Super Bowl 55: Best of the best impressed: ‘Tampa Bay's Tom Brady is the gold standard’

Tom Brady was already a member in good standing of the most exclusive club in sports — “The Best of the Best” — before he won three playoff road games to make a record 10th Super Bowl appearance against the Kansas City Chiefs. Ahead of his 10th appearance, here is what eight current and former champions from seven sports are impressed about most by Tom Brady.

Any club with the likes of Michael Jordan, Serena Williams and Wayne Gretzky in the ranks is bound to be exclusive. Its members talk about Brady much the same way the rest of us do. None spilt trade secrets or praised his foot speed. A few pointed wistfully to his longevity or marvelled at how he moved the NFL’s centre of gravity from New England Patriots to Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the middle of a pandemic without skipping a beat. Most mentioned the same qualities — intelligence, leadership, competitiveness — that fans and foes alike attached to Brady a long time ago.

MICHAEL JORDAN (Played 15 seasons in NBA. Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, six-time NBA champion, six-time finals MVP, five-time league MVP, two-time Olympic gold medallist, NCAA champion): “I’ve known Tom for a long time, and to me, his intelligence and sheer determination to win are off the charts. That unrelenting drive is what truly sets him apart from anyone else in the game.”

LEBRON JAMES (Currently playing 18th season in NBA. Four-time NBA champion, four-time Finals MVP, four-time league MVP, two-time Olympic gold medallist): “Brady’s appearance lets me know and lets both of us know that we can still play this game at a high level. No matter how many miles, how many games. No matter how many doubters. No matter the statistics in our prospective professions at our age, we can still dominate our sport. And also, we can bring together groups that we may not have been around for a long period of time. And just our professionalism. We gravitate toward people who gravitate toward us because we have one common goal, and that’s to win and win at the highest level.”

SERENA WILLIAMS (Turned tennis pro in 1995. 23 Grand Slam singles titles, most by any player in the Open Era, four-time Olympic gold medallist in singles and doubles. She and older sister Venus purchased a small ownership in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins in 2009): “The guy is a champion, and I’ve said it since he beat Kurt Warner back in 2001. It was that crazy Super Bowl. He was the underdog and they beat the Rams. Clearly I’m a football fan, and I always thought, `This guy is impressive.’ To do what he’s done outside of New England and to come into Tampa, I mean, he just should have came to the Dolphins, really. Seriously, Tom, what were you thinking?"

"... I was actually talking about Brady’s leadership the other day after watching the game. I said, ‘It must be so inspiring to be either a wide receiver or a lineman for him. or just on the team in general, because this guy has won so many rings, he obviously knows what to do.’ And to have that inspiration, they must be so fired up for every game. Especially the postseason, they must be like, ‘Oh, my God, this is our chance, we’re with the greatest’.”

MANNY PACQUIAO (Turned pro in 1995. Only eight-division world champion in boxing history, member of the Senate in the Philippines): “Tom Brady is an inspiration to me. We are both in our 40s, competing in sports that are dangerous and physically and mentally demanding. But that may be where the comparison ends. What he has accomplished, and is still accomplishing at his age, is beyond anything I can remember. In 2019, I became the oldest fighter to win a welterweight world title. It was hard."

"... I was forty and knew I could not cut one corner in training camp. Run that final mile, crunch that last set of sit-ups, rest even when you do not feel tired — it all has to be done. Tom Brady does that every day. He has no off-season. That takes superhuman dedication and discipline. Tom is always in the back of my mind during training camp and between fights. Because Tom is the gold standard.”

WAYNE GRETZKY (Played 20 seasons in NHL and in WHA. Hockey Hall of Fame, four-time Stanley Cup champion, nine-time league MVP, NHL’s leading career goal scorer and assist producer): “I don’t think it happens overnight. You start thinking about this at a young age, how much you love the game. So I’m sure that at a young age he loved it so much that he was very mature probably for a 23 and 24-year-old. making sure that his training habits, nutrition and diet were as good or better than anybody else."

"... Consequently, he’s done all the right things over 20 years to be able to sustain where he’s at both mentally and physically. That takes a lot of dedication and hard work, and ultimately we’re seeing the results at his age. He’ll have a bad game, which we all do as athletes, and when you’re young, people say: `Well, he had a bad night, bad game, bad week. He’ll rebound.’ When you’re older, the first thing that people want to point to is, `Well, I think he had a bad game because he’s old.’ And for him, that’s not the case. When he has a tough night, which we all do, he bounces back even better the next week and everybody sort of says, ‘Well, OK, I guess he’s not that old.’ I think the proof was that he won three road games in the play-offs, which in football is very difficult to do.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON (Competed in NASCAR for 18 years. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, will be a 45-year-old rookie in IndyCar this season): “His leadership brought out the talent of others. He plays as a team and not an individual. Being humble can help a person cut through layers of adversity, ego, and creates this ability to energise those around you with the same goals — it helps people pull in the same direction. What he has accomplished is a lesson for us all.”

LANCE ARMSTRONG (Seven-time Tour de France champion, stripped of all titles in 2012): “He’s doing something we’ve never seen before. He’s playing one of the toughest games around and what is maybe his greatest strength has been his ability to keep a 43-year-old body as healthy as he has. This has nothing to do with genetics or luck. He must spend an incredible amount of time focusing on this: flexibility, mobility, pliability, and simply put, longevity. The world of sports has never seen anything like him and probably won’t for a very long time.”