but we'll figure something out.

You know, you'd start

your game on Tuesday night.

You refine it on Wednesday, Thursday,

and pretty much by Friday,

it's set in stone.

You'd still watch tape from Friday night

all the way through

to the start of the game.

Need a big push this week.

These guys got us pretty good.

Okay?

You don't always get a chance

to settle a score during the season.

Okay, we got this one.

Look, we need to

take advantage of it this week.

When you look all the way

back to the beginning of September,

game one, an absolute embarrassment,

a 31 to nothing

They have to pay.

We remember what happened Week One.

Okay, we want to see about

all that celebrating,

all the c*ck

that they did in Week One.

We felt like we were a very physical team.

But we wanted to be a team

that played well under pressure.

And Belichick was the master

at setting up scenarios,

giving us opportunities,

like situational football in practice.

Coach Belichick

saw something Friday night.

Okay, they're doing a little more of this

as the season went along,

it's the last game of the year,

f*ck it. They'll probably run it.

He comes in to see me.

"Hey, Tommy, I've seen this, like,

this is the way we're going to see it."

If we're in this formation

and they start to rotate,

you're gonna see these three guys move,

all at the last second. If you do that,

you know,

this is how they're gonna play it.

I saw all three move at the same time,

and right in my mind,

I'm like, "Oh, gotta change this."

Brady waiting a shotgun snap.

Pointing out checkdowns to his offensive

line, back to throw Brady.

And then I was able to throw

a good pass to Troy,

who made the catch for touchdown.

Looks, goes toward the end zone.

Caught, touchdown, Troy Brown.

That was just another example in

my career of people supporting me

and helping me go out there

and execute and be the best I could be.

And boys and girls, the rout is on.

They snap the ball down, the kick is up.

And he r*fles it through.

He's gonna be hit, he's gonna be sacked.

Defensive back Rodney Harrison.

I remember, it was 31-nothing,

we all realized on the sideline,

"sh*t, man, this is 31-nothing.

This is the exact opposite!"

Patriots trying

to get their third shut-out.

Everything the first week

of the year went wrong

and then everything in

the last game of the year went right.

When you think about

things coming together,

and how the team had grown and developed,

the chemistry reversed everything

in the way that we did

was really incredible.

Good job, Matty.

And we made 'em pay.

And it just so happened Larry Izzo

intercepted a ball in the end zone

that sealed the deal

and we went absolutely crazy.

The season ends

with a spectacular finish

That day, we flipped the script.

And beat them 31-nothing.

- Payback.

- Payback!

Payback. Same score, baby,

that's what we like.

Make you laugh, make you cry.

Same thing, same thing.

That's the way to finish, on a great note.

For all you people that doubt us.

It is a bitter cold night.

It is the coldest game

in Foxborough history.

It was as heck of a challenge,

how cold it was

but when you look at the fans and you saw

them just out there, supporting us,

I mean, what can you do?

You can't lose a football game like that.

Touchdown, Tom Brady!

We live another week!

Good afternoon.

From Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

It is cold. It is snowing.

Perfect weather for New Englanders

as the Patriots look to stop

the high-powered Indianapolis Colts.

I respect and admire Peyton

for everything that he did.

He had great command,

he was the quintessential field general.

If there was someone to look up to,

it was him.

If we were gonna beat anybody,

that was the guy that I wanted to beat.

Going into the playoffs,

we had the utmost confidence.

But we also we were a humble bunch,

because as veterans players,

you've gone through

a lot of ups and downs,

and you understand that you can't

be overconfident in this league.

They had a tight end

whose last name was Pollard

and in their two playoff games,

they didn't punt one time.

That's how prolific they were on offense.

After they beat Kansas City,

Pollard said something like

"If we play like that, they may as well

just hand us, you know, the trophy."

All right, here's the game right here,

baby.

Nobody want us to win.

We got nothing to prove.

Beautiful thing.

We thought it was gonna be

pretty crappy weather,

and then it turned into snow.

The first drive of the game,

we got the ball,

and went for it in fourth and one

on the quarterback sneak.

Quarterback sneak

plows it across the 45 for a first down.

Again, it's getting ahead,

which was a really trademark of that team.

We started fast.

Touchdown, David Givens!

And the Patriots take

the opening drive and go 65 yards.

Brady has been magnificent so far.

It wasn't about me, it was really more

about how they saw Peyton.

Because I was a lot different than him.

I was the late-round pick.

I was the overlooked one.

I was on the team with

the good defense, you know?

He really led his team

and if they were gonna win,

it was going to be because of Peyton.

If we were gonna win it was gonna be

because we had situational football

and we have defense and Coach Belichick,

and all those things, which,

I didn't care. I mean, my goal is to win.

Here's the rush,

here's the rush! Fires to the end zone,

intercepted in the end zone

by Rodney Harrison!

Patriots take over!

First time that Manning has been

picked off in the post season.

Manning, play action fake.

Throw, rolling to the right.

Rolling to the right, throws downfield.

It is intercepted!

Picked off! Picked off by Ty Wallace

We went out there, man,

we beat those receivers up,

we grabbed them, we held 'em,

we hit 'em, we made four interceptions.

Forced, I think, fumbles. I mean

We played the game that we wanted to play.

♪♪

It is intercepted!

It's that kind of day, folks.

Yep, it really is.

He's had some great games.

This is obviously not one of them.

To beat them at home,

you think about the regular season game.

Had that been at RCA Dome,

could have ended up

being a different story,

but we played on our terms

in our climate.

Oh, man!

We got you! We got you.

- Thank you for believing in me.

- Oh, you bet.

- You know it. You got one more now.

- Yes, sir.

I think the goal

still hasn't been achieved.

And that's how I could put it, you know,

for as great as 14 in a row is,

you know, it's still one shy

of where we want to be.

All right, and if you think

back on our season,

no matter what tough spot you've been in,

the reason why you won

was because you identified the situation,

you heard the call, and you did your job.

My mom came to the game

and she said, you know, she said,

"You worked very hard for this."

She said, "You're a self-made man.

You've worked hard,

you put yourself in a great position."

She says, "Go finish."

And that's what it's about, man.

When you start something,

you gotta finish it.

From Reliant Stadium,

it's Super Bowl XXXVIII.

I had more friends at that point.

I had more people that wanted

to come to the game.

I had to get more tickets and more hotel

rooms and more post-game party passes.

The accumulation of a couple more years

of being in the spotlight

had become more of a weight on me,

and learning how to deal

with those things was important.

Well, the Patriots this afternoon

begin a quest for their second

Super Bowl championship

in the last three years.

And their 15th victory in a row.

Come on, boy.

It's the day of your life!

Best day of your life.

- Let's go.

- Hey!

- Let's go get it.

- Let's get it now, baby!

Let's go get it. Let's go get it.

Going to Houston, which was a new

franchise, and a new stadium,

I think there was great pageantry,

you know, for that particular week.

We were playing Carolina, who

was another great team on offense,

defense dynamic receivers, great backs.

Very talented defense. Very similar to us.

I mean, that was the most

physical team that we played all year.

It was the Carolina Panthers.

Let's settle this on the field!

I don't trash-talk with them.

They had Julius Peppers

and them boys up front.

Man, just so athletic and big

at the linebacker position.

They had a really good secondary,

like, that was our match.

I felt like we had a very quiet

confidence, and why shouldn't we be?

We were 16 and 2 at the time.

Hadn't lost since week four.

Hadn't trailed in a game since October.

There was just one thing left to do.

First play of the game, I threw

about a 15 yard in cut to Deion Branch,

got hit as I threw it.

Deion Branch with

I was like, “Holy sh*t, this is

gonna be one of those games."

♪♪

We're gonna have to figure out

whether we could match up or not.

Delhomme pulls it down a couple of times

and now he's on the move, tripped up.

Rodney Harrison tripped him up.

Brady and the Patriots, play fake.

Brady quick pass, it's complete.

Inside the 20.

Delhomme, under pressure,

and goes down at the 14-yard line.

And we're looking

for the first points of the game.

Kick is up. Kick is no good.

A 31-yard field goal attempt is missed.

It was a scoreless first quarter.

We got to the second quarter of the game,

and it was like

We score. They score. We score.

Touchdown, Deion Branch!

Fireworks. In the second quarter,

it was big play after big play.

Now we got a football game.

We had no points

in the first 27 minutes of this game.

And then 24 points on the board

in the last three minutes

of the first half.

So we went at halftime knowing,

"Man, we got a game on our hands."

And this is a damn good football team.

Play action fake, Delhomme.

Stands in there, stands in there.

Got time, looks, shoots it long and deep.

His man is open.

He's got it at the 30,

at the 20, 15, 10, 5.

Touchdown Carolina.

They take the lead.

The first time

the Patriots have trailed in a game

since November.

Please let the world know

how physical they are.

Well, they been physical

and them little guys,

but they don't want none of this.

- They don't?

- They don't want none of that.

There's nothing guaranteed

in any of those games.

Basically, put all your

collective energy together

to formulate the best plan possible.

And then you go out there with

the highest sense of awareness

but you're going against

the toughest opponent,

you have the smallest margin of error.

Three tight ends. Seymour, the fullback.

Offset right play action,

fake Brady. Fires

Touchdown! Touchdown in the end zone!

Tom Brady, one and a half yards

to Mike Vrabel. Patriots take the lead.

Mike Vrabel with six tackles, two sacks

and a touchdown interception.

We're not to be denied in the end zone.

We're not to be denied.

♪♪

It didn't matter that the game

was kind of up and down.

We felt like we were prepared

for any situation that came.

I end up getting hurt, breaking my wrist.

I knew I broke it, 'cause I heard it.

And then I'm yelling to the sideline,

"Come get me, my arm is broke,

my arm is broke."

No one would come in.

So Muhammad, he did what is called

a seven route, a corner route.

So he caught the ball,

I pushed him out of bounds,

and I just heard my wrist crack even more.

And I just fell to the ground and I just

told them, I just can't go in anymore.

I'm done.

And that's when it was really

the scariest moment for me

because I felt like I couldn't do

anything to affect the nature of the game,

so I was actually pretty nervous.

- What'd you do, break your arm?

- Broke it.

We had lost both of

our safeties in that game.

We're up 29-22.

There was time on the clock.

And Belichick made the call like,

you know, f*ck it, blitz 'em.

So we all-out blitzed 'em.

And Ricky Proehl runs a post,

we don't get home,

it was like a shitty blitz,

Delhomme standing there,

he's got Proehl right open.

Throws it, touchdown,

tie ball game. 29-29.

When a team's going up against you and

they recognize what your strengths are,

and they say, "Oh, God,

we don't want to kick off to them

because they got a great returner,

or they got a great field goal rush,

so we got to get

the ball off really quick."

All those things pile up.

It takes your focus off what your job is.

And I think we instilled fear

in other teams because

we were all gonna compete to be

the best we could be on that field,

every single game.

Kickoff, is away.

It may go out of bounds

on the 10-yard line.

It does, it goes out of bounds.

- A big, big mistake.

- Oh, no.

That's a penalty.

The ball goes up to the 40-yard line.

Regardless of what we were facing,

the criticism, the wins, the losses,

the blitz, the offense, the weather,

you know, we were gonna

find a way to overcome it.

And we're gonna overcome it through,

you know, the collective group,

the collective energies

of our own set of team goals.

I know I got this great defense.

I got the greatest coach.

And I got Tom Brady.

Ain't nothing like having Tom Brady.

Out of bounds, because the Patriots

are now set up at their own 40 yard line.

All three time-outs

and 68 seconds on the clock

to get Adam Vinatieri

into field goal range.

So we get the ball on the 40-yard line.

We actually got an offensive pass

interference on that drive,

which I thought was

kind of a bullshit call.

Inside the 30

Troy Brown made the catch.

This one's gonna go back.

The next play was

we called the one where I caught it

and then I bailed out to the left.

It was called 259, and squirrel X in.

So I roll to the left, we have Troy Brown,

and then I had an in cut

come in the backside.

Well, I was throwing the in cut,

and Troy Brown comes out of nowhere,

reaches up and catches the ball

between two guys.

And I was like, "Holy sh*t!"

Like, where did that come from?

So, in the instance of rather

be lucky than good

I was definitely lucky, because there was

no way I was completing the in cut.

And then we had, I think, two or three

more plays until I hit Deion Branch.

Yard line by Deion Branch.

It'll be about

a 41-yard field goal attempt

for Adam Vinatieri.

Everyone wants a clutch kicker,

and you don't realize

how much you need a kicker

until the whole season's

on the line for that one moment.

And there was nobody

that we'd rather send out

to kick that field goal than Adam.

He kicked the game winner

in the Super Bowl two years ago.

And you can see in all these games

it took literally that much to win.

And that's the difference between being

remembered and not being remembered.

Looking for a second

Super Bowl title in three years,

from 41 yards.

It's good!

The New England Patriots

claim their second

Super Bowl championship

in three years.

That was, you know,

the Patriots football at its best.

♪♪

It's everything. We waited so long.

I waited ten years for this.

It's unbelievable.

Best feeling in the world.

This is what football is about.

All my years of just people doubting,

all the, you know, naysayers,

the Tom Jacksons thank you, Tom.

All that just kind of

came to the forefront

and you just really

appreciated that moment.

That's when I kind of broke down and

as a fifth-round draft choice,

I was able to be a small part

of winning a championship.

That's something that

no one can take away from me.

You know, to be able to

win that for my mom,

all the sacrifices that she made, um

You know, just being laughed at

with the car that she had

growing up, you know

Not having a really nice house

That drove me.

It drove me. It just

My mom was my inspiration.

And she's passed away now,

but she was my inspiration,

and I get my strength

and my toughness from her.

And everything I set out to do in

football, I did it because of her.

53 players, 17 coaches,

and the head coach,

the heart and soul of our team,

showed us what the concept

of teamwork is about.

I knew what I was leaving.

You know? 'Cause I helped build it.

That was seven years

of building relationships.

It was good teammates, a good team.

With a quarterback that I thought had a

a tremendous bright side, and upside.

And ultimately, I remember you guys

I was right.

Super Bowl MVP,

once again, it's Tom Brady.

When you get to pro sports,

it is a business.

And there's a lot of money at stake.

It's hard as a player because

you work hard to develop

friendships and relationships,

with people you care a lot about,

and you care about their families,

because that's how you succeed:

through caring about one another,

and caring about other people's

lives and livelihoods.

When I see those moments,

they were very difficult,

because it felt like I lost my brother.

You know, who am I gonna share this with?

Who am I gonna share my joys with now?

Tom was a very unselfish football player

and he cared about his teammates.

And that's what you look for.

We don't fight for Tom Brady

if Tom thinks he's the star,

if he makes it all about him.

No one cared who got the credit.

No one cared who was an All-Pro.

No one cared who got the commercials,

who got the endorsements.

We didn't care about that.

All we care about was each other,

and winning football games.

When I think of that 2003 team, it's

that was the ultimate group

that accomplished the highest

in really a dominating way.

And I think we shared something

that in that time

was the essence of

what team was all about.

You know, I've used sports

as a metaphor so much for my life.

So when you think about,

you know, doing your job,

how does that apply to life?

You know? Well, you know

Be the best husband you could be

or be the best father you could be,

or be the best at your job

that you could be.

'Cause you can't control everything.

And, you know, if you have perspective,

in the end, nothing bad really happens.

Because out of the bad

comes really good things.

And if you take that and you learn

from it, then they become positives.

And for me, that's how I choose to,

you know, view my life.

The heart of the guys you see

in front of me here,

the heart of the coaching staff

and organization,

I'm just so proud to be the quarterback.

What would the next year become?

I don't know.

But that we were gonna try to repeat

what happened in 2003.