🏆 Tom Brady & His Magical Winning Ways

Tom Brady showed that his greatest strength is to take his winning habit and spread it among others. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS]( [STORY IMAGE AD]( In today’s FOX Sports Insider: Tom Brady spread his winning habits among others and made his team believe they would win Super Bowl LV ... we take a look at why De’Aaron Fox deserves our attention ... and we are treated to a hilarious clip from the Super Bowl. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t find it amusing, annoying or even particularly motivating how the public, the media, the oddsmakers and your grandmother kept treating them like underdogs in the lead-up to Super Bowl LV. They just thought everyone was wrong. “It was crazy to us that we (were) still underdogs,” linebacker Devin White said after the team’s dominant 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night. “We defeated Drew Brees, we defeated Aaron Rodgers and we still were underdogs. We didn’t really care about what (people) were saying.” Every team tries to foster positive energy and winning thoughts, but the Bucs breathed it and ultimately triumphed because at the heart of all that believing was a system created to turn positivity into actual performance. Not so much a system, but a person. Talk all you like about Tom Brady’s ability to halt the physical clock and still make all the throws. What his odyssey to Tampa Bay really showed is that his greatest strength now is to take his winning habit and spread it among others. [STORY IMAGE 1] Chuck in a similar-minded coach in Bruce Arians and a group of players willing to buy in to accomplish one common goal and you get a triumphant recipe that few from the outside could spot. “All week he made us believe we would win,” running back Leonard Fournette told reporters. “He was texting us at 11 at night saying ‘we will win this game.’ We believed him.” Through Brady getting the conversation rolling – he reminded Fournette how statistically poor the Chiefs were in allowing yards after contact – the rushing group became certain they would have a decisive impact on the game. Fournette came to Tampa Bay after being cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He got the offense rolling for the first time with three straight runs on the team’s third drive and charged for a 27-yard touchdown in the third quarter that left Kansas City in an almighty hole. [STORY IMAGE 2]( During the season, Brady championed the recruitment and the revival of Antonio Brown, who, it must be said, remains shrouded in off-field issues that are deeply troubling. In Florida, Brown has been able to get his football mojo working again and when he discusses Brady, there it is once more - that word. Belief. “Tom is a big brother to me, has always believed in me, took me under his wing,” Brown said. “He helped me get the right perspective.” Brady knows Rob Gronkowski well enough after all these years that he can not only tell the big tight end what’s going to happen, but can tell him to make the life-altering decision to come out of retirement and Gronk will just go right ahead and do it. “This was an organization that was ready to win,” said Gronkowski, who was the recipient of Brady’s first two touchdown throws, with Brown hauling in the other. “It was just cool to see how much talent there was.” It needed guidance. And, perhaps, to be told how good they were often enough that they truly felt it. [STORY IMAGE 3] Heading into the final days before Sunday, Brady told the defense he was so impressed with them that he was glad he would never have to play against them, then told them again, as a group and individually. Then, once it was all done and Patrick Mahomes had been held touchdown-less for the first time in his NFL career, Brady found defensive star Lavonte David and uttered two words. “Told you.” Sometimes in the moment we forget the significance of what we are seeing. Sometimes graphics illustrate it best, like [the one that shows Brady has more Super Bowl wins than any franchise in the league](. The seventh, let’s not forget, coming at age 43 after leaving a serial winner for the team with the worst winning percentage in pro football history. It is a team game and this is a team story, but this was a team with one clear, undisputed figurehead, and they all knew it. There were two must-haves in the Buccaneers locker room as the celebrations kicked in – a selfie with Brady and a selfie with the Lombardi Trophy. In that order. “Big picture, it is about Brady,” [FS1’s Nick Wright said on First Things First](. “Brady coming to Tampa after (the New England Patriots) didn’t want him back, after many others counted him out and laughed at him throughout the year.” [STORY IMAGE 4] The Patriots didn’t believe enough to keep him around. The San Francisco 49ers and some other teams didn’t believe enough to go all out to sign him. Brady believed. He always believes. Seven times now, he has been right. This isn’t a sermon on the power of positive thinking, it is just part of the explanation as to how this happened. Imagine how you’d have reacted if someone told you this eight months ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became Super Bowl champions. Football is an intricate game of schemes and designs and marginal gains. Dive into all those things as deep as you like, for they are fascinating. But amid it all, never stray too far from this. The Bucs won, in part, because of belief. Because Brady had them not just thinking they could, but knowing they would. [STORY IMAGE 5]( Here’s what others have said ... Skip Bayless, Undisputed: “The single biggest reason the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl was that Bill Belichick pushed Tom Brady out the back door in New England. You don’t doubt the GOAT like that.” Michael Rosenberg, Sports Illustrated: “Tom Brady has now won seven Super Bowls and five Super Bowl MVPs, none by himself, though it might seem that way. This last title was the oddest—with a new team, Tampa Bay. In a strange uniform in a mostly empty stadium during a pandemic, against a quarterback who is widely considered his superior at this moment. He did it with the same quality that has separated him from everybody in NFL history: Brady is the master at being as good as he needs to be.” Brandon Marshall, First Things First: “The way Tom Brady won SBLV closes the door on the GOAT conversation forever ... Brady has probably ascended to the GOAT in all of sports.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Super Bowl LV was unlike any we've seen before, played in front of hometown fans amid a coronavirus pandemic. But even though the event's pageantry was scaled back to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols, it didn't lose its luster. [ESPN.com's Jenna Laine]( explains how Tampa Bay and the NFL pulled off a Super Bowl amid a pandemic. - Normally a laughingstock around the league, the Kings are showcasing they belong in the crowded Western Conference playoff race thanks to De’Aaron Fox’s improved 3-point shooting. [Sports Illustrated’s Michael Pina]( explains why De’Aaron Fox deserves our attention. - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rebuilt their roster with several smart moves via free agency, trades and the draft. Those players were crucial for the Bucs in their Super Bowl LV victory over the Chiefs. [The Ringer’s Danny Kelly]( details the Bucs’ offseason moves and how they powered the team’s Super Bowl run. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( This section is all about highlighting the best thing we saw on the internet today, and while there were so many wonderful pieces of content that came across our timeline following Super Bowl LV, we had to go with Kevin Harlan’s hilarious call of the Super Bowl streaker. Go ahead and give this clip a listen, as Harlan delivers an epic play-by-play call of the streaker running down the field. Make sure to pay extra attention at the :30 mark as Harlan drops an unforgettable line as the fan is tackled. “Pull up your pants, take off your bra and be a man,” Harlan shouts as the security guards pin down the streaker. While many fans probably saw this as an annoying interruption, we couldn’t help but to laugh out loud when we heard this call! [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Monday Night Raw (USA, 8 p.m. ET) WWE Champion Drew McIntyre is set to address Sheamus on Monday Night Raw, Ohio State at Maryland (FS1, 9 p.m. ET) E.J. Liddell and the No. 4-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes take on Donta Scott and the Maryland Terrapins in a Big Ten clash. Oklahoma State at Kansas (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET) Cade Cunningham and the Oklahoma State Cowboys travel to Kansas to take on Ochai Agbaji and the Jayhawks. Gonzaga at BYU (ESPN, 11 p.m. ET) Drew Timme and the No. 1-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs battle Alex Barcello and the BYU Cougars. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Super Bowl LVI Winner Kansas City Chiefs: +550 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: +850 Green Bay Packers: +900 Buffalo Bills: +1200 Fresh off Tampa Bay’s 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, it’s time to look ahead to the future odds of Super Bowl LVI. The Chiefs are listed as the favorite to hoist the Lombardi Trophy next season, listed at +550, followed by the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers, who are listed at +850. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are listed at +900, while Josh Allen and the Bills come in at +1200. If you are looking for a long-shot with better odds, take a glance at the Los Angeles Rams, who are listed at 13-to-1 odds. With the addition to Matthew Stafford and a dominant defense already in place, it’s hard not to love the Rams next season. 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