Original subtitles

Jason Licht.

I'm the general manager with the Buccaneers.

Here's a picture of me on the first day

on the job, my family.

This is my oldest, Charlie.

He's a sophomore in high school now.

Zoe's a eighth grader.

Turns 14 next week.

And Theo just turned 11 a couple of weeks ago.

They've grown up Buccaneers

basically their whole lives here.

Never thought that I'd say that when I got the job.

Never thought I'd be here this long to be honest with you.

I was hired in January of 2014.

And there were a lot of people relying on me

to get this thing turned around.

I wanted to build through the draft.

So that was the first order of business.

Well, this is the draft room.

So this is where all the decisions are made.

We had some good hits.

My first overall pick was a home run with Mike Evans.

We had a good draft in 2015.

Ali Marpet, Jameis gave us some hope.

And in 2016 hit a rut.

So we did a little bit of a deep dive

into what we needed to do to get more Ali Marpets,

more Mike Evans, to hit home runs.

We went back and looked at all of the great Bucs.

Ronde Barber, Mike Allstott, Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp.

God forbid I leave him out.

And we tried to find the common denominator

of what all those players had.

We came up with accountability, competitiveness,

confidence, passion, and resilience.

There's very few players that can hit on

every one of those traits.

But the ones that do,

we consider that type player, "I am that man."

Two days before the draft, we had one final meeting

and looked at all of our draft picks.

And we asked, is he that man?

And as we talked through this,

we wanted to have a player in mind.

The player that we always think of when

we think of these traits is Lavonte David.

He epitomizes exactly what we were looking for.

This is the silhouette that we have here of "I am that man,"

but that silhouette actually is Lavonte David.

Every meeting that we have, is he that man?

Is he Lavonte David?

As soon as we started focusing on this,

there was something special

about what was starting to come together.

The Bucs fell to the Atlanta Falcons this afternoon.

Quarterback Jameis Winston threw a pick six to end the game.

And now one of the biggest questions

headed into the off season for the team:

will Jameis return as quarterback?

Getting together after the season,

the conclusion was

that we just can't win football games

if we're going to turn the ball over that much.

I think Bruce, he did the best he could with Jameis,

but he realized something has to change.

No way to fix that problem.

It just so happened that that year there were

a lot of quarterbacks that were available,

in particular obviously the greatest of all time.

Tom Brady was potentially leaving the Patriots.

Tom Brady?

You think he's really going to leave?

You don't know.

Breaking news right now.

Tom Brady just took to Twitter to announce

that he is officially going to leave the New England Patriots.

It was a 20 year run with incredible moments,

championships, playoffs every year.

Doesn't sound like a decision is expected today.

Perhaps tomorrow will be about where he lands.

In all seriousness, should Tom Brady retire?

Yes, he should.

He won't, but he should.

It's not the same Tom Brady.

Brady has started to decline a little bit.

One of the things that I always tried to do in my career

was watch greatness, and so I spent a lot of time

watching the great quarterbacks.

The first time I told Jason that I was watching Tom Brady,

he kind of rolled his eyes at me

and kind of laughed and walked out of the room,

but I knew he would go watch

because I'd know Jason really well.

About two days later, he looked over

and he went, I just watched Tom.

He's pretty fucking good still.

We felt like we had built a great roster.

We felt like it was on the cusp of

taking us to where we wanted to go.

Shaq and J.P.P. and Lavonte and Mike

and Chris and Ali and Jensen and kind of on and on and on.

We were a quarterback short.

I said, "Do you think Tom would want to come here?"

John Spytek said, "Well, of course."

I mean, you've been building it. Now he's going to come.

We all looked at each other like, "Field of Dreams."

If you build it, he will come.

If you build it, he will come.

So we had decided we're going to go get Tom Brady.

This is Tom Brady we're talking about here.

I mean, that gets everybody's attention.

So we wanted to keep it as quiet as possible.

So we decided we needed to come up with a code term.

We called it Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson.

That's Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Of course it is.

During the legal tampering period,

the first time we were able to talk to Tom for representatives,

we made a call to his agent and said,

"Hey, we're going to be exploring the quarterback market

and just wanted to let you know."

His agent said, "Well, you made the right call."

Holy fuck. This might happen.

He's picked us out.

Tom Brady is going to go shop a little bit.

For the first time in 20 years,

he's going to get a chance to feel people want him.

Two teams of mine that stands out to me

the Chargers and the Colts.

Starting with the Raiders, there's a lot of good young,

talented pieces on offense.

We got Bears and Giants. Are they possibilities?

I think it's going to be a team that

all of a sudden comes out of nowhere

like you didn't even see coming.

Free agency window opens. We called Tom.

Bruce said, "I'm going to take the guard rails off.

"I'm going to let you be you.

"Players like you come around once in a lifetime.

And that's not hyperbole. That's the truth."

Tom started talking about, you know,

"I can still do this."

I said, "Bro, we watched every film for the last three years.

"I know you can still do it.

Do you want to do it?"

And Tom gets a look in his eye.

To me, it was like, "Oh, shit, he's serious, boy."

He wants to prove to the world he's still the best.

Tom Brady, take one.

During the free agency process,

it's pretty fast and furious how it all takes place.

In the end, it was,

okay, who are the guys I'm throwing the ball to?

Mike Evans, my goodness.

Chris Godwin, fire the cannons.

When I saw Chris and I saw Mike

and the talent they had in Tampa,

that put it over the top.

So ultimately made the decision to go there.

If the fans think Bruce was doing cartwheels, he wasn't.

Bruce keeps it very cool all the time.

But he looked at me and says, "Yeah, baby, all right.

Now we're going to win the fucking Super Bowl."

I don't know if I've had a drink taste that good in a while.

John Spytek, he's sitting on his front porch,

and I called him to tell him, you know,

he was waiting there anxiously all day.

I thought, like, holy shit, look what we just accomplished.

We just got the greatest quarterback of all time

to join us.

And I was a little bit tipsy from too much cab,

and I missed a step.

And right now to this day, he's got this hedge,

and then he's got this little bush,

and we call it the Brady Bush.

That bush was a physical marker of all that we had accomplished.

You know, I took the bush down,

and I guess we brought the GOAT down to Tampa.

This is breaking and coming in as we speak.

Tom Brady is expected to be a Tampa Bay Buccaneer.

Good for Bruce Arians and all of that whole coaching staff.

Good for the city of Tampa Bay, by the way.

Great.

All of a sudden, they become must-see television.

You know, I'm on the couch.

I'm eating cereal at the time.

Out of nowhere, my phone was just...

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

The media just blew up with,

"Oh, Tom Brady's going to Tampa Bay."

Words I never thought I would say.

Tampa Bay Buccaneer Tom Brady.

I don't know. That's fake. I don't think it's real.

There's no way, right?

Even hearing from Jason, I didn't believe it.

I'm like, there's no fucking shot.

I text Chris, "he coming off number 12?"

and he said, "I have to. Like, it's Tom Brady."

The fans are lit.

You know, ticket sales are booming.

It's all because Tom Brady's going to be wearing this helmet

come next, football season.

I'm so excited.

We're going to get a Super Bowl now.

I think it really gives the city, you know,

something uplifting and something to look forward to.

What happened overnight to the city of Tampa, to our fans?

Nearly 7,000 fans online waiting to buy season passes.

Ticketmaster's server crashed.

I mean, think about this.

The only other time I've ever heard this happening

is for a Taylor Swift tour being announced.

Everybody knew what Tom Brady was.

You know, everybody knew who he was,

whether they watched football or not.

All the non-football fans in this community

became Bucs fans.

It's a great opportunity for the Bucs overall

for the Tampa Bay area.

We'll get a lot of visibility,

and I think the team will prosper.

When you have Tom Brady,

what you learn very quickly is

all of a sudden, everybody wants to play with Tom Brady.

You know, it used to be your begging people

to come play for the Buccaneers.

When you have Tom Brady, you just pick up the phone

and say, you want to come to Tampa,

and the answer is yes.

A little tired, but Gronk reporting.

Let's get that guy. Gronk, you want to come? Great!

Let's get Lenny Fournette.

Lenny, you want to join the party?

Great!

AB in? Great!

It's like, oh, my goodness, we're getting...

This is getting even more exciting.

Are the new-look Bucs the scariest team in the NFC?

Absolutely, they are.

To say it was exciting wouldn't be to describe it

the effect he had on our team,

and then COVID hit.

The coronavirus pandemic

is bringing life in the United States

to a grinding halt,

and almost every major sporting event is on hold.

We're fortunate enough that Tom decided to come with us.

We were excited about getting him in here,

getting the ball rolling.

Now we can't coach him.

Now we can't meet, now we can't visit.

There was no official off-season.

There was no OTAs.

There wouldn't be training camp for a very long time.

That wasn't going to stop Tom Brady.

You knew he was going to get his guys together.

The word was that he was getting his players together

at Berkeley Prep, private school in Tampa.

When we started seeing these cars drive by,

these were expensive automobiles,

and they were all pulling into Berkeley Prep

right before 6 a.m.

Shout out Berkeley Prep.

Berkeley Preparatory here in Tampa.

We went there at least three times a week.

Schools aren't in session.

Like, nobody is really out.

And so it's just us on the field.

There was like a helicopter flying over

top of the field trying to get footage.

Reporters sneaking behind fences

trying to like sneak footage of it.

We got the first pictures of Tom Brady

working out at Berkeley Prep with his guys.

It was just a way for me to meet my teammates

and begin to share some experiences,

and we experienced them on the football field.

And I knew early on

that I was getting a very committed

group of players, of coaches,

and an organization that was really hungry to be successful.

It was so cool to me that a guy that was

this accomplished was so humble.

He's really trying to figure it out.

Like, he wants to put the pieces together.

He used to have me go down 50 yards down the field

and just launch the ball.

Crazy spin on the ball.

The ball is like spinning perfectly.

It's such an easy pass to catch.

I'm like, so I guess this is what the best is like.

One day after throwing a session at Berkeley,

we went over to the basketball court.

And all the guys that were there,

Mike and Chris, Gronk, were like,

all right, let's mess around and shoot some hoops.

And all of a sudden, I remember someone grabbing the basketball.

I think Gronk just went up and gave it like a two-hand dunk.

And I was like, damn, Gronk,

just a big man jumping up and throwing down

a two-handed slam.

That always gets everyone a little excited.

Then Chris is like, hey, let me see that.

He like bounces the ball off the ground,

hits the backboard, grabs it,

and then throws it down

and just acting like he's Vince Carter up there.

And then Mike was like, no, no, no, let me try something.

And then Mike goes up and under like a windmill under his leg

and then dunks it.

And I was just like, holy shit.

These guys are freaks.

And at that point,

I knew it was going to be a different season.

Our head coach was on board with doing everything that we could

to avoid anybody testing positive for COVID

and interrupting our season.

Oh, God. Thanks, guys.

We took all the right protocols.

We got tested every single day.

When we came into the facility,

we had to wear, like, trackers just in case somebody got sick.

I'm going down the elevator with a media personnel.

It's my first day in the building.

And right when we get to the first floor,

the elevator opens up.

And who other than Coach Bruce Arians?

I haven't met him yet. I haven't seen him yet.

I haven't spoken to him yet.

We had just put up all the signs around the building.

One person on the elevator, take the stairs six feet apart

and the elevator doors open and there's two people on it.

Myself, I did not have my mask on.

And Bruce Arians runs a tight ship.

And I lose it.

"Where the fuck is your mask?"

I'm cussing him out. I'm ripping him.

"You can't read.

"How the hell are we going to beat this virus?

You can't follow the rules on the first damn day."

I felt it. You know, I felt that he meant business.

And I get to go on the elevator.

I say, "Glad to have you, Gronk."

And I hear him say, "Man, is he always like this?"

The funny part is you can't like Tom Brady

if you're not a New England fan.

You can't. All right?

So when he came here, it wasn't about me loving Tom Brady.

It's about what he brought into the locker room.

He carried himself like one of the greats,

but at the same time was a warm, nice, down-to-earth person.

No, there was no ego.

We had a lot of players on this team.

Good players that were starved for success

and to have that shining light, the guy who's done it,

the guy who's been there,

the guy whose will to win is off the charts.

It's infectious for everybody around him.

Even on the business side, he just showed what elite is

and that it's everything all the time.

Every job got a little bit more important.

Selling tickets, selling sweets, the people that cook.

He was a big believer in hydration.

And he would say that you have to drink

half your body weight in ounces of water.

I noticed when he was here that everybody had a giant Stanley

and was filled with water and they were actually

drinking their water.

I was doing the same thing.

Tom's big in emojis when he sends texts.

A lot of hearts, a lot of, you know, this and that.

And, you know, he had sent me a text saying,

center quarterback relationship is the emoji, a key emoji.

I'm sitting in my boxers.

I got crumbs on me because I'm laying back

in my recliner playing video games, eating snacks

and just looking like a total slob.

All of a sudden I get a FaceTime from a Massachusetts number.

Tom immediately just starts grinding me,

talking about how I'm going to have to teach you

how to fold a towel

and put it down your ass and put a bunch of baby powder down

there so when you snap me the ball,

the ball doesn't get to me wet.

Ryan Jensen then calls me back about an hour later.

He said, holy shit, for the first 20 minutes,

he told me how I need to put baby powder on a towel

and shove it down my ass crack

because that's the key to us winning.

I said, what'd you do?

He goes, I'm going to go out

and buy a bunch of fucking baby powder.

Can I wear these?

You really wearing those?

All right, now we're talking.

Like, I can stare right into the sun right now

and see everything.

Don't do it for too long. I need you.

Oh, yeah.

This franchise gave me an opportunity

to see parts of myself

that maybe were dormant for a little while.

Can Gronk dance?

- That's not bad. - That's really good.

- That's not bad. - Edit those out.

My love of playing in Tampa and for the Bucs

brought out this part of me

that I was just wondering if it was still there.

Any games you really love?

Pictionary.

This is perfect. I've always wanted to draw Gronk.

- All right, you ready? - Yes.

One, two, three.

Go.

When they started that damn show, Gronky and Tommy,

hell, I got hooked on it.

That was the funniest damn thing I think I've ever seen.

Thanks, Tom, for bringing me.

I felt like there was a new vibe in the building

and there was this belief that we have a chance again.

It's opening day of the National Football League.

The Bucs hooking up with the New Orleans Saints,

a team we've been playing for a long, long time.

Our first game, we'd go into New Orleans.

We had no idea what to expect.

There was not a car in the parking lot.

And there's clouds.

And I say, whoa, this is some horror movie.

By golly, I didn't know if we'd see opening day this season.

For sure.

It was long awaited, no pre-season games.

We can hear people on the other sideline talking casually.

Everybody's hearing the calls.

- Kings, kings. - Kings!

Throws it down field.

It's caught deep into New Orleans territory.

It took time to get used to playing like that.

Quarterback sneak by Tom Brady.

Did the 43-year-old score? He did! Touchdown Tampa Bay!

The first possession, they drove it

80 yards, maybe 85.

You're thinking, wow, this is amazing.

And then the game doesn't go so well after that.

Fake the swing pass. He'll be sacked.

Got to him just as the ball got there.

We trail 24-14.

That first game, it was tough.

It was really tough.

Quick throw near side.

It's picked off.

Janoris Jenkins, 15, 10, 3, 2, 1. Touchdown.

What was supposed to be the shining point

is this great start to a great year.

We start slow.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be 0-1

after the first game of the season.

And Drew Brees continues to have a mastery

over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Things weren't going our way.

But it takes time. Good things always take time.

Get it.

Brady pumps and throws.

Back shoulder for Evans,

and just like that, touchdown Tampa Bay.

Watching these guys on the field,

they're totally confident.

There is no sense of panic.

They know it was an ugly loss last week,

but they know that this is a process.

Leonard Fournette.

What a gut punch from Tampa Bay.

Tom Brady has been about as good as any quarterback in the NFL.

Bouncing back from a loss.

We were playing some okay ball. We played good in spurts.

Tom used to just tell us, stay the course.

We'll be fine.

Brady throws it for Chris Godwin.

Lunging for that goal line, and he is in for the touchdown.

And we would hit those really high moments

that you saw the potential.

Brady rifles...

Touchdown.

Third and goal.

Tosses.

What a turn here in Tampa.

He threw for 369 yards and five touchdowns.

Oh, perfectly thrown to OJ Howard.

You can't do it any better.

Those five touchdowns went to five different players.

Vaughn...

He gets there!

Tom Brady, still cooking after all these years.

38-31. The Buccaneers get it done.

It was the first glimpse I had of what Tom Brady was.

We've never had that in 50 years

in the starting quarterback position, so it's exciting.

We're underway. Game number five.

Bucks are three and one.

Tried to reach a rarefied air for the Buccaneers four and one.

After that first week, didn't look like it

was coming together quite the way they wanted it to,

but we've seen improvement every week.

The Bears, they were so-so.

They were kind of figuring it out.

They weren't really a complete team.

Brady's side steps,

and down he goes, sacked on the play by Khalil Mack.

Tom is expecting a certain level of play,

and we're not producing it.

Khalil Mack beat the block.

There's a picture of Tom,

and he looks like he's just cussing me out.

He was yelling at all of us, including himself.

Of course, the media runs with that.

You know, there's turbulence in Tampa.

We trail at halftime, 14 to 13.

Leading up to the game, I felt like I was having a good year.

I felt like I was playing more than I ever played.

I was making more plays than I ever made.

The game was making more sense.

Falls is sacked.

That is Vita Vea, who got a hold of the jersey

and did not let go in a loss of nine.

Vita, being in his third year,

had already established himself as one of the best,

if not the best, nose tackle in the league.

Vita Vea just absolutely shut the door.

He was really causing havoc in the interior line.

That's a really good job by those guys up front.

Nick Falls and the Chicago Bears trailing by just two.

We go down to two minute, trying to get a stop

on defense to win the game to get the ball back

for offense so they can go back and score.

Bucs showing blitz, they're coming.

Falls going to swing it out of the left backcourt

by Montgomery looking for a block from Biers.

Montgomery is going to be snagged by Vita Vea, dropped.

I'm thinking I'm making a tackle

and I just feel a pop in my ankle.

Now Vita Vea is injured.

When Vita went down, it was,

I mean, a devastating blow.

I mean, he was obviously playing at a very high level,

and it was a massive injury.

I broke my tibia, and I tore my deltoid ligament and my ankle.

That big presence in the middle, so vital to defense.

No doubt.

In my mind, there was zero chance

that he was going to play again this year.

Here's the snap, the spot, the kick is airborne,

and it is good.

Bears are on top, 20 to 19.

It was a low scoring game,

but the Bucs had an opportunity at the end,

except that they lost track of the downs.

38 seconds to go, it is fourth and five.

Rifle's a throw, ankle plate incomplete!

Broke it up on fourth down.

Breaks up the throw by Tom Brady.

Everyone was kind of running off the field,

and I'm like, it's fourth down, right?

I think he thought it was third down.

And Brady's still standing out there.

I feel bad about the meme of Tom doing this,

because like, he looked to me, and he asked me,

"He's like, wasn't that third down?"

I was like, "Yeah, I think we got another one."

Personally, I thought it was third down.

So I was right there with Tom on that.

This game is over.

The Bears will upset the Bucs 20 to 19.

Alls we needed was a field goal to win,

so I totally fucked that up.

He held up the four fingers.

It sure did look like he forgot it was fourth down.

I mean, I don't know how to answer it for him.

I mean, we all knew it was fourth down.

He saw what he saw, you know?

Oh, that was one of the moments that he was pissed at me.

We just weren't playing the way we were supposed to

be playing that day, and he let us have it.

Well, the Tampa Bay Bucs returned to the practice field today.

They've had plenty of time to go over

last Thursday's loss to the Chicago Bears.

Just like last year, they're among the league's best

at beating themselves.

You know, we're kind of going through over.

We're winning some. We're losing some.

I believe it was like 6-2 at one point,

and hit this low, starting out with the Saints.

He throws wide, wide open.

Smith for the touchdown.

Brees again, great protection.

Throws, and that will be caught.

So that's four TDs tonight for Brees.

We thought we'd have a classic, but it

was a one-man show, or a one-team show anyway.

I don't want to say it's the worst, but it's pretty bad.

38-3.

I mean, I haven't seen a domination like that

in quite some time, much less against Tom Brady.

Sean Payton always had our number,

always seemed to get the better of the Bucs.

Should we be concerned about the Bucs potentially

not making the playoffs?

No, I think they'll make the playoffs,

but I think now this is going to put them in a wild card

situation where they're going to have to go

on the road three times.

New Orleans now, on the other hand,

they've put themselves in position to maybe get the bye.

To lose on a night game like that,

when you can't get anything going, sucked.

Here's the snap.

They want a stunt, Brady Stanislaw.

Throws a pass to outfield.

Intercepted by Fuller at the 30. His second of the game.

The Bucs, for all that was made up about what Tampa Bay is,

it's just a bunch of names.

You got Tom, you got Mike, you got Chris.

You got all these guys and it's supposed to work immediately.

It certainly hasn't turned out to be what we thought it was

based on expectations at the beginning of the year.

The Bucs right now drop to 7 and 4.

Gets a little bit dicey if they were to lose Sunday

because they have Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs coming to town.

I don't think it's unreasonable to think

the Bucs would fall to 7 and 5.

What Coach Moore says, he says, we're in a battle,

we lost the battle.

Count the bodies, bury the dead and move on.

Welcome everyone to Tampa.

We're 10 weeks to the day from Super Bowl 55

on this very field.

Chiefs coming in here at 9 and 1,

Tampa Bay 7 and 4.

No excuses, men.

If you don't make the first play,

make the next fucking three plays, right?

We just came off of losing two out of three at home

and you got the defending Super Bowl champions coming in.

Here we go.

Sling to Hill, and already with a big strike,

it goes for 34 yards.

The Chiefs at that point, they were the top dog, right?

It was kind of like that's the barometer.

Number one scoring offense on display today.

Boy, did they make their presence felt early.

Brady's throwing more balls under extreme pressure.

You see this? Incomplete.

He's in the pocket. He got to get it out.

Dropping to Phil Mahomes, looks downfield.

It's a long ball downfield? Got a receiver in the area.

Caught ball by Tyreek Hill.

Hill for the touchdown.

Tyreek Hill with that 4.2 speed

just beat everybody down the far sideline.

He can't go at me. He can't go at me.

Ooh, we knew Tyreek Hill was fast.

We didn't know how fast.

Down the field, who else?

Hill at the 10, cut back, touchdown, then a leap.

He scored his second touchdown of the game,

and the Chiefs lead 17 to nothing.

What is going on?

Like, he's on a historic trajectory right now.

They can't run with you, boy!

They kind of shell shocked us from a defensive standpoint,

like, whoa, this is unbelievable.

They're gonna score 100 points.

First down and goal from the Buccaneer 8-yard line,

Chiefs lead 17 to nothing, wanting a whole lot more.

Todd Bowles had to give his corner backs

some help over the top.

And he did the unthinkable.

He played cover 2.

Monte Kiffin would have loved it.

Mahomes waiting it out, feels the pressure.

Ball is on the ground, and is picked up by the Bucs.

They make a play, finally.

We turned it up, though.

We got some pressure on the quarterback.

We was able to put Tyreek Hill in check a little bit.

Woo!

I think it was the right decision to play Tampa 2.

First and 10.

Good job picking up the rush.

And there's Gronkowski across the middle.

We all had each other's backs.

We knew we had a solid team that could compete for a Super Bowl.

Going underneath.

Going to Ronald Jones.

High stepping it down the sideline.

Touchdown.

Instead of just throwing in the towel,

we scratched and we clawed our way back into that game.

Our back against the wall.

Every time we step out here, man, we got something to prove.

Prove it, bro.

Keep going, boys. Got to go again.

Keep on now.

Good pressure.

Brady goes deep.

I look up and Tom launched it.

And I'm running as fast as I can to try to track the ball down.

What a throw!

What a catch!

Godwin able to haul it in at 46 yards down the field.

I get up and I'm like gassed up.

And in my head, I'm like,

we're going to win this damn game.

Everyone as a whole ramped it up.

Brady's going for the big boys.

Open!

Evans for the touchdown.

On fourth and three.

And it's a 10-point game.

We can beat these boys, man.

To the end zone, flag out, touchdown Evans.

Get it down to a field goal game.

Did you think you would get to this point?

I mean, this is crazy.

Comes down to this.

Third and seventh.

Bucs are out of timeouts. The first down would end it.

Rolling to the left is Mahomes. Steps up.

Throwing it. Caught.

Who else but Hill?

And that'll be the ball game.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers will fall to the Chiefs 27 to 24.

That Chief game, although we lost,

in some ways kind of gave us a little bounce.

We almost made one of the best comebacks

in Buccaneers' history.

That situation right there is when

you know that the season is not lost yet,

that you know that you can still turn it around.

Well, we learned a really valuable lesson.

We're good enough to beat them, but we can't play this way.

Right after that game,

I said, if I ever played these guys again,

I know exactly what I would do.

Do you want me to make a slight guess here?

I think there's a better than good chance

that these two are going to be here in Tampa.

Wow.

I thought Tampa Bay had a very uphill battle to climb.

Now I think they're in the discussion

after they evolved this offense today.

It was a reckoning that Monday.

There was a team meeting, all players meeting.

We all kind of got up from a leadership perspective

and said, guys, we gotta figure it out.

It's gotta be every single person on this team

that decides our common goal here across the board

is to win a championship.

This was never my team. This was your team.

We'll be as good as you wanna be.

We'll be as bad as you wanna be,

but we're not playing up to our potential.

I don't know what was said in these meetings,

but I do know that Tom and Bruce did get together,

and I think they had a chance

to think through a lot of things.

So we were 75 going into the bye,

and it was really just an unspoken thing

that we just knew that we needed to win out.

There was a surge of energy at the practice field,

in the meeting rooms.

We didn't lose a step from that second half

versus Kansas City Chiefs.

Play great, play your game.

On the gun, Brady throws a deep ball downfield,

to Scotty Miller, touchdown Tampa Bay.

Boom, baby!

And he fumbles a football on the sixth sack of the day.

Everything just kept clicking.

We're at Atlanta.

We got up to a pretty rough start,

and we weren't playing with much energy.

It's Ryan going to the end zone.

It is caught for the touchdown.

What a start for the Falcons.

We went out in that second half,

and we played our ass off.

Brady got a receiver open, touchdown Tampa Bay.

The very first conversations I had with Tom

during training camp, he said,

hey, listen, we're going to go through some struggles

until we all kind of find our groove.

He's going to be sacked, dropped my Devon White.

He said, I don't see us hitting it until

about three quarters way through the season,

but I do see us winning the Super Bowl.

Victory, when it looked like there was no chance.

I kept that in mind the entire season.

Those weeks of those extra side meetings,

those extra walkthroughs,

it didn't show up right away.

It showed up later in the season.

Mike Evans, he gets the separation and the score.

Let's go!

What a great grab, Chris Godwin.

We went to Detroit, kicked their ass.

Brown will score a touchdown Tampa Bay.

We finished with Atlanta again.

We kicked their ass again.

Mike Evans becomes the first NFL player

to record a thousand yards or more in his first seven seasons

and what a throw by Brady.

We went on a run.

We won the final four games in the regular season.

Wants to go deep and for Godwin.

He hangs on, inside the 10, Chris Godwin.

Three, touchdown Tampa Bay.

This is the kind of performance I think Bruce Arians wanted

to give his team ready for the playoffs.

So, earlier in my career, I never sniffed the postseason

and on the cusp of playing on my first postseason game.

I'm teed up about it, I'm gassed up.

That's my first opportunity to play in the postseason

as it is a bunch of my teammates.

We knew we were gonna be going on the road

because we were a wildcard team.

We knew it was gonna be tough, but we knew that our roster

and the way that our guys competed,

we would have a chance no matter who we played.

Earlier that year, there was a point where Leonard Fournette

was unhappy with his role.

He wanted the ball more like all good players do.

Leonard had been the number one guy everywhere he'd been.

And for him to be the number two guy,

I could tell how hard it was on him.

When you took him off the field,

I mean, it just crushed his soul.

When I got hurt, I mean, that didn't make it any better.

Another frustrating moment for me.

I had to wait five games,

really not playing, really not getting the ball.

He was starting to sulk a little bit.

The attitude was starting to get a little,

little cancerous within the locker room.

I had one rule, no bitching.

Bitching is when you're complaining to somebody

they can't fix the problem.

So Bruce came to me and said, he wanted to cut Lenny.

I talked Bruce into having one last chat with him.

He was sitting on a cooler,

back in the back during walkthrough.

I drove my golf cart back and I said,

"Bro, either you're in or I'm cutting you.

"Call your agent, call whoever you gotta call.

But you come back out here, you're engaging, you're in."

Coach BA told me he felt like I needed to get my mind right.

He felt like I mentally wasn't there

and truthfully I really wasn't.

He was like, "Man," you know, "Stop pouting.

You got it, you got everything a player needs."

He came back out, "I'm in."

I watched the meeting happen out of my window.

They talked for about 30 seconds

and then Bruce called me and he said,

"Me and Lenny, we good."

So we didn't cut Lenny.

And Playoff Lenny was born.

The Buccaneers at the playoffs for the first time

since 2007 against the Washington football team.

Ronald Jones came into this game on the injury report

and we are told he is questionable

with that quad injury.

We get to DC, Ronald Jones cannot play

and we start leaning on Leonard.

In that game, Leonard Fournette ran the ball with urgency

and with intent to punish.

When it came down to the playoffs,

he just like found another gear.

Tom trusted him more than anybody else at the time.

They had a good thing going.

We all know how important the run game

is to establish everything else.

From the pass game to set that up.

Third and three, Brady to his second look.

It's open, it's Antonio Brown for the touchdown.

Hand the ball off and Fournette stutter steps,

touchdown Tampa Bay.

Yeah!

Bucs win!

It had been 18 years since we won a playoff game.

We kind of, I would say, squeaked it out,

but you go on the road in the playoffs

and any game feels good to win.

Let's go! Let's go!

And it was the first step in the journey.

We hadn't won a playoff game in decades.

So to win that game and reset everything

and go back to zero here, that was a big deal.

It was a big deal.

Bruce and I have a standing meeting

throughout the season on Thursday afternoons.

I know that there were COVID rules and things,

so we sat 10 feet apart in his backyard

and had drinks just to hash things out.

It's the best meeting that we could ever have

because it got him relaxed.

It wasn't in a boardroom. It wasn't in an office.

We just let it fly.

After he had a couple cocktails, he said,

this is the game that scares me the most,

this New Orleans game.

It's finally here, this match up

between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints.

Tom Brady and Drew Brees.

That's Tom Brady and over the last five games,

he's playing some of the best football of his life.

It took some time.

They went through a lot of growing pains,

but they've gotten here to the divisional game

playing their best football.

The Saints killed us in week one,

taken it away, scored enough turnovers.

Same thing in the embarrassment loss in week nine.

At that time, we were healthy. They were healthy.

It was going to be a knockdown drag out.

Sitting there talking in B.A.'s backyard,

Bruce said...

The winner of this games going to win it all.

Toss to Kamara.

And a good run.

Drew Brees and the Saints are in business.

Knocks it through from 42.

Obviously, what's at stake is a trip to Lambeau Field

next Sunday for the NFC championship game.

We got to get these guys, you know,

can't lose to them three times that year.

Everybody knows it's Drew Brees's last rodeo.

He's going to retire at the end of the year.

So we knew that that team was going to do everything

that they could to beat us.

Ready!

Brees, here's the snap.

We sense the blitzing linebacker.

Naturally, I'd say off the field,

I could be a very kind, nice person.

But when it comes to football,

I had to create enemies on the other side of the ball.

Brees flushes to his right, intercepted by the Bucs.

And if I was playing today,

I'd want to go slice those motherfuckers' throats,

every single one of them that I'd play.

From the three, Brady throws.

Pass caught, Evans touchdown.

Tampa Bay, on top.

I think we all had a little bit of a chip on

our shoulder in that game.

I think we played a little hungry,

hungrier than we had been.

Brees to the sideline and Jameis Winston comes in.

How about this, former Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback?

We saw when Jameis came into the game,

there was something strange that was about to happen.

Well, now they've got Winston lined up wide

to the outside in a direct snap.

They hand it to him. Reverse goes to Jameis.

When they ran the trick play, the throwback,

it seemed like time stood still.

Downfield wide open receiver, caught ball at the 20,

inside the 10 to the 5, and it's Tre'quan Smith.

It's like, holy shit,

this guy that I just released,

this play is going to be the play

that puts the dagger in us

and ends our hopes of winning Super Bowl

with the greatest of all time at quarterback.

That throw got us the lead,

and we think we about to roll off

with another win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,

but it's always tough to beat a team

three times in the same year.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers trailing by seven.

We need a takeaway here.

It looked like New Orleans was going to score,

and Drew Brees was going to have another Drew Brees moment,

and along comes Antoine Winfield.

Back in 2009,

my dad played New Orleans in the NFC championship game.

Unfortunately, he lost, but I remember after the game

seeing him cry and how passionate he was,

and I was like, wow, he really loves his game.

I remember thinking one day I want to be able

to get to that point.

He wanted to win because he hasn't won a Super Bowl

in his entire career, so in that moment,

I was like, I want to be able to win a Super Bowl.

Third down and two, quick throw,

Cook makes the catch first down, balls out.

The ball's out, and it's picked up by Tampa Bay.

Antoine Winfield Jr. strips the ball,

and the whole momentum in this game shifts.

It's a takeaway by this defense

after Winfield, the rookie forced the fumble.

Good protection again, pass caught, touchdown Fournette.

Buccaneers turned that takeaway into the game tying touchdown.

That gave us a lot of energy, and everybody on the sidelines

knew we could win that ball game.

Turnovers now for the Saints have been really costly.

Second at eight, Brees throws,

and he's picked by Devon White.

Another turnover, and White picks his way down the sideline.

Quarterbacks waiting to get in.

Touchdown, Tampa Bay.

And the Buccaneers are almost in the NFC Championship game.

In fact, I think I'm going to call it.

We had not beat them in a long time.

They were the bully, and we found a way to bully them back.

That's my state, man. I run this shit, man.

Come on, man. I run Louisiana, man.

Tell them, this the vice president.

I'm the president of this shit, man.

Tom Brady, good job, man.

Good job, man. Yeah, good job, man.

What do you think you're doing, intercepting all those passes?

Come on, man.

Hey, NFC championship. Here we come, man.

He is not one of them. He is not one of them.

Can't say I've ever been more proud of a group of guys

coming out of a locker room

than walking to those buses in New Orleans.

Tom, he comes to the locker room and says, "We got his ass!"

Talking about Drew Brees, and after the game is over,

we're all getting ready to go on to the buses,

fly back to Tampa,

and he's out there playing catch with Drew's son.

To me, it was just kind of like a savage kind of moment,

that competitiveness.

When we're on the field, we're enemies.

We're going to do everything we can to beat you

and not let you win.

And then after the game,

he's out there playing catch with his sons.

I remember walking off that field thinking, "Holy shit,

we're in the NFC championship game."

And not only that, but we did it against a team

that had been a thorn in our side for a long time.

So we had to win a playoff game one,

which proved to be kind of a tough game in Washington.

Then we had to go to New Orleans

and beat New Orleans and Drew Brees.

Now we're going to go play Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.

It was murderer's row.

I don't think we would have had it any other way.

It's not going to be easy, but this team can win it all.

Let's go for this.

Let's no risk it, no biscuit.

Tom Brady, take two, Mark.

Yep.

Single greatest buccaneer of all time.

How could we just do one?

I would just say Mike Evans.

Consistently performing at the highest level,

All-Pro champion, selfless, does great things in the community,

never disappointed in anything he's ever done.

And I love him like a brother.

And I think we share so many great experiences together.

And I loved every single day out there with him on the field.

He blew my mind every time I played with him.

I was here for a short time for about two years,

but I learned, you know, plenty about the Tampa Bay buccaneers

and their history and the players

that played here before me.

And I would say the greatest Buc of all time,

it kind of reminded me of myself,

but even to another extent,

was Mike Alstott.

Just the way he ran that ball,

just the way he sacrificed his body,

just the way he took out defenders.

And it's not just talent that made him so great.

It was his mindset that made him even greater,

because you got to have that mindset to run full speed

at another NFL player sitting there at 260 pounds

at the middle linebacker position

and moving him backwards.

And Mike Alstott did that, play in and play out.

And I would say he's the greatest

Tampa Bay buccaneer ever because of that.