It’s pretty clear that, after Week 4 of the NFL season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are having their best year since Tom Brady quarterbacked them to a Super Bowl win after the 2020 season.
The Bucs new quarterback, former Cleveland Browns star Baker Mayfield, has the team at a 3-1 record — and part of it is because, Mayfield says, the team is having a bit of fun again. That was interpreted as a not-so-subtle dig at Brady, who may have won a championship for Tampa Bay but left after a season of acrimony (the now-retired quarterback infamously had a prickly and demanding way of doing things).
Brady, to his credit, found a way to dig back at Mayfield from the announcer’s booth during the Bucs 33-16 win against the Philadelphia Eagles, adding to his newfound reputation as a brutally honest color commentator for Fox Sports.
The comments about Brady’s last few seasons with the Bucs came during a podcast last week, in which Mayfield said that Brady’s intensity was different from the vibe he brought into Tampa Bay.
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there,” Mayfield said, according to ESPN.
“Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out. … They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football, for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
Brady took the comments in stride — although he did note that anxiety and a lack of joy tends to come from, you know, not winning. (Which, as his record attests to, Brady was very good at winning.)
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings,” Brady said during the game. “There was a mindset of a champion I took to work every day. This wasn’t daycare – if I wanted to have fun, I was going to Disneyland with my kids.
“There’s a way to approach this game and it’s with the right mindset to push each other outside of our comfort zone, and great teammates do that.”
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Wild: Tom Brady responds to claims from Baker Mayfield that #Bucs players “weren’t having fun” playing alongside him:
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings.If I wanted to have fun, I was going to go to Disneyland with my kids.” 😳pic.twitter.com/GDfaCgUdd2
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 29, 2024
Brady went on to say during the broadcast that he had “no apologies” for his approach.
“There’s a way to approach this game and it’s with the right mindset to try to push each other outside our comfort zone, and great teammates do that. You come, I have someone like [Rob] Gronkowski, I have someone like [Mike] Evans — there’s high expectations for us. We got to make sure we go out there and deliver.”
When Brady’s play-by-play partner, Kevin Burkhardt, noted that the former Patriots and Buccaneers QB’s “competitive juices are still flowing,” Brady responded: “Still in there. No apologies.”
Well, whatever the case, Mayfield’s approach is working, as the win over the Eagles — the favorite to win the NFC East — can attest to, as well as the team’s NFC South championship last year. (That being said, they did get bounced in the NFC Divisional Playoff by the Detroit Lions, so make of his success what you will.)
He also said that his comments about Brady were misconstrued, laughing off the “daycare” remark in a post-game media briefing.
“I think a lot of that got taken out of context, and none of it was personal by any means,” said Mayfield, who engineered four touchdown drives during the game. “It’s just what he demanded of the guys, and that’s the aura of Tom Brady. And that’s what he did to bring a championship here.
“Nothing personal, but yeah, talking before the game, he’s obviously happy for me and he knows the guys, so he knows how much I enjoy throwing to Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin] [because] he got to do the same. It’s fun to be able to talk about the same experience with a guy like that.”
“Like I said — some things got taken out of context,” Mayfield continued. “He did it his own way and that’s why he has seven rings. So, not much else needs to be said.”
That being said, after a shaky start in the booth, it’s good to see Brady becoming must-see (or must-listen anyhow) TV staple on Sundays. Dak Prescott found that out after a bad fumble during last week’s Dallas Cowboys-Baltimore Ravens game, in which Brady noted that this wasn’t the sort of thing that happened to him.
Brutally honest Tom Brady was back today, this time about Dak Prescott.
This was comedy. 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/HyJ0ZdThEv
— Pats Buzz (@PatsBuzz) September 22, 2024
“Oh, geez” is right.
And, as for which approach works: Keep in mind that while the Bucs are 3-1 and atop the NFC South again, and that Mayfield is only 29 compared with Brady’s 47, the playoff records do rather speak for themselves.
Mayfield: 2-2, no Super Bowls. Brady: 35-13, seven Super Bowl titles.
Just saying.
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