The G.O.A.T. Principle (An excerpt from “The Grand Piano Principle)
Tom Brady is widely regarded as the Greatest of All Time, the G.O.A.T., when it comes to pro football quarterbacks and while you are free to debate that—I think you would lose that one most of the time—you cannot argue with the facts:
1) A seven-time Super Bowl Champ (Ranked first)
2) A five-time Super Bowl MVP (Ranked first)
3) Had 251 wins (Ranked first)
4) Passed for 89,412 yards (Ranked first)
5) Passed for 649 touchdowns (Ranked first)
6) Played 23 seasons
You can go to Wikipedia and take a gander at the rest of his accomplishments. It is mind-blowing to see them all in one place. There are a lot more “firsts,” awards and accolades. So, he is pretty damn good if not straight out the best. Tom Brady is certainly a winner. They call Alabama the Crimson Tide. The last Super Bowl he won was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021. He retired for good in 2022 and has switched his focus to broadcasting. And he’s is damn good at that too!!
His successor with the Buccaneers was Baker Mayfield, one of the many, many, almost infinite number of sound quarterbacks the Cleveland Browns drafted or obtained and successfully screwed-up. (Sadly, the Browns success at screwing up QBs might even exceed that of Brady’s success at quarterback.)
Mayfield has been pretty good, not great, but seemingly getting better. In his six years in the league through 2024—the time of the Brady-Mayfield “fight”—he took the Browns to a playoff spot in 2020, ending an 18-year drought for that franchise (the Browns despise success so they got rid of him), and took the Buccaneers to a division title and a playoff victory in 2022. (Note: I have Cleveland roots. I am permitted to Browns Bash.)
And here is where the fun begins.
During an appearance on a Casa de Klub podcast, Mayfield said that Tom Brady created a stress-filled environment in the locker room. “The building was a little different with Tom in there. Obviously, playing wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out. They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having much fun.” Hmmm...winning wasn’t fun? Baker said more but it is not relevant here.
What is relevant is the G.O.A.T.’s response. “I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings so there was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t daycare. If I wanted to have fun, I would have went to Disneyland with my kids.” (Which you can do after you win the Super Bowl. Brady has a lifetime frequent flyer pass at Disneyland.)
After this exchange, I was watching “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith and co-hosts Shannon Sharp and Teddy Bruschi and they were discussing this sequence of events. You know what Sharp and Bruschi said? You know what they remember most? Losing. Both agreed that the pain of losing more than offsets the joy of winning. And, having won, it makes losing all that much more painful because you know what you missed out on, you are kicking yourself for the opportunity lost, and for not doing “one more thing” perhaps that could have made the difference.
They went on to comment that Baker Mayfield could only have made those statements because HE / HADN’T / WON.
Deacon Blue.
One wonders, and they did out loud on the program, if Mayfield will ever win a Super Bowl with a worldview that permits “joy” over “performance.” Although I would argue, and my guess is that Sharp and Bruchi would agree, that winning IS the joy. Your hard work and fortitude paid off.
And, by the way, let’s talk about “and” not “or.” You can do both. You can have fun and win at the same time. Both former professional football players also spoke about football as a job, one you get paid handsomely for, that they viewed as a privilege to have been able to play at the highest level and, therefore, had an obligation to their teammates to do the best they could and a commitment to each other to push each other to do better individually and as a team. Brady said as much when he said this, “There’s a way to approach this game and that’s with the right mindset and try to push each other outside of our comfort zone. Great teammates do that.”
Do you think Tom Brady would be considered in the G.O.A.T. discussion had he taken a different kind of approach? There are many examples of athletes setting lofty goals, high standards, putting in the effort and winning for themselves and their teams. This group of winners, this Brady Bunch, includes Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Serena Williams, Babe Ruth, and others. Why would you settle for less? Why would you want to be Deacon Blue when you can be the Crimson Tide?
Author’s Note: Very timely as we head into to Super Bowl season!!!
Author’s Second Note: As with all chapters of “Grand Piano,” “The G.O.A.T Principle” includes an application to work and an application to faith.