A Motivational Excerpt From Tom Brady’s Hall Of Fame Speech—”You Don’t Have To Be Special…”

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Excerpt: Tom Brady—one of football’s all time greatest quarterbacks—delivered some motivational FIRE during his Hall of Fame speech… Read it here…

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Tom Brady—one of football’s all time greatest quarterbacks—delivered some motivational FIRE during his Hall of Fame induction speech on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.

He started his speech with gratitude, specifically thanking the New England Patriot fans, coach Bill Belichick, his teammates, his parents, his sisters, his kids, the NFL organization leaders, and many others who helped him throughout his incredible career.

And then, towards the end, he got to this part where he talked about why he would encourage everyone to play football, “for the simple reason that it is hard,” how to be successful at anything, “you don’t have to be special,” and how, “nothing in life of significance is ever accomplished alone…” and it made me want to get up off my butt and do something hard… something 6am, mixed with grit and agony, capped off with something completely and utterly exhausting at the end—hard.

…Just me? Let’s find out.

Without further ado, I’ll skip ahead to the motivational portion of Tom Brady’s speech and turn it over to him. And if it does indeed motivate you as much as it did me, cheers to doing hard things in life… because life is hard… and doing what’s hard is how we train ourselves and prepare ourselves to live our best lives.

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Enter Tom Brady:

I get asked a lot if my kids play football.

My response is that I’ll support them in any of their dreams.

Whatever makes them happy makes me happy. 

I would encourage everyone to play football for the simple reason that it is hard.

It’s hard when you’re young and to wake up in the offseason to go train and work out, knowing that all your friends are sleeping in and eating pancakes.

It’s hard when you’re on your way to practice, weighed down with all your gear and it’s 90 degrees out and all of the other kids are at the pool or at the beach and your body is already completely exhausted from workouts and two-a-days. 

It’s hard to throw, block, catch and tackle and hit kids when they’re way bigger and way more developed than you, only to go home that night bruised and battered, but knowing that you have to show up the next day for just the chance to try again. 

But understand this — life is hard.

No matter who you are, there are bumps and bruises and hits along the way.

And my advice is to prepare yourself.

Because football lessons teach us that success and achievement come from overcoming adversity and that team accomplishment far exceeds anyone’s individual goals. 

To be successful at anything.

The truth is — you don’t have to be special.

You just have to be what most people aren’t.

Consistent, determined and willing to work for it.

No shortcuts.

If you look at all my teammates here tonight, it would be impossible to find better examples of men who embody that work ethic, integrity, purpose, determination, and discipline that it takes to be a champion in life.

We led by example.

Nothing in life of significance is ever accomplished alone.

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MORE: You can watch Tom Brady’s Hall of Fame speech in full here and/or read it in full here.

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