Man In The Arena -Tom Brady

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This series is not just for American Football fans, but any sports fan. The personal insight into Tom Brady and how he thinks along with his team mates is a real eye opener. He had weaknesses like any other sportsman and had to work harder to overcome those.

I have been watching a series by ESPN on the Quarterback Tom Brady covering his 10 Super Bowl appearances through a personal documentary. I am not a massive fan of American Football, but personal sporting stories appeals to me. I think all sporting stars have something in common that separate them from everyone else and that is total dedication.

The series starts way back in 2001 on the day of 9/11 which was the first day Tom Brady was going to start training with the New England Patriots. This is 20 years ago and due to some great television coverage have managed to make this a real personal documentary on one man. It obviously helped with Brady becoming the big star as the cameras were always on him.

What I found fascinating is I knew very little about him even though he is a household name around the World. Household name to sports fans that is as you would have to be living under a rock to have never heard his name before.

Tom Brady was 6th choice in his draught year so he was not expected to perform as well as his career panned out. Sport in many ways is all about opportunity and what you do with it. The players who have talent and big match temperament will always stand out and in Tom Brady his opportunity came very early in his career.

What I really enjoyed abut this series is it follows his career season by season with personal interviews from the other players in his team the New England Patriots. This is really a personal series digging deep into the many victories and defeats. No one expected him to cope the way he did being thrown into the deep end when their $100 Million Quarterback was injured creating Brady's big chance.

Swear words roll of his tongue from the guy that looks like butter won't melt in his mouth. Funny thing is in team sports this is natural and no matter how hard you try the F word somehow takes over. I don't know what it is when you get a group of guys together but your manners disappear in the language department.

I enjoy sporting tactics and this does get rather intense at points letting you in on how they think. What fascinated me was how ruthless some of the decisions were as it was more about the team than the player. It didn't matter how big a name you were or how good you thought you were as competition is fierce.

We all think Alec Fergusson was brilliant, but the New England Patriots have someone who stands head and shoulders above him. Bill Belichick has been the head coach of the team for over 21 years and has won 6 Super Bowl titles in that time. He started coaching in 1975 and has been involved in the game for 46 years. The coaching part is what made the series as this is where teams were dismantled by the brains trust.

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Bill Belichick is seriously ruthless and comes across as a nice guy who has total control and respect of the players.

The insight into how the team runs was an eye opener with the playmaker ,Tom Brady and Head Coach Belichick meeting every Tuesday for game tactics. How many other sports teams are so organised that by Tuesday they already have a game plan for Saturdays game. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is all about perfecting those moves for that specific team based on that teams strength and weaknesses.

The $100 million quarterback was axed and bet he never saw that one coming along with a few other top players over the first few episodes. These guys were also great players but a great coach knows his team and what he wants. I wish other teams would follow his lead as no one is bigger than the team. No player would ever say no to Belichick as that would lead to packing your bags. One player who was rated as the star in the defensive line up was fired on Tuesday and found a new team by Thursday.

How many teams do we say it is harder to be dropped than to be selected as coaches are too scared to replace a star player. Managers in football are normally responsible for signing top players so we think it would look odd if they never selected them and dropped them. By doing this the rivalry amongst the team mates is just that with heated training sessions getting the best out of the players. In Football we have transfer windows which actually saves players from being kicked out early and this is obviously not the case in the NFL.

I can't tell you what happens as that would be spoiling it for everyone plus I am only on episode 4. I found the series on Cyberflix and is highly recommended by myself. Once you start you find yourself into the next episode as it is addictive wanting to know what happens next. Episodes are 60 minutes long taking you right into the heart of the team.