Pushing 50
Tom Brady and me. (And you.) Also, 7 other things worth your time.
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Today we’re going to talk about Tom Brady of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but you don’t need to care about football or sports in order to get something out of it.
Let’s start with some sports history, in no particular order:
In 1980, Gordie Howe retired from the National Hockey League for good. He was 52.
In 1965, Satchel Paige played one game for the Kansas City Athletics. He was 55. But that was a publicity stunt; he’d retired “for real” from Major League Baseball in 1953.
In 1997, Robert Parrish played his final game in the NBA. He was just shy of 44.
In 2006, Martina Navratilova won a share of the mixed doubles title at the US Open, marking her 59th major title at age 49.
And in 1975, NFL kicker (and former quarterback) George Blanda played his last pro football game. He was 48.
I’m rattling off these numbers to put in context the fact that Brady, 44, winner of seven Super Bowls including last year’s with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is now talking about trying to continue to play until age 50.
“I mean, I don’t find it so difficult, and plus in Florida, it’s kind of a retiree state. So I feel like I can play and then just glide into retirement,” Brady said this week. “I think I can, I think it’s a yes.”
A couple of years ago—when Brady had “only” won five Super Bowls but was already one of the oldest players in the NFL, the Wall Street Journal made a smart point about why he was able to continue playing long after most players have to give up.
In short, it was that he changed his style of play over the years:
Brady has adjusted his game to compensate for all the things that a quarterback loses as he ages. He makes up for decreased mobility and diminishing arm strength by throwing the ball quickly and short. He avoids injury the same way, and as a result is rarely hit.
Brady, in practice, is the middle-aged guy at the YMCA who can no longer dunk or get up and down the court but somehow outscores all the people half his age anyway.
Personally, I like that there’s a guy (nearly) my age still racking up big wins in the NFL.
I also like the fact that there’s a smart lesson attached, about adapting your style of play to continue to win as you get older, no matter what your game is.
And while I don’t claim to be the world’s biggest NFL fan, I’ve followed and rooted for Brady since he first came into the league—not only because he was quarterbacking my hometown New England Patriots at the time, but also because he was such a big underdog when he started his career.
“Really thought I was going to need this after the 5th round,” Brady joked a few years ago, when he posted the very ordinary resume he’d put together before being selected (in the 6th round).
So, with Brady as our hook, you tell me. I know we have quite a few readers here who’ve built success and kept at it, often well past age 50. What’s your secret? Is changing your game a big part of it? And what advice would you have for the people coming up behind you?
7 other things worth your time
The game show Jeopardy! has announced that actress Mayim Bialik and previous winner Ken Jennings will co-host the program through the end of 2021. (NPR)
A recently discovered rainbow-colored Australian fly has been named for RuPaul. (The Guardian)
The 2021 finalists for induction into the Toy Hall of Fame have been announced, and the potential new entrants include Cabbage Patch Kids, the Settlers of Catan board game, and that childhood classic: sand. (UPI)
Rising controversial law enforcement tool: “reverse search warrants,” in which police agencies subpoena Google for information on everyone the company tracked in a certain location during a certain time, or everyone who searched for specific keywords. Google revealed in August that it received 11,554 location-based “geofence location warrants” in 2020, up from 8,396 in 2019 and 982 in 2018. (The Guardian)
A new survey says 58% of employees want to work fully remotely, 39% prefer a hybrid arrangement, and only 3% want to return to fully in-person work. By the way, we had really great comments on this exact question yesterday. (FlexJobs, Understandably)
Welcome leading indicator: The battery-powered lawn equipment sector is growing at a rate three times faster than gas, as towns restrict gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and edgers, while the quality of zero- to low-emissions electric landscaping equipment has improved markedly even in the last year. (AP)
Meet the 101-year-old woman who is still a commercial lobster trapper off the coast of Maine. (AP)
Thanks for reading; have a great weekend. Photo credit: Wikimedia. I wrote about this WSJ take on Brady once on Inc.com. Want to see all my mistakes? Click here.
Bill, I realize that this is far too long to post so if you want to cut it, edit it feel free. I’m Southern and can get verbose. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! Needless to say, your newsletter today turned my crank. Just been sitting back waiting for a subject such as this. Brady has been smart. No doubt he’d had the good sense to observe what happens to those who abuse their bodies on and off the field of play and tried to avoid most of those mistakes. Smart move, that. So here is one man’s story of adaptation. I happen to know a bit about it because I’ve been married to Milam for almost 38 years. And yes, I have permission to share.
As a young man, my husband was an all-around jock. He saw athletics, mainly football, as a way off the farm. He was recruited by UNC-Chapel Hill to play football. By today’s standards he was a light load but he was fast and he loved loved LOVED to hit. He played halfback on both offense and defense as was routine back then and had a good enough college career to be recruited by Buffalo, Green Bay and Hamilton, Ontario(Tiger Cats), Canada. Since he had just gotten married he went with the Tiger Cats since they guaranteed him a job in the off season. He made the cut by playing in spite of having a broken ankle which garnered him the nickname “Crazy Horse”. He loved it! The second season rolled around and disaster struck. In their game in Toronto, he moved in to scramble up a play and caught a cleated foot between his neck and his shoulder pads(we’re talking about very early ‘60s protective equipment now). He said he knew he was in trouble when it felt like a blowtorch was burning his entire right arm and shoulder. He was immediately sent to the hospital where it was determined that the right brachioplexus(a large nerve complex, we have two)was partially torn. Controlling the pain though was impossible so they kept him knocked out with sodium pentathol(an addictive anesthetic)until they determined that the best thing for him would be to just sever the nerves feeding his right arm. It stopped the pain but it caused his muscles to atrophy which caused his arm to dangle out of joint. So at the age of 23 with a wife, a baby and another on the way he was, for all practical purposes, washed up. Thankfully, Milam was easy-going and had made many friends in his rather brief stay there so he managed to find employment that a one-armed man could do. He managed a bowling alley-billiard hall where he learned to shoot a mean game and bowl, all lefty. He said many times that that was easy compared to relearning how to shave, dress, and perform his toilet duties. Probably TMI but seriously, think about learning to do everything with only your non-dominant hand.
So this was life for him and his family until 1965 when he heard of an orthopedic doctor back in Chapel Hill who could put Humpty Dumpty Milam back together again. Life began anew yet again. Post surgery was a challenge. Milam had been placed in a body cast from his neck down to where his trunk ends and his right arm stuck out at a right angle and was supported by a rigged up support system. He and his family lived with this for over a year! During that time, he sold real estate while dressed in overalls and cut up shirts, all to accommodate that arm. I didn’t know him then but after I had known him for just a few days I said he could sell freezers to Eskimos. When he finally was able to emerge from the rig out he had endured for so long his doc had put Milam back together alright but told him that he would never be able to do much, his shoulder was thoroughly fused after all, and sweeping a floor would only be a dream.
Well, one should never throw down a challenge such as that in front of a red-headed Scot who relished a challenge. This still young guy had, along the way, developed a love for and a passion fo the game of golf. He had learned to play while in college and decided that if he was going to be living with this “handicap”, by golly he would relearn how to swing a golf club! So, along with learning his new job with the company that eventually morphed into Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, he learned how to play the game of golf all over again by adapting his swing to accommodate his funky right arm. Tom Brady has stayed in a brutal game for a long time by proving his value, working with his coach to see that ample protection was recruited so he wouldn’t get seriously injured along the way. Brady has played smart. Adjusting, making moves and decisions that would end up enhancing his assets.
MILAM would do the same things that would allow him to stay on the course and end up carding a respectable score at the end of the round. Golf was his life saving passion and he made the necessary adjustments throughout his life that allowed him to play up until ill health finally had its way with him. Needless to say, his orthopod was delighted to be proved wrong. As long as Milam lived in Chapel Hill he was welcome to show off his hard won skills. As I said, bad health finally had its way with him but he got joy for over 50 years from being able to do the second thing that saved his life.
Great column today. Work smarter, not harder, is a mantra I will be thinking on.