Tom Brady, Seven-Time World Champion and Entrepreneur, Nitin Nohria, Executive Chairman, Thrive Capital, In conversation with: Alyson Shontell, Fortune
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00:00What's happening?
00:02Any Patriots fans here?
00:05Any non-Patriots fans here?
00:07You can be real. It's the Bucs fans.
00:10Okay. This is good.
00:11This is New York.
00:11So you know what like.
00:13We got a lot of Wolverines out there.
00:16I love that.
00:17All right.
00:17Giants fans, Jets fans, you can shut up.
00:20We don't need to hear from you at all.
00:22You can't say that. We're in New York.
00:22I don't care. Why can't I?
00:25I'll double down on the Giants fans.
00:27Absolutely. They're not welcome.
00:29So I do have to broker a little bit of a peace treaty,
00:31though, here on stage before we can have an authentic conversation.
00:34Did you know in 2012 when you lost your perfect season
00:38that was on Nithin's birthday? It's 50th.
00:41He blew it. It's not your fault.
00:44He's never forgiven you.
00:45It's not his fault.
00:46So anyways, you did a lot of winning.
00:47You did some winning in your career. It was great.
00:49And so we're going to talk about that.
00:50But a lot of people talk about you as the GOAT,
00:52which we have people from 21 countries here today.
00:55The GOAT means greatest of all time.
00:58But it doesn't take just one person. There's no I in team.
01:01And so you guys have written actually a great essay about leadership
01:04traits that can create consistent winning.
01:06So we're going to get into that.
01:07But first, I want to talk about how you built yourself up
01:10as a leader in your leadership mindset.
01:12You were not always, in your own words, the most athletic.
01:17Some of your teammates actually said you were a little slow,
01:19a little pokey in the beginning.
01:20Not a little slow. A lot of slow.
01:22A bench warmer, even.
01:25And still, and you were the 199th pick in the sixth round of the 2000 draft.
01:31But you still said to your owner, Robert Kraft,
01:33I'm the best decision your organization has ever made.
01:36You, who had yet to prove yourself.
01:38So where did that confidence come from?
01:40Where did that determination come from?
01:42Even when you weren't quite proven yet?
01:44Well, I feel like in so many ways, that's kind of like
01:46we all have our own life stories that, you know, we're sitting here
01:49in this beautiful room and we've had this great journey of career success
01:54and so forth.
01:54And the only reason I think why I'm sitting here is because
01:57the amazing people that came into my life
01:59and they impacted me in such a positive way at different ages.
02:04And my parents were there as a young athlete,
02:07like a lot of our parents were, that supported me every step of the way.
02:11And I wanted to be, you know, when you're an American kid,
02:14you sometimes want to grow up and be a professional athlete.
02:17And it's a long shot.
02:18And it's very daunting to even think about that.
02:24And I just wanted to go play with my buddies.
02:27And I certainly, when I was a kid, I fell in love with sports.
02:31Wasn't very good at school.
02:32I was never going to go to Harvard,
02:35but I get to work with you anyway.
02:36So that's pretty cool.
02:37There's many paths, many ways of getting to Harvard.
02:40You found one.
02:40We found that was through the back door somehow, but we made it.
02:43But for me, it was this support by my parents.
02:47And when I started football as a freshman in high school,
02:51because my mom didn't let me play, I was the backup quarterback
02:54on a freshman football team that didn't win a game.
02:56We were 0-8.
02:57We suck so bad and they still wouldn't put me on the field.
03:02And the reason why I played my second year,
03:04we tried out for JV and made it.
03:06And the freshman quarterback quit because he wanted to play basketball.
03:09So naturally, I assumed the position.
03:12And that love of football really
03:14kind of grew in my life.
03:16And tried out my junior year, made the varsity team
03:19and became the starting quarterback.
03:20And I started to grow into my body a little bit.
03:23And at the same time, I consulted a mentor of mine
03:26who taught me how to throw the football every single summer.
03:29I'd go to his camp.
03:30I would continue to work on my own mechanics and techniques.
03:33And all the guys that I played with started to really notice
03:38that I was making these big improvements.
03:39And that was one step of leadership, was that how much could I show
03:43to my teammates that I really cared,
03:45that I really wanted to participate in the success of the team.
03:50And it wasn't about me for my glory,
03:52for my becoming the starting quarterback,
03:54for anything other than I wanted to be the best that I could be for them,
03:57which is, I'm sure, how a lot of you guys feel about you and your daily lives.
04:01You want to be the best for the people that you work with and that you work for.
04:06And I got enough probably training
04:11and exposure that I got recruited to be a college athlete,
04:14a Division I athlete at that.
04:16And I went to a few different schools.
04:19I ended up taking a visit to the University of Michigan in the spring of 1995.
04:24And I walked into a stadium, and it was empty.
04:27And there's 110,000 seats.
04:29And I was like, yep, this is the place where I want to go.
04:32And that's a long way from being the backup quarterback on a freshman team.
04:37That's a long way.
04:38No one would have ever imagined that.
04:40So I go to Michigan, and I'm seventh on the depth chart to start as a true freshman.
04:45There are seven, six other dudes that are better than me.
04:48And naturally, physically, I'd say I was growing and developing,
04:53but I was one of the younger ones in the class.
04:54And like all of our children at that age, everyone kind of grows a little bit differently.
05:00But really, what I developed through high school was this competitive attitude,
05:04this leadership, this discipline and determination to improve
05:08and surround myself with people that could help me improve.
05:10So I started as seventh on the depth chart at Michigan.
05:13And by the end of my freshman year, I was the fourth quarterback
05:17because I'd worked pretty hard over the course of the season.
05:20My second year in college, I kind of worked my way up to the second and third quarterback.
05:26And my third year, I fought really hard to be the starter.
05:30And I ended up losing the starting position to the guy who won the job
05:34and led our team to a national championship.
05:36His name was Brian Greasy.
05:38And led our team to a 12-0 record at Michigan.
05:41We won our national championship.
05:43And I was part of that even though I was a backup
05:45because I believe I really pushed him so much to be the best that he could be,
05:50which is really what teams are all about.
05:52So in the difference in today's world, if we think about how we're screwing these kids up,
05:57anytime they face a little difficulty, what do we do?
05:59We send them to an easier place to succeed.
06:02I had to grind my freshman year, my sophomore year, my third year
06:07to even get a chance to play in my fourth year.
06:10And in my fourth year, I thought, OK, I was the backup last year.
06:12We won the national championship.
06:14The guy who beat me out is now a professional quarterback.
06:16I'm going to step into this role as a starting quarterback.
06:19And the coach was like, nope, we recruited this kid out of Michigan.
06:23He's the top-rated quarterback in high school football.
06:28And he's going to come in, and you guys are going to compete to start.
06:31And I was like, shit.
06:34So I knew how to compete, because that's what I had continued to have to do.
06:38And I competed with him, and I started every game that year.
06:41And we finished 10 and 3.
06:42We had a good record.
06:43And I was going back for my fifth year.
06:46The team made me a team captain, which is probably the greatest honor I ever
06:50received in all the sports, because all my boys, all the guys that I really
06:54looked up to, and they looked up to me, they named me captain.
06:58They wanted me to be their leader.
07:00They saw how much it meant to me to be the starting quarterback.
07:03So I go in there before the season starts.
07:05And the Tuesday before our first game of the season, the head coach,
07:09Lloyd Carr, calls me, and he says, hey, this is what we're going to do.
07:11Tom, you're going to start.
07:13But Drew, Henson, this other quarterback who they recruited the year before,
07:16you're going to play in the second quarter.
07:18And I'm going to determine who's the quarterback in the third and fourth
07:21quarter by who plays well in the second quarter.
07:23And it felt like a big gut punch, because I thought I did everything right.
07:27I thought I worked really hard to get the things that I wanted.
07:30But you know what?
07:31In his eyes, it wasn't enough.
07:32So what did I do?
07:33I had to go out there and prove it.
07:35So I started the first game of the year.
07:36I had a two-minute drive to win the game against Notre Dame
07:41in my first game of my last season.
07:44And I was like, OK, cool.
07:45Coach must have seen at this point that I'm the best quarterback for the job.
07:50And the next day, he calls us in.
07:51He says, nope, we're doing the same thing.
07:52Brady, you're starting.
07:53Henson, you're in the second quarter.
07:54I'm going to figure out after that.
07:56So about six games into the year, we alternated a little bit.
08:00And it didn't go as Coach Carr planned.
08:02And naturally, there was a few games we didn't do great with Drew
08:07kind of going in there and playing.
08:08And finally, in the middle of the year, he said, OK, enough of this.
08:11Tom, you're starting the rest of the year.
08:12And we won every game from there on out.
08:14And it wasn't because I was playing spectacularly.
08:17The team really came together, and we did some great things.
08:19And in my final college game, we beat Alabama.
08:23We came back by two 14-point deficits in the game and won the game.
08:28And I was like, everyone must see now at this point
08:30I'm going to be a great NFL quarterback.
08:32Nope.
08:33No way.
08:34So the NFL draft comes around.
08:36And I go in the sixth round, 199th overall pick to the New England Patriots.
08:41And by the way, if you're from California,
08:44there's no fucking place called New England.
08:47It's like, New England, they're in the ASC.
08:50I never watched.
08:51It's crazy.
08:52And at the same time, it was a great opportunity for me to go there.
08:56And I walked into that building, and I was ready to compete.
08:59Because I knew how to compete.
09:01I had to compete my butt off for five years in college.
09:04I had to compete my butt off in high school for four years.
09:07Those nine years of playing prepared me to be a professional.
09:11They prepared me to go out there and give it everything I had,
09:15to be the leader, to bring people together, to work hard,
09:18to show discipline, to show determination.
09:20And in my first year, I was there.
09:23I was the fourth quarterback, which is a lot better than seventh
09:27when I was at Michigan.
09:28But I was determined to work my way up.
09:30And by the end of my first year there, I'd basically
09:32become like the third quarterback.
09:34In my second year, I competed really hard to become the second quarterback.
09:39And on the second game of my second season,
09:42that's when the New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis hit Drew Bledsoe
09:46and knocked him out for the season.
09:47And I came in as a starter.
09:49And I never went off the field after that.
09:51And you were never going to let your chance go.
09:53I mean, some of your teammates recall you saying, guys,
09:56I've got this chance I'm never going to let go.
09:58And they're like, ha, ha, ha, Brady, that's a $100 million quarterback
10:00that you're competing against.
10:01You're a pipsqueak.
10:02Go away.
10:03But you didn't.
10:03You persisted.
10:04Yeah, well, I just felt like we've all faced these different challenges in life.
10:08And we've all faced our own adversities.
10:10And we look at all the hardest things that have ever happened in our life.
10:13And the biggest challenges we ever faced, we look back at those.
10:16And we realize those were absolutely the best things that could have happened.
10:20I look at my career now, 23 years of playing.
10:22And I've been retired for basically a year and a half.
10:26And I think there's no way I would have had the success had I not
10:28gone through all the challenges of high school sports
10:32and the challenges of college sports.
10:34I look at so many of these young athletes who are never forced
10:36to go outside of their comfort zone.
10:38What do they do?
10:39They're told how great they are their whole life.
10:42They have people that coddle them, that make sure
10:44that the environment that they're in, they never have to push beyond their limits.
10:48Even some of the greatest athletes in the world
10:50never have had to go outside of their comfort zone.
10:52I played with a lot of athletes.
10:53And part of my role as a leader was to make these guys feel uncomfortable.
10:57Part of even how great they were, I was always
11:00focused on making sure that they were working harder than they even
11:03thought they could work.
11:04So 20 years at New England, we had a ton of success.
11:08It was awesome.
11:09We did, well, we at least tried to do a lot of things the right way.
11:13The processes were good.
11:14A lot like your businesses.
11:16Why do they succeed?
11:17Because you make good decisions every day.
11:19You have a great point of view on how you view success.
11:22You communicate well.
11:24You show up every day with a good attitude.
11:26You're humble when things go well, and you're
11:28very curious to learn more when they don't go well.
11:31So that's what I learned for 20 years.
11:33So now I go down, and I became a free agent,
11:35and I wanted to go to a different place.
11:36And my football journey took me to Tampa.
11:38And literally everything we did at Tampa my first year
11:41was the exact opposite of the way we did things at New England.
11:45So talk about pulling your hair out.
11:46I didn't know what to do, except, hey, I
11:49was going to try to do what I could in my role
11:52to manage the people that had probably authority above me,
11:56as well as connect with the people that I needed on the field
11:58to find success.
12:00And in my first year, we turned it around mid-year
12:02and won the Super Bowl.
12:03And it was a very rewarding aspect of my career,
12:06even though you think, what more could you want to accomplish?
12:10Well, if I was out there on the field,
12:13and I was out there competing, I wanted to win.
12:15And just like we all do, we didn't
12:17want to play for second place.
12:20I wanted to go out there and push myself to the limit, too.
12:23And I was very fortunate, again.
12:25It all comes back to the right people at the right time,
12:28embracing the opportunity to learn.
12:30What we know is so limited in life.
12:32What we don't know is limitless.
12:34And if you surround yourself with great people,
12:36and I'm very fortunate to find that in football
12:38and in retirement, very fortunate to find
12:41a lot of people in my life that they do shoot me straight.
12:43They tell me the truth.
12:44They are very smart.
12:45They're very talented.
12:46And naturally, I want to gravitate toward those people
12:49that I think I can continue to learn from.
12:52So I think one of the most incredible things
12:54about your career has been just the consistency
12:56and the consistent formula for success.
12:58It was over and over and over again.
12:59And once you left the Patriots, you went to the Bucs.
13:01You still won.
13:02You two sat down and spent a lot of time
13:04together to hash out, over months, I think,
13:06numerous phone calls, numerous meetings.
13:08What was it about how the team was run, your part,
13:11Kraft's part, Bill Belichick's part, the other players' part,
13:15that made it that consistent for that long?
13:17Neetan, I wonder if you could tell us
13:19some of the learnings of what you guys found
13:21that consistent leaders do best.
13:23So I think that one of the things that Tom just
13:26talked about is this capacity for people
13:29who are great leaders to just be on a learning curve
13:31where they're constantly getting better every day.
13:33I think that getting better yourself
13:36is a way to inspire others to know
13:37that they need to get better, too.
13:39And this discipline of just relentlessly pushing yourself
13:44to get better, pushing everybody else around you to get better,
13:47I think that's the hallmark of any great team.
13:49That's the hallmark of great companies.
13:51Anybody who gets complacent is almost inevitably
13:53going to get lapped the next day by someone else.
13:55Because the world's a competitive place.
13:57As Tom said, nothing in the world is given to you.
13:59You have to earn it every day.
14:00And I think if you bring that attitude to anything
14:03that you do, then that's what allows you to be a winner.
14:06But you can't win alone.
14:08One thing that Tom and I talked about
14:10is that as good as you are, people
14:15attribute so much to individuals.
14:17We like to describe people as goats.
14:19We think of founders.
14:21We think of CEOs.
14:22And there's an extraordinary celebration
14:24in human life of individuals, because we
14:27can relate to a single person.
14:28It's hard to relate to a team.
14:30And yet, I don't know of any great individual
14:32who can get extraordinary things done by themselves.
14:35They have to build an amazing team around them.
14:37And this was, I think, the joy of working
14:39with Tom, which is we ended up having the article not
14:42be about him being a goat, but what made him a great teammate
14:45and what allowed him to get the most out of his team.
14:47So I think that if there is a lesson,
14:49it's important to know that the personal accolades mean
14:53very little until you win championships.
14:55And you don't win championships by yourself.
14:57You only win championships with teams.
15:00Tom, I wanted to ask you, too, one of the things
15:03that you both pointed out in the article
15:05is that people have different motivations
15:07and different things that drive them.
15:08And you have to figure out what that is to inspire them
15:10to do their best work.
15:11If they think they're giving 100%, it's really probably 70.
15:13And how do you squeeze that last 30% out?
15:16Tom, I can't help but notice that when
15:17you're talking about the early career,
15:20I feel a little anger in there sometimes.
15:22You don't forget.
15:23There's the chip on there.
15:26What does FEA mean?
15:28And how did that motivate you?
15:29And then how did you figure out how to motivate your team?
15:32Well, I think naturally, I was.
15:33What's FEA?
15:34FEA is F them all.
15:36And the reason why I say that is because we're
15:38filled in a world now of so many people
15:40that are always trying to tear other people down.
15:41And certainly in sports, when I played for this great team,
15:44people didn't want to see you win all the time.
15:45And that was OK.
15:46As long as I embraced that challenge with my teammates,
15:50I felt like whoever we went out there to try to play,
15:52whoever we went out on that field to battle against,
15:56we were there to take them down.
15:57And however many people would say, well,
16:00the reason why you guys succeeded was this, or that,
16:02or this, or this BS, or some other narrative that was wrong,
16:07we knew why we did well.
16:08Because we just tried to do the right thing every day.
16:11And it wasn't always right.
16:12And we didn't always win.
16:14There were plenty of losses.
16:15We had some huge losses.
16:17And even when we tried to do it the right way,
16:19and naturally, that is life.
16:20You try your best.
16:21And it doesn't mean you're going to succeed.
16:24It just means that you give yourself more of an opportunity
16:27to succeed.
16:28So I just felt like for me to have an attitude where,
16:33and the reason why I like anger and that attitude
16:37kind of permeated so much when I ran out on that field,
16:40that anger provided a lot of energy and action for me.
16:43I couldn't go out there thinking that I was
16:45going to play my best friend.
16:47I had to create an enemy.
16:48And not an enemy that I wanted to do anything bad to.
16:51I just wanted to beat them up.
16:55And the only way I could do it was to score more points
16:58and to be in it.
16:58I didn't have one friend on another team.
17:00I really didn't.
17:01It's so bizarre to me when I see all these players that
17:04are buddies and they're, and I'm like, how is that possible?
17:07I hated that guy.
17:08It's like only now are Peyton Manning and I friends.
17:11And for so many years.
17:12Are you friends?
17:13Yeah, of course, now.
17:14But now that we can talk and we don't
17:16feel like we're sharing state secrets.
17:18But I obviously admired him.
17:20And I respected him because of how phenomenal he was.
17:23But when I was on the field against him,
17:25man, like there was nothing greater than a Sunday
17:28when we won and they lost.
17:31And it wasn't as fun if they won.
17:33It happened a lot, Tom.
17:34So we're very happy about that.
17:36Yeah, they found a way.
17:37And he found a way, too, as he went
17:40to a different place in his career later in his career
17:42to find success.
17:43And he felt the same way.
17:44And again, we all get motivated by different things.
17:47And some guys that I played with were very motivated by.
17:51There's an internal motivation, which I always felt like,
17:54man, you wake up out of bed and you're
17:55doing something you love to do.
17:56And you do not want to look at the person in the mirror
17:59and fail him or her.
18:00When you look in the mirror every day, did I get my best?
18:03Did I?
18:04Was I focused?
18:05Did I get out there and be the best
18:07that I could be for myself and for others?
18:09Because other people are counting on me.
18:11And it's not my job to do everybody's job.
18:13It's my job to do my job.
18:15And if I don't do my job, I am going to fail everybody.
18:18So to me, so much of it was making sure
18:20I was cool with the man in the mirror first.
18:23And a lot of other guys aren't motivated like that.
18:25A lot of other guys need someone to give them
18:28a little smack on the ass.
18:30Hey, get it going.
18:32What's wrong with you?
18:33I would joke with guys.
18:34I would get in there at like 6.30 in the morning.
18:36I'd be in the weight room.
18:38And guys would walk in at 6.45.
18:39And they thought they were getting early because the first
18:42meeting's at 8.
18:43And I'd be like, man, good afternoon.
18:45And they were like, and then they
18:47would get there the next day at 6.30.
18:48But I got there at 6.15.
18:50And I'll be like, man, still showing up late, huh?
18:53And by the end of it, I had a bunch.
18:55There was a culture of guys that would all come together
18:57to be there early and stay late.
18:59Because the job wasn't done with the punch the clock.
19:02We were there to push each other to succeed.
19:04And when you succeed, as you guys know in business,
19:07there's enough credit to go around for everybody.
19:10And the greatest joy is even when
19:13I think seven times Super Bowl champ, I'm like, you know what?
19:16I have thousands of friends.
19:17I have thousands of guys that I committed
19:19every bit of who I was to.
19:21I bled with them.
19:23We played in hot conditions.
19:24We played in cold conditions.
19:26We lost.
19:26We cried.
19:27We celebrated.
19:28And to me, the joy of life was experiencing those moments
19:31with other people.
19:32And now I see them.
19:33They're like my brother.
19:34I didn't have a brother.
19:35I had three sisters.
19:36But I feel like I have thousands of brothers
19:38that came from everywhere, all parts of the United States,
19:41the North, the South, the East, the West.
19:43They were younger.
19:43They were older.
19:44They were black.
19:45They were white.
19:46It didn't matter.
19:47We all loved each other.
19:48We all loved what we were trying to accomplish.
19:50That gift of life to me was through this avenue of sports.
19:53And in business, hopefully you guys find that.
19:55Hopefully you find people that you love to work with,
19:58that you push each other to succeed,
20:00that you push each other outside of your comfort zone.
20:02And it's OK to feel uncomfortable.
20:04That's what we need to do to grow.
20:05Unless we stress ourself, unless we stress our mind,
20:08it doesn't grow.
20:09Unless we stress our bodies, it doesn't grow.
20:12We have to stress ourselves.
20:13Can we talk about one period where
20:15so a lot of people who run companies
20:16are not always in the squishiest of positions.
20:18Sometimes they have to do turnarounds.
20:20You, I think, established yourself
20:22as maybe the greatest of all time
20:23during the 2017 Super Bowl.
20:26You guys should not have won that game.
20:27It was looking dark for Patriots fans for a while there.
20:31It was 28-3.
20:33You guys were way, way, way, way down
20:34and should not have been able to come back, and yet you won.
20:38From your perspective, what the heck happened on the field?
20:41What went through your brain?
20:42How did you execute that?
20:43How did you execute such a turnaround in that moment?
20:46Yeah, so we were down 21-3 to the Atlanta Falcons
20:49in the Super Bowl, and it was the 2016 season.
20:52We had a great team, and so did they.
20:54And we started the game, and we were pretty shitty.
20:58And we weren't terrible.
21:00We moved the ball a lot.
21:01We just couldn't score points.
21:02I threw an interception return, threw an interception
21:05to a guy who I knew exactly what he was going to do,
21:07and I decided to make a stupid throw.
21:09Anyway, he intercepted it, runs it back for a touchdown.
21:13And as I'm diving for him to make the tackle, which
21:15I had no chance of making the tackle, and I dive for him,
21:18I'm literally midair going, well, if we lose the game,
21:21that's the reason.
21:22Good job, Tom.
21:24And I went to the sideline, and I just sat there.
21:28And I had an always way of internalizing these things.
21:31And I had been down before in other games,
21:33and we go into half down 21-3.
21:35And we had the best coach in the history of the NFL,
21:38Bill Belichick.
21:39And when we got through our halftime adjustments, hey,
21:42this is what we're going to do in the second half.
21:44And listen, strategically, we got the plan,
21:48and then we went out just before we went on the field.
21:50He said, hey, 21 points is not going
21:53to be enough to beat us today.
21:56And the players were like, yes, let's go.
21:59We ran out on the field, and we kicked them the ball
22:01to start the half.
22:02We stopped them.
22:03They kicked us the ball.
22:04We had great field position.
22:05And we went three and out.
22:08I threw a pass to Julian.
22:09He dropped it.
22:10Then we punted back to them, and they went down to score.
22:13And I was like, well, 28 points might
22:15be enough to beat us today.
22:17So we're down 28-3, and there's no 25-point touchdown
22:20in the NFL.
22:21So what we had to do was we had to just chip away.
22:24And I think, really, the thought at that point for me was,
22:28you are getting your ass embarrassed right now.
22:31You better go down fighting.
22:33And if you're going to lose, you play your ass off
22:35for the rest of this game.
22:36Regardless of the score, don't quit.
22:39Keep fighting.
22:41Don't give in to what the pity party is, losing a Super Bowl.
22:45Go out there and play your ass off.
22:48And I said to the guys, come on, one score, fellas.
22:50That's all we need, one score.
22:52And we get the ball back, and we go down,
22:54and we score with like two or three minutes left
22:57in the third quarter.
22:58And we missed the extra point.
22:59We're down 28-9.
23:01And I was like, all right.
23:03We went to the sideline.
23:04Come on, fellas.
23:04Come on, D. We need to stop.
23:06They stopped them.
23:07They punted to us.
23:08And we went down, and we were driving,
23:10and we got stopped on a third down play.
23:12We had to kick a field goal.
23:13It was 28-12.
23:15And I was like, it's a two-score game.
23:19Wow, when did that happen?
23:21And then I'm like, come on, D. We got to make one play,
23:23one play.
23:24And then our great linebacker from University of Alabama,
23:28Dante Hightower, strip sacks Matt Ryan, ball bounces out.
23:33My boy from Michigan, Alan Branch, jumps on it.
23:35We got the ball.
23:36I jumped up as high as I could, which
23:38is probably about four inches.
23:40And I ran on the field, and we scored another touchdown,
23:43got the two-point conversion, and it was 28-20.
23:47And I said, it's a one-score game.
23:50And I knew that they knew.
23:52Aw, shit.
23:54And they punted us the ball back.
23:55We had this phenomenal defensive stop,
23:57and it was crazy because they were in field goal range.
24:00Then we knocked them out of field goal range.
24:02They punted the ball to us with about two minutes and 30
24:06seconds left, and we had 92 yards to go.
24:08And there's nobody in that stadium
24:10that didn't think we were going to go down and score,
24:12including us.
24:13And that momentum had shifted, and the collective energy
24:15shifted.
24:16And they were scared, and they were tired.
24:19And we drove the ball down, and we
24:20scored with about 25 seconds left
24:23and hit the two-point conversion.
24:25And then went to overtime, and my great friend and teammate
24:28over a long period of time, Matt Slater, in overtime,
24:31they changed all the rules because of shit like this.
24:33We flipped the coin, and we won the coin toss.
24:35And I knew that we were going to go down and score.
24:38So it was a miraculous victory.
24:41Even as I alluded to, let's say, my career journey, where
24:44it started pretty bad in high school,
24:46and it didn't go great in college until the end,
24:49and I got to the Patriots as the fourth quarterback,
24:53that was a lot like that game 28-3.
24:55It didn't start great.
24:56There was a lot of points where it probably
24:58looked like I could have given up and quit.
25:00There's a lot of points that the people around me
25:01didn't have to support me the way they did.
25:03There's a lot of times where you looked in the mirror thinking,
25:06man, I failed on the biggest stage.
25:08And then you know what?
25:09Back at 28-3, I'm so happy we were down 28-3 now.
25:14Because we wouldn't be talking about it if we were ahead 28-3.
25:17Because we overcame something that nobody
25:20thought was possible.
25:21And we proved to people that when you are down,
25:23and you are out, and you are struggling,
25:25and it doesn't look great, then you don't quit.
25:27You fight to the end.
25:29And we could have lost that game.
25:30We could have lost that coin flip in overtime.
25:33We could not have made that two-point conversion
25:35to tie the game.
25:36And I would have been very proud about the way
25:38that we went and finished that game.
25:39Because to me, it was so much about the process
25:43of trying to win, not about the outcome of winning.
25:46You're so passionate about this.
25:47And so many people are about their careers.
25:50And then their careers end or change.
25:54You're now retired from football.
25:55Never going back, right?
25:56You're not going back.
25:57I'm involved in football.
25:58I'm retired from getting hit.
25:59OK, retired from the field.
26:02But how's that going?
26:03You've been posting some cryptic messages
26:04on Instagram that are making people
26:06wonder how your retirement's going.
26:08You're saying Fleetwood Mac lyrics,
26:10the changing seasons of your life.
26:12What season of life are you in?
26:13How's retirement?
26:14Are you OK?
26:14So I basically retired.
26:16Thank you very much for your concern, too.
26:18No, it's naturally for an athlete,
26:22we can't play forever.
26:23And again, I think all those experiences that I had
26:26changed me in a positive way.
26:27And really what I hope to do in the future, which
26:30is very exciting for me, and part of why I do roll out
26:32of the bed still with a lot of excitement
26:34is I get to be around great people that
26:36are doing great things in the community.
26:38We're trying to make a positive difference.
26:39Like I know so many of you guys are as well.
26:42And like I said, there's a physical component
26:45to us being the best we can be.
26:46There's a mental component.
26:47Are we doing the right thing and making the right decisions?
26:50And then there's an emotional component.
26:51How are we dealing with the stresses of our everyday life
26:54that still enable us to get out there and be
26:55the leaders that we want to be?
26:57So I am on other teams now, which is great.
27:00I'm doing broadcasting, which I absolutely love.
27:02It's a huge challenge to go from as an athlete using
27:06your body to kind of get the job done.
27:09And now I got to use my eyes and my voice, which is something
27:12that is very new to me.
27:13So I really enjoy that.
27:14I'm involved in sports ownership.
27:17A soccer club in the UK I'm a part of.
27:19The Las Vegas Raiders I'm part owner of.
27:21The Las Vegas Aces, a women's basketball team I'm part of.
27:24So I still get to really be involved in sports.
27:26And all I'm trying to do now is watch other people be
27:29the best they could be.
27:30I'm trying to watch other people with their goals
27:32and dreams ahead of them.
27:33And how can I impact them in a positive way
27:36based on the people that I've been around
27:37and the lessons that I learned?
27:38And what are you going to do with the Raiders?
27:40They're down 2-7.
27:40You've got some work to do.
27:43I have no comment on that right now.
27:46It's pretty rough.
27:48But naturally, there's a lot of pretty shitty football
27:50right now, in my opinion.
27:52Because you're gone, right?
27:53No, not because I'm gone.
27:54There's a lot of reasons why.
27:55And there's a lot of guys that are gone who I think,
27:58there's a lot of developmental issues,
28:00I think, based on what's going on in college football.
28:03I hate the fact that you can go to the easy place
28:06and try to succeed at the easy place.
28:09And I think in some ways, the amount of money
28:11that's being made in sports and football,
28:15they're not even accountable to winning anymore.
28:18The clubs make so much money.
28:20I know people that just, hey, man, I made money.
28:22We're doing good.
28:23We did win the Super Bowl.
28:24Did you see how much money we made?
28:26And that's a different part of sports.
28:29There's so much money for players.
28:30These kids now are getting paid in college.
28:34So how can you say, hey, is money is the only thing
28:37we value?
28:38I mean, to me, that wasn't.
28:39I always felt like I took less money so that we could win.
28:43So to me, it was like, when I see the NFL in general,
28:46there's a developmental issue.
28:47Because in college, a lot of these players,
28:50they don't have to learn to be competitive in college.
28:53If you're not playing here, just go to the next school.
28:56That's the shittiest lesson we could actually teach somebody.
28:59You've got to find ways to dig deep.
29:01Because the reality of your business and your career
29:04is overcoming adversity.
29:07And the only way to do that is to fail.
29:09And the only way to fail is to put yourself
29:11in uncomfortable situations.
29:13Because you're always in your comfort zone.
29:14You're not going to fail.
29:15So if you fail, and then you figure out
29:17a solution to the people you work with to overcome
29:20the failure, you gain a lot of self-confidence.
29:24And if you gain self-confidence, then the next opportunity
29:27you have to succeed, you've got a much better opportunity
29:30to do just that.
29:32So to me, failure is amazing.
29:35Because it teaches you and really forces
29:37you to look inside yourself about what you need to do better.
29:40I see so many athletes who are always blaming other people.
29:44They ask the quarterback, what happened?
29:45Oh, I blamed the receiver.
29:46I literally am like watching the screen, what did he just say?
29:50I see other athletes blame the coach.
29:52I see coach blame the other guys behind closed doors.
29:55It's the player's fault.
29:57That's all, it's the player's fault.
29:58Oh, really?
29:59You got beat by 40 points, and you had a magical
30:01coaching performance, is that right?
30:04Instead, and then there's other leaders that I see go,
30:07I got to do a better job.
30:09I got to communicate better.
30:10I got to work harder.
30:11We got to overcome more.
30:12We got to practice harder.
30:14We got to do more of the right things.
30:15So to me, it's always pointed back at yourself.
30:17What do I need to do better to help us be more successful?
30:20So I have a final personal question.
30:23How many of you are parents, grandparents?
30:25Okay, you are, yes?
30:26Yeah, great.
30:28When you have had as much success as you have had,
30:31it is sometimes not just overwhelming for you, but for
30:34those that we love around you.
30:35I imagine you cast a very big shadow for your kids.
30:39When you've achieved that kind of success, how,
30:42in terms of motivating them, how do you motivate them to find their own dreams,
30:45do their own successes, to not try and be you?
30:48Because that must be pretty daunting.
30:51First of all, all the parents in the room know that being a parent is probably
30:54the hardest job all of us have.
30:56And we screw up a lot, and I've screwed up a lot as a parent.
30:59So I don't want to seem like I'm some expert in parenting,
31:02because I'm certainly not that.
31:06I mean, I have three amazing kids that I just try to be there.
31:10I try to just be dependable and consistent for them.
31:12And honestly, whatever our kids choose, as we know,
31:15to do whatever they want to do in life, we got to support.
31:18And again, the blessing my parents gave me was when I was that long shot as a kid
31:23who was a backup quarterback on a freshman team, they never said, man,
31:26don't do that, it's going to be too hard, let's do something different.
31:31Let's think about another backup plan.
31:33They kind of said, you know what, go for it.
31:35Whatever you want to be, go for it.
31:37And that's probably my parenting style.
31:40I have a son who's six foot five and wants to play basketball.
31:44Taller than you.
31:45Yeah, he's a little taller than me.
31:46He goes to school here in New York.
31:47He's 17.
31:47And unfortunately, he jumps as high as I do.
31:51But I tell him, dude, you're going to be a stud.
31:55I said, wait till you hit your growth spurt.
31:56You're going to be jumping higher.
31:57You're going to be dunking.
31:59And whether he does or not, who cares?
32:02But I want him to know that his dad's got his back.
32:04And my middle son, to be a boy sucks to be Tom Brady's son in so many ways.
32:09And I try to empathize that with them.
32:11And there's a lot of challenges I faced as a kid, and it's in you faced as a kid.
32:15Allison, I'm sure you've faced.
32:16And my kids, naturally, are going to be faced with their own challenges.
32:19And they've got to figure out how to overcome them, too.
32:21And I'll be there to support them a lot like my parents did.
32:24And I'll be learning along the way right there with them.
32:27Well, thank you so much for your insights, for both of you spending the time here.
32:30And thanks to all of you for listening.
32:32That's our close.
32:36OK.
32:37Am I going off?
32:38Yeah, you can stand right here.
32:40OK.
32:41OK.
32:42So just before you go, sit real quick.
32:46We have a really exciting announcement.
32:47I hope you have all loved this forum.
32:49It's not the end of the forum.
32:50We've done it for 30 years.
32:51We know where our next place is going to be, year number 31.
32:55We have the privilege of having His Excellency, Albert Rashid, up here to announce it with
33:00Fortune.
33:01So please come on up.
33:02Hold on.
33:03But before we do it, we have to do a pass.
33:04OK.
33:05But it's not a handoff, like you said.
33:06We're going to throw it.
33:07So you've got to catch it.
33:08Are you ready to catch?
33:09From me to you.
33:10I'm backing up.
33:11I don't want to.
33:12Ready?
33:14So I did say, in American football, at least we get three down.
33:17So if we drop one, we got two more to catch.
33:20Hopefully I have a high completion rate on first down.
33:22All right, you ready?
33:23Get closer.
33:24Get closer.
33:25How about a little countdown?
33:26A three, two, one.
33:27You ready?
33:28On three.
33:29You ready?
33:30And...
33:31Three, two, one.
33:32Woo!
33:33Yes.
33:34Amazing.