When Tom Brady was winning Super Bowls, there was one athlete he had in mind – and it wasn't a football player.
New England Patriots icon Julian Edelman recalled a story of what Brady said to him ahead of the 2014 season as he was still searching for his fourth Super Bowl win, in an interview on the Kelce brothers' “New Heights” podcast
“I remember, it was 2014 right before the season and we had just lost in the AFC Championship [Game] to Denver,” Edelman recalled. “We started training in like, February, and he had the location of the Super Bowl on the whiteboard in his gym. I was like, [expletive] naive. I was like, ‘What is this?' and he's like, ‘We're going to be playing the last game of the year, bro.'
“I go, ‘I'm going to help you catch [Joe] Montana, because this was when he only had three [rings]. He looked at me dead in the face and said, ‘I ain't catching Montana. I'm going for [Michael] Jordan.'
“And the mother[expletive] did it.”
Brady really spoke it into existence 🗣️ @BWWings @TomBrady pic.twitter.com/aNsBa5RtEz
— New Heights (@newheightshow) July 20, 2023
As you might recall, Brady did indeed catch Montana not long after he made that statement to Edelman. He helped the Patriots win Super Bowl XLIX over the Seattle Seahawks in the 2014 season, giving him his fourth Super Bowl win, tying him with Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins for a quarterback at that time.
And Brady didn't stop there. He won again two years later in 2016, helping the Patriots defeat the Atlanta Falcons in a legendary comeback in Super Bowl LI for his fifth title. He finally caught Jordan in 2018, winning Super Bowl LIII over the Los Angeles Rams for his sixth title, which also gave him the most for any player in NFL history.
Tom Brady needed to surpass Jordan though elsewhere. He departed the Patriots and Edelman ahead of the 2020 season, opting to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Unlike Jordan, Brady was able to win with another team and a seventh title as the Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV that year.
Edelman recognized that the team Brady beat that day could have some players who could get on his heels in the future.
“You guys could do some [expletive] like that, you never know,” Edelman said.
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