Tom Brady proved in the 2020 NFL season that he does not need to abide by the "Patriot Way" in order to reach the league's mountaintop.
Brady's first season in Tampa Bay went about as well as he could have imagined, despite a handful of factors working against the veteran quarterback and his new team. Brady helped halt a playoff drought in Tampa Bay that had extended over a decade and the Bucs ultimately won Super Bowl LV after winning three road playoff games.
Ironically enough, Brady's first head coach in his post-Patriots tenure seemingly is the complete opposite to Bill Belichick. Bruce Arians is an offensive-minded head coach who never has been one to be tight-lipped -- a stark contrast from New England's longtime head coach. But Brady clearly likes working with Arians, who helped make the seven-time champion realize there is not an exclusive method to putting together a Super Bowl-winning season.
"He's a great motivator -- he's got a great feel for the team -- a great pulse for what's going on in a locker room, great intuition, great evaluation of talent," Brady said on ABC, as transcribed by "Good Morning America." "When you're in one place for 20 years, you think that's the only way, and I think when you go to a different place you realize, 'wow -- there's another way that people do things.'"
The Bucs now have a clear-cut Super Bowl blueprint and they're set to return all 22 starters from a season ago. Tampa Bay, in turn, has every reason to be supremely confident entering the 2021 season, but Arians apparently is going to make sure his team doesn't veer into complacency.
