NFL
Leonard Fournette Details What Tom Brady is ‘All About,’ and It’s Not Just Winning
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterPublished24 Jun 2022
Depending on your rooting interests, you’ll have a specific perception of Tom Brady. If you’re a New England Patriots fan or, more recently, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, then you probably think pretty highly of the quarterback. If you’ve spent years rooting for the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, or Miami Dolphins, it’s safe to assume you can’t stand the sight of TB12.
But what is the legendary signal-caller really like?
At the Collision conference in Toronto, Sportscasting sat down with Leonard Fournette, who has spent the past two seasons playing alongside Brady, to find out. While winning is obviously important to the legendary signal-caller, it’s not the only thing that drives him forward.
Leonard Fournette shares his take on the real Tom Brady
Based on what we see from afar, it’s easy to view Tom Brady as somewhat of a football-playing robot.
The quarterback has dedicated his life to the game and, beyond small nuggets like his interesting diet, is really only known through his work on the gridiron. While that’s not the entire story — every person, including pro athletes, is a complex being — it doesn’t sound too far from reality.
“It’s family [and] football, man. That’s him,” Leonard Fournette said of the quarterback. “He’s all about winning, he’s all about his guys, he’s all about getting better. He’s all about preparation. You know, in case anyone throws something different at us, we always have a counterattack for it. That’s why I love him. Being around a guy like that, who not just cares for you as a football player but as a human being, his brothers, his fellow brothers, his teammates, you know, that’s what you appreciate in guys like that.”
While some of that may sound like it’s verging on cliche, we have heard similar anecdotes before.
LeSean McCoy, for example, called Brady “the best teammate, competitor, and leader” he had ever seen and noted that the quarterback always walks the walk. In a February 2022 Sports Illustrated story, Charlie Weiss recalled a young TB12 recognizing an exotic blitz and calling an audible they had only practiced once. The quarterback himself has also gone on the record about how establishing trust and caring about people is at the heart of his leadership.
No matter how you feel about him, Tom Brady is clearly doing something right. Guys like Leonard Fournette, who have been in the trenches with him, will tell you all about it.
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