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The accolades for Tom Brady and the Bucs aren’t quite over yet.
On Saturday night at the annual ESPY Awards Show hosted by ESPN, Brady won Best Male Athlete after a remarkable 2020 season. The 43-year old left the Patriots after 20 years and did what many thought was impossible – turning around a 7-9 football team and leading them to a Super Bowl win over the Chiefs.
To make the feat even more unbelievable was the fact Brady did so in a worldwide pandemic that completely shut down the 2020 NFL offseason and preseason.
Bucs QB Tom Brady and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes – Photo by: USA Today
Brady, who was named MVP of the Super Bowl played at Raymond James Stadium last February, set a franchise record for most TDs by a Bucs QB in a season (43) and led Tampa Bay to victories on the road against Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers on the way to his seventh Super Bowl ring.
In the regular season, Brady threw for 4,633 yards on 401-of-610 passing with 40 touchdowns through the air, three more on the ground and just 12 interceptions. Brady added another 1,061 yards in the playoffs with 10 touchdowns and three interceptions.
It didn’t take Brady long to start thinking about 2021 as he texted assistant coach Clyde Christensen the very next morning after beating the Chiefs.
“I bet it was 8:30 [a.m.], we’d been out all hours of the night and had all the grandkids in the bed, and got a FaceTime from him at 8:30,” Christensen said. “Basically the message was … he said ‘Hey, I just been sitting here thinking about [how] we can really be a lot better next year, we still haven’t hit our peak and I really believe we got a chance to be much, much, much better this year.
“His quote, or close to a quote was, ‘Hey, I’m gonna get my knee fixed up and I’m gonna be better next year and you’re gonna be excited about that.”
This was the first time in Brady’s illustrious career that he has won an ESPY for Best Male Athlete. He was nominated three times before, but had never won.
Following the Super Bowl win, Bucs head coach Bruce Arians joined PewterReport.com and talked about the impact Brady had on the team that helped make them believe they could win it all.
