Tom Brady is the NFL GOAT. And not just because he won seven Super Bowls while building a dynasty with the New England Patriots . After finally leaving Bill Belichick and the Pats behind in March 2020, Brady spent three seasons in Tampa Bay with the Buccaneers - winning his seventh and final Lombardi Trophy in 2021.
He could have joined his new team with a tremendous ego. Instead, a former Bucs teammate revealed a glimpse inside the personality that drove Brady to being the best teammate - as well as quarterback. "Tom had an empty locker next to him," former NFL tight end Kyle Rudolph told NBC Sports .
"I would look over there and every day, guys would put helmets, jerseys, pictures, footballs, all the stuff they wanted Tom to sign for them. "There’d be notes on the stuff, a post-it note on a football — ‘Sign this for Jimmy, it’s his birthday.’ At the end of the day, almost every day, he’d sit there and sign everything.
” Rudolph spent one season with Tampa Bay, catching just three passes for 28 yards in 2022. But he was a 12-year NFL veteran and made the Pro Bowl twice. While the Bucs struggled through a frustrating 8-9 season in 2022, Brady continued to act like a pro's pro and was admired by his brief teammate.
“My experience with Tom was incredible," Rudolph said. "First, the way he treated people. The way he treated the Glazer family (Tampa Bay owners) is exactly the way he treated the janitor at 6:30 at night when he and maybe one or two other guys were the last players in the building.
“If anyone had the right to sometimes be an ***hole, it was Tom. He never was. Think of how tough a year it was for him off the field.
"The most amazing thing to me was, with all the negativity swirling around his life outside of football, he never carried it into the building. Always positive.” Patrick Mahomes is the current high water mark for NFL QBs.
But Mahomes has acknowledged that he has a long way to go to top a living legend who redefined winning at the most important position in sports. Brady caught flak for a spicy Netflix roast , but he was praised for how he treated fans while watching Simone Biles compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics . "Don't say that s*** again," Brady appeared to whisper in Jeff Ross' ear during the roast.
The comedian later appeared on the Rich Eisen Show and revealed that Brady was comfortable with a bold Robert Kraft joke . "He was having fun," Ross said. "Robert Kraft is like a father figure to him.
He was just showing his love for Robert Kraft, and Robert Kraft loved it. "We had a great talk afterwards and he was so happy that I gave him a shoutout and a salute. It was beautiful.
" With a new TV gig weeks away, the world will be watching to see how Brady handles himself when he's back in the national spotlight. Rudolph's rare insight shows that, to many, Brady will always be the GOAT -- and not just because he won seven Super Bowls..
