Tom Brady has won more Super Bowls than any player in NFL history, and the legendary quarterback says his success had more to do with what was going on between his ears than his ability to throw a football accurately.
During on appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” ahead of Super Bowl LIX, Brady spoke about what separated him from most other quarterbacks. The seven-time champion said his obsession with studying and preparation was his real “superpower.”
“I knew Kansas City’s defense better than they knew themselves. I knew their body movements, the way their linebackers moved, the way their safeties moved. … I knew everything they were doing,” Brady said. “I got out there on the field, I looked up as I was walking from the line of scrimmage and said, ‘OK, they’re blitzing.’ And then I was dealing with it right away. I walked up I said, ‘OK, they’re gonna bail to Cover 2.’ Ball was snapped, Cover 2. I had the answers to the test. That’s where I was great. That’s where my magic superpower was. It wasn’t how fast I could run. It was how fast I could diagnose what they were doing.”
Brady said the ability to diagnose a defense is at the top of the list of attributes that made quarterbacks like him, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees great.
“What’s going on (in my head) is what my superpower was,” Brady added. “That was Peyton Manning’s superpower. That was Drew Brees’ superpower. Those were the guys that I tried to be like. That’s what we did a great job of.”
MUST WATCH on how Brady used film study to win at the highest level:
My magic superpower wasn’t how fast I could run
It was how fast I could diagnose what they were doing
I could figure out what they were doing before they did it
I didn’t snap the ball unless I knew my guys… pic.twitter.com/r97zbuSb0D
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) February 8, 2025
If you made a list of the most physically gifted quarterbacks of all time, Brady would not even crack the top 100. That is why he was a sixth-round draft pick. NFL teams can easily measure how fast a player runs or how much zip a quarterback has on his throws, but the so-called “intangibles” are difficult to gauge.
There has never been a player in NFL history who obsessed over details the way that Brady did during his 23-year career. Since he retired, Brady has been critical of teams for not developing quarterbacks the correct way. The reality, however, is that those quarterbacks have to want to put in the work needed to learn the answers to the test, as Brady put it. Many simply don’t have the motivation, which is human nature in most cases.
