Throughout Tom Brady's illustrious 20+ year career in the NFL, there was always a bit of mystery around how he managed to be so good for so long and what he did differently from the rest of the quarterbacks in the league.
Other than being more talented, of course, the greatest of all time eventually shared some of his workout routine, which revolved around pliability, and his diet, which infamously didn't include strawberries, and there were a lot of avocados being eaten.
But anything more detailed than that has remained mostly hush-hush, and we've only heard slivers of what happened behind closed doors from his former teammates, with wide receiver Josh Gordon being the latest to give a peek behind the curtain.
Although he wasn't with the Patriots long, Gordon joined the team at the peak of their final Super Bowl run during the dynasty years, so he was around for a pivotal point in team history. Brady was established as the greatest ever at that point, and he had high expectations for his team and his teammates.
Based on what Gordon revealed, it's clear that saying he had high expectations might be an understatement.
Tom Brady took offseason training with the Patriots more seriously than you could imagine
While appearing on a popular streamer's show recently, Gordon spoke about what it was like to train with Brady during his stint in New England.
He revealed how seriously Brady took his regimen, even having some of his teammates live with him during the offseason so training would be easier and they could follow his routine to get them in the best possible shape to succeed.
If that's not intense dedication, and also a bit scary, it's hard to say what is. But it's not entirely unexpected, knowing just how great Brady was for so long.
“He made us live with him in the offseason. Like train right there, his wife making us food and everything like that. It’d be me, [Julian] Edelman, and [Rob Gronkowski].
We would just do the most crazy routine of like standing in one spot and at least 50 times you just catching one specific pass... Alex Guerrero, his coach, is just holding the gun, like a speedometer for baseball, that was just clocking if it stays at 62 miles per hour.
Meanwhile your hands are just f***ing taking a beating… That’s about the craziest s**t... He’s obsessive, bro. That’s the craziest s**t. When you see how hard people prepare.”
If there was ever an example of what made Brady different than every other quarterback in the league at the time, before him, and even now, this has to be it.
While it's not necessarily a healthy way to spend an offseason that should be when you take a break from football, it's how the quarterback approached the game and how serious he took his job, all of which ultimately led to seven Super Bowl titles during his career.
There's a good chance that had he gone about things differently, the Patriots wouldn't have won six championships during his tenure, and they could look far different than they do going into the 2026 season.
Fortunately, Brady's intensity and dedication are what made New England so good for so long, and we can celebrate six Super Bowl wins for the rest of time, and much of that has to do with the borderline crazy training he did during the offseason.
Add us as a preferred source on Google