Tom Brady’s influence on the NFL extends well beyond New England.
With Brady coming off another Super Bowl victory in his age-41 season, players can’t help but marvel at the Patriots quarterback’s longevity and wonder whether the TB12 workout regimen is the way to go. After all, the results speak for themselves.
NBC Sports’ Peter King recently caught up with Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who recalled a conversation he had with Brady back in 2010 when New England and Atlanta practiced together. Brady apparently shared some workout advice that makes plenty of sense in hindsight.
“The Patriots came down here and practiced with us maybe in 2009 or 2010, I can’t remember what year it was, but I was having tendinitis in my elbow, and I remember Tom was working out in our weight room right here after one of the practices,” Ryan said. “And I just was in there doing my routine after and just talked to him a little bit about how he was staying as healthy as he could like this time in his career — I was only in Year 2 or 3 — and he was saying, ‘When we’re young, we do all this lifting and we get real tight and bulked up and all these things, and you just hurt.’ He’s like, ‘And now I’m trying to lengthen and be strong but be mobile and all those things.’
“And I remember hearing that as a young player and being like, ‘Man, that makes a lot of sense. He might be on to something.’ And I think the trend has gone that way. Obviously him with the TB12 and their method and everything that he does, obviously he’s doing a great job with it, but I think there’s a lot of guys who are following that mold.”
Both Brady and Ryan have come a long way since that informal chat. Ryan, the third overall pick in 2008, is entering his age-34 season, while Brady, the 199th overall pick in 2000, turns 42 this Saturday. Yet neither has shown signs of slowing down, and Ryan now can act as an elder statesman in passing down advice he learned from Brady to the next wave of quarterbacks entering the league.
Of course, the two always will be linked by Super Bowl LI, when Brady guided the Patriots to an epic comeback win over Ryan and the Falcons. You can bet the latter would prefer to forget that particular Brady-related memory, though, opting instead to focus on the positive interactions he’s had with arguably the greatest player in NFL history.
