Tom Brady celebrated a birthday last week. Now, at 43, he remains the most infuriatingly perfect man ever created.
Perfect because he has won more Super Bowls than anyone else in human history and is arguably the greatest quarterback of all time.
TAMPA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 04: Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers works out during a practice at AdventHealth Training Center in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) (Getty)
Infuriating because the American population residing outside of New England is convinced that he cheated his way to the top.
TOM BRADY LEARNING NEW PLAYBOOK, EXCITED TO GET STARTED IN TAMPA
Through force of character and his desire to win a 7th Super Bowl without any help from you-know-who, Brady is forcing the rest of us to reevaluate the definition of the word impossible.
Tom Brady’s example, both to his devotees and haters, forces each of us to consider what in our own lives we might have once believed impossible.
A 43-year-old NFL quarterback still considered to be at or close to the top of his game? And as good as any QB to go under center since the game of football was first created?
Impossible, right?
Hardly.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) waves to the crowd after an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Frank Victores)
Brady wisely surveyed the NFL map and chose a team with strong weapons and a weak schedule. Maybe winning that 7th Super Bowl is not so impossible after all. Maybe there’s something to that pliability stuff he loves to promote.
But what about the rest of us? What does the definition of "impossible" mean in our lives?
In the 19th century, scientists believed that if trains went any faster than 30 miles an hour, the sheer physics of it all would cause passengers literally to disintegrate, due to the high speed.
FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2017 photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates a touchdown by running back Dion Lewis during the second half of the team's NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Foxborough, Mass. Brady’s .774 regular season winning percentage ranks first in the Super Bowl era among quarterbacks with at least 50 starts. With 249 victories overall, including playoffs, he’s won almost as many games in two decades as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won (273) in the franchise’s 44-season history. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
In the third edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, published before Apollo 11 scorched the skies, the definition of commercial impossibility was “A trip to the moon.”
And then along came trains that didn’t kill their passengers, Neil Armstrong taking a giant step for mankind, and Tom Brady, trotting out to the field in an unfamiliar uniform, seeking to make the impossible happen all over again.
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Brady’s example, both to his devotees and haters, forces each of us to consider what in our own lives we might have once believed impossible.
It doesn’t necessarily have to do with exploits on a football field.
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Maybe it’s a personal goal, like losing those extra pounds (some say that COVID-19 stands for the 19 pounds everybody has gained while staying home during the pandemic).
Maybe it means finding a way to make an unworkable marriage succeed. Maybe it means putting down the bottle, or the pills or the powders, or some other bad habit.
Maybe it means ignoring the headlines and reaching new heights in one’s career, income, or job performance. Or setting and achieving a goal that seemed downright…impossible.
There’s a little Tom Brady in each of us -- that desire to reach for the skies, to see what we really have inside us, to prove to the world, and sometimes one key individual in that world (like that former boss back in Foxboro) that we have not yet seen the top of our arc.
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 6: Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen attend The Metropolitan Museum Of Art's 2019 Costume Institute Benefit "Camp: Notes On Fashion" at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
So whenever, and however, the NFL launches its new season and number 12 goes for number 7, we each have to ask ourselves one simple question: what did I think was impossible for myself, and how do I prove myself, and any other doubters, dead wrong?
The good news is that we don’t have to wait for the NFL season to start and pray that it doesn’t end until the Super Bowl is completed. We can go make the impossible happen right now. We may not become infuriatingly perfect, but we have the chance to be better than we ever thought we could be, in any arena of life we desire.
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So what are you waiting for?
As Tom’s former boss, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick might say, “Get your you-know-what on and get out there.”