Tom Brady gave a lot of interviews and press conferences throughout his 20-year career, all the details about his quarterback and personal life are covered, but there are things about Brady that have been lost in time or almost nobody paid attention to it back then.
McConaughey is nothing more than a football fan, a movie actor who likes to watch the NFL and everyone remembers him as Ed Pekurny (Edtv), that normal life guy who was followed everywhere by a reality show crew. But in 2012 he had a rare opportunity to interview Tom Brady.
The interview was focused on football, little was said about Brady's personal life, but McConaughey insisted a lot on the mental part, how a player can dominate his mind to play better and what are the worst and best moments in football.
Tom Brady 2012 interview by Matthew McConaughey: Key points.
The content was shared by Interview Magazine on January 27, 2012 a few weeks before Super Bowl XLVI, the Patriots lost that Super Bowl against the Giants in another big upset against Eli Manning.
1. McConaughey asked Brady what he did in his free time before the Super Bowl to which Brady replied that he didn't know what to do with all that free time.
2. One of the biggest questions of the Interview was when McConaughey brought the mental toughness subject into the conversation by asking Brady if that came into play. After praising Belichick, he referred that mental toughness really means competitiveness saying that the best players are not those who have the best talent but those who are not talented show the highest competitiveness to stand out in a team.
“...A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don’t ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren’t blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart…”
3. Brady and McConaughey went on to talk about the talent topic and the lack of competitiveness of talented players, and Brady replied back that the most talented players can’t push themselves further to be better, but rather realize when their pro career starts and they must compete against other players with the same talent and at that point it's too late.
“...You go through high school and college the same way: never listening to your coaches because you’re the best. But when you get to the pros, all that stops because everybody there has talent…”
4. Brady tried to send a message to college football players during the interview when McConaughey said that the jump from school to the NFL is hard, to which Brady went on to say that the college players who become true football pros are the ones who learn how to manage their responsibilities.
5. Another important point that Brady made during the interview was when he answered the question about how much he plays to win versus playing not to lose. He said “...The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win. I'd like to think that is my team's approach…”
6. McConaughey asked a question about Brady’s best moments playing football, and the quarterback said that during those days he could see things before they happened, as a kind of trick to slow down the game in his favor.
“….I can see the things before they happen, and if you know what’s going to happen, boy, you can really slow the action down for yourself….”
7. On the worst moments in the playing field Brady said that after an interception he feels beaten up and those games are related to the loss of confidence.
8. The interview featured a funny question from McConaughey that made Brady reveal what happens at the bottom of a fumble pile, and Brady –laughing– told Matthew: “... Aw, man, I tell ya, I 've had just about everything punched. I've had things grabbed that just shouldn't be grabbed..."
9. The interview ended with the first question topic, but this time McConaughey commented that he knew what it meant to be an NFL player since his father played pro football and that what separates players from one another is the physical toughness. Brady answered that last question saying how hard the first day of practice can be and how he has noticed that players who play with pain are the first to hold up for the team, to which he referred “That's mental toughness .”
Source: Interview Magazine
