0
0
Brady and Belichick: Super Bowl Psychoanalysis
Getting deep inside the brain of Tom Brady is not easy. He’s tough to
figure out and can close you off if you try to peer too deeply into
his soul. A wall goes up that can’t be penetrated.
So says the psychiatrist of the New England Patriots quarterback.
Brady will this Sunday compete for his sixth Super Bowl ring.
According to the shrink, Brady needs to win football games to make
himself feel good because as a child he lost a touch football game one
day and it made him feel inferior to his opponents. For several weeks
after that debacle, his neighborhood cronies who beat him that day
heckled him for losing. Quickly, they were no longer his cronies. He
has never forgotten that awful day and heckling and uses it to
motivate himself to prepare for football games more thoroughly and
effectively than any other football player ever with the exception of
Jerry Rice.
“Tom is complicated,” said the shrink. “He has to win more and more
football games because of the scar he still has from that touch
football game. I have asked him if winning sixth Super Bowls is
enough, if being regarded as the greatest quarterback is enough, and
he says it isn’t. He wants seven Super Bowls. I ask him how many will
it take to make him happy, and he doesn’t know. All he knows is he
wants more. In my professional opinion, he’s never going to be
satisfied no matter how many Super Bowls he wins, so everyone might as
well get used to him being in the Super Bowl for the next several
years.”
Bill Belichick, the Patriots coach, sees this same psychiatrist. The
doctor has been seeing the coach weekly since he flamed out as the
leader of the Cleveland Browns and got trashed by Cleveland fans when
he said his quarterback, Bernie Kosar, had diminishing skills. The
coach picked the wrong guy to cut and insult because Kosar was beloved
by those fans for making it public that he wanted to play for his
hometown team, the Browns. To this day he is the only NFL player to
admit he wanted to play for this team.
“Bill was scarred by his experience in Cleveland,” the shrink said.
“He hates losing, just like Brady. So he works 90 hours a week
preparing for each game. I asked him why he works so much and he said
‘because of what happened in Cleveland.”
Belichick is notorious for playing head games with the media. His
answers to questions are short and lack substance. At times he can be
rude and aloof during press conferences.
“I attribute Bill’s behavior with the press as something deep inside
of him that lacks trust in certain kinds of people,” said the shrink.
“He has disdain for reporters. To him, they represent all that’s wrong
with the world. To him they are leeches and nobody likes leeches. Some
reporters have burned him by misquoting him or writing nasty things
about him so he’s decided to swing back by not helping them do their
jobs, giving them as little information as possible to write their
stories. He doesn’t care about their careers, how rich their articles
are about the Patriots. He’s chronically indifferent to all of them
and it all goes back to Cleveland.”
Taken together, the shrink says, these are two men who are
exceptionally driven to win to avoid the painful experiences they had
earlier in life. This is all about pain avoidance. Win the Super Bowl
and they don’t feel the pain. Lose the Super Bowl and they become
haunted by that tumultuous touch football game and the city of
Cleveland.
“These two guys cannot be fully understood without exploring their
childhoods and past traumatic experiences,” the shrink said. “All
human beings are flawed and frail at their core and that includes
Brady and Belichick.”
Author Profile
-
Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
Sammy Sportface Has a Vision -- Check It Out
Sammy Sportface -- The Baby Boomer Brotherhood Blog -- Facebook Page
