A Season in the Sun Read online

  Dedication

  For my beautiful kids, Lincoln, Autumn, and Farrah. Know that daddy loves you, always.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Foreword by Bruce Arians

  Chapter 1: Tampa Bay Scheming

  Chapter 2: Endings and Beginnings

  Chapter 3: The Arrival

  Chapter 4: A Training Camp Unlike Any Other

  Chapter 5: Making History—On a Coaching Staff

  Chapter 6: Brady’s Struggle—On and Off the Field

  Chapter 7: A Gem Washes Ashore in Tampa

  Chapter 8: The Mastermind

  Chapter 9: Learning and Growing

  Chapter 10: The Turning Point

  Chapter 11: A Man Named Tom in Full

  Chapter 12: The Conquering of Quarterbacks

  Chapter 13: Super Bowl LV

  Chapter 14: The GOAT Boat

  Chapter 15: The Work Begins Again

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Index

  Photo Section

  About the Author

  Also by Lars Anderson

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Foreword by Bruce Arians

  I don’t think the beautiful reality of it truly hit me until we were cruising down the Hillsborough River during the victory boat parade. I was holding the Lombardi Trophy when, all of a sudden, “We Are the Champions” blasted from a speaker. With the song by Queen thumping on my chest, my eyes welled with tears. That’s when I fully embraced it. We were the NFL champions of 2020. This book by Lars Anderson, who I have known and trusted for years, vividly tells the story of this very special season.

  For me, the proudest part of the year was the collective job the players and the coaches did in beating COVID. The commitment they made, all those young guys, was incredible. All they did was go to work, go home, go to work, go home. We had only two players test positive for the coronavirus—that was unbelievable. Then we advance to the Super Bowl and safety Mike Edwards tests positive. Guess what? It was Mike Edwards Sr. They didn’t check the birth certificate and it was Mike’s dad. Nearly gave me a damned heart attack. I’ve never seen anything close to the challenge we all faced because of COVID. We had to meet differently, we had to eat differently, we had to practice differently. I kept telling the team, “Don’t be the guy that screws up.”

  By about the middle of September, I told the players I was tired of being the head of the mask police, walking through the locker room and telling them to get your mask on. I emphasized that the guys either had to grow up and make a commitment to each other, or this wasn’t gonna work.

  Then the veteran guys took over. From that point on, I never had to say another word. The same thing happened after the loss in Chicago. I’d been bitching about penalties for twenty games. Why did it stop? Because they finally had enough. That game turned my stomach.

  Of course, you can’t say enough about Tom Brady and what he did for our entire franchise. What I learned is he is one hell of a teammate. You see the glitz and the glamour, you already know he’s a leader, but I didn’t know he would take a young guy aside and say, “You don’t know how to take care of your body.” When our great second-year linebacker Devin White didn’t make the Pro Bowl, Devin was devastated. It was Tom who told Devin, “Hey, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.” He got Devin out of the funk.

  Tom reads his teammates so well. When we signed Tom as a free agent, linebacker Lavonte David approached me and said, “Coach, ain’t no doubt we’re gonna win.” Lavonte is one of my main guys in the locker room. He said he could feel a difference in confidence the moment the team stepped onto the practice field for the first time with Tom. We just had to stay healthy.

  I’ve got to give our owners so much credit. The Glazers took a chance on me when they hired me in 2019. It wasn’t like I was this young up-and-coming thirty-something offensive savant—this seems to be what most owners are now looking for when hiring head coaches. At the time I was sixty-eight. But I had a proven track record—I’d twice been named the Associated Press Coach of the Year—and I had a plan. Put simply, they believed in me. I cannot express the gratitude I and my family have for the Glazer family.

  My assistants—and trust me, there are at least five guys who will one day be head coaches on this staff—are family. They did a great job with all those Zoom calls during our virtual offseason and then during the season. I cannot teach over Zoom. I didn’t do a single Zoom meeting the entire time, but our coaches were great in developing our young players.

  I always go back to our staff because I wouldn’t have taken this job if they weren’t available. People don’t realize how good this staff is. Byron Leftwich gets absolutely no credit as offensive coordinator because they give it to me and Tom. But Byron put our game plan together with the rest of the offensive coaches. I’ll have my hands in it. The job he did with Tom was unbelievable.

  Tom had learned a certain way for twenty years. Byron and I coached a totally different way. Tom was trying to understand our playbook and how we coached while we were busy blending our offense with the things he was most comfortable doing. In other words, we had a lot going on. But Byron did a wonderful job of working with Tom. Byron should be on the short list for any general manager looking for a head coach in 2022.

  Todd Bowles, our defensive coordinator, has a hell of a track record. He was named the league’s Assistant Coach of the Year when he was with me in Arizona. He’ll be a head coach again, especially after his masterful game plan in the Super Bowl that shut down the Kansas City Chiefs. I’ve known Todd since he played for me at Temple, and he’s the defensive version of me: aggressive, risk-taking, and absolutely fearless.

  I knew developing our young players would be huge. In 2019, I told the Glazers I wanted to have a large coaching staff. I said we were going to have two practices going at the same time in the spring. I wanted the veterans on one field, the young players on another. So when they got to training camp, they were ready to go. The Glazers let me have the staff I wanted.

  Mike Caldwell (inside linebackers coach) was with me in Arizona, Nick Rapone (safeties) coached for me at Temple. Kevin Ross (cornerbacks) and Todd both played for me at Temple. Kacy Rodgers (defensive line) was with Todd when he was the head coach of the New York Jets. Joe Gilbert (offensive line) was with me at Indy. Keith Armstrong (special teams coordinator) was a captain for me at Temple. Larry Foote (linebackers) played for me at Pittsburgh and was on my staff in Arizona. I hired Cody Grimm as a defensive/special teams assistant; he is going to be a hell of a coach. Even before they arrived in Tampa, all of those defensive coaches knew the playbook. This is a family. We are a family. Nobody’s gonna stab me in the back because the rest of them would kick his ass.

  We found a gem in Thaddeus Lewis, a former NFL quarterback who played at Duke. This kid’s gonna be a star. He was a coaching intern with us last year and now he’s going to be an assistant wide receivers coach. The NFL needs to do a better job of giving minority coaching candidates chances, and the internship program that I’ve promoted has given so many guys like Byron and Thaddeus that chance. This needs to be a league-wide policy.

  We have a lot of diversity on our staff and that’s no accident. It starts with the Glazers. They believe strongly in it, obviously, with Darcie Glazer Kassewitz being a co-owner with her brothers. On our staff we have age differences (one of our offensive consultants, Tom Moore, who has been with me forever, is eighty-two and is one of my most trusted confidants), racial differences, and gender differences. We’re the only team with a Black offensive coordinator (Leftwich), a Black defensive coordinator (Bowles), a Black special teams coordi
nator (Armstrong), and a Black assistant head coach (Harold Godwin). All four of these guys should be head coaches now, and I can’t emphasize enough that we wouldn’t have won the Super Bowl without the contributions of each and every one of my staff members. Loyalty is huge to me—it’s honestly more important than money—and these are some of the most loyal men I’ve had the privilege to be around. By my side through this special season was Mike Chiurco, the assistant to the head coach, who is another one of my most loyal dudes.

  We are also the only team in the league with two full-time female staff members: Lori Locust, our assistant defensive line coach, and Maral Javadifar, our assistant strength and conditioning coach. Women teach in different ways and football’s nothing but teaching. Back in early 2019 I went to speak at the University of Alabama–Birmingham (UAB) and bumped into Joe Pendry, who I once coached with at Kansas City. He asked me if I was looking for a female coach and said he knew a great one. He then put me in touch with Lori, who we brought in for an interview. She was a student when I coached at Temple back in the 1980s and she knows all my guys—we jokingly call our staff “Temple South.” She fit in right away. The coaches love her. Ndamukong Suh loves her. And everyone feels the same way about Maral Javadifar. I swear she must have eight degrees, and as soon as the players realized she knew her stuff, it was like the issue of gender just went away.

  I’ve got to give Jason Licht, our general manager, a ton of credit. First of all, they don’t have me coaching in Tampa if Jason isn’t here. I worked with him before in Arizona and he’s a great evaluator of talent. He knows how to get coaches and scouts to work together. I thought we killed it in the draft that first year (2019), and in free agency we landed Shaq Barrett. That ain’t bad. We didn’t know how good Shaq would be, but we knew we had a slippery dude. Then we signed Suh, then we drafted Devin White in the first round. This doesn’t happen without Jason. I trust him totally. He knew our staff and knew what our guys were looking for.

  I’ve stepped back a bit from some of the multiple roles I used to take on as head coach—namely, those of offensive coordinator and play caller—and it’s been fun. The negative is that I love calling plays. I trusted Byron and probably wouldn’t have taken the job if he wasn’t available. Now, I get to be around our defensive players more. I probably watched more college tape than I’ve ever watched and I talk to Jason all the time.

  Stepping back also helped me be on top of the mood of our players. I don’t allow pouting and I don’t allow bitching. You want to light my fuse? Just show bad body language on the field. I quickly give you two choices: change or ask me to cut your ass.

  * * *

  Going into the draft in April 2020, we loved offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa and safety Antoine Winfield from Minnesota because they were high-character, mature guys. Tristan got a rude awakening from defensive ends Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett in training camp. We had to tell them to let Tristan win now and then. In camp, he was overwhelmed, but they saw how good he could be and our defensive players started coaching him. Things like, “When you put that hand over there, I’m gonna do this to you.” They helped his development as much as our coaches.

  I knew Tristan was going to be special after the opener in New Orleans. Right out of the box, he faced Cam Jordan and Trey Hendrickson, who’s way better than people give him credit for.

  Wirfs held his own with no help. Winfield made a play or two, but you saw in camp that he was gonna be a playmaker. After Game 1, we knew we had two rookies who were really special.

  But there’s no getting around it, signing Tom was the key to the whole thing.

  I was confident that we had a great young team. We should have been in the playoffs the year before. We blew games. That 2019 season still pisses me off.

  When I became the head coach at Arizona in 2013, we went 10–6 and almost made the playoffs in our first season. That 2019 Buc team was better by far. After the season, the Glazers asked me whether we could fix quarterback Jameis Winston. I said it’s gonna be harder than I thought it would, because of the regression he experienced in December.

  Talking to Tom during free agency, he knew how good we were defensively. He said he was really interested in Tampa, but he also had some other options. The Glazers were really excited, and that was important. They told us that if we thought Tom could still play, go for it. They knew what it would do for the city and the franchise. They knew if Tom came here, the Bucs would get talked about every day, and it would be because of one guy. Tom could have asked for more money and he would have gotten it.

  I didn’t need the validation of a Super Bowl to know that I’m a good NFL head coach, but I’d be lying if I said winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy didn’t matter. My son, Jake, said it best: “You’re now a Super Bowl champ, but you’re not a smarter coach.” That’s true, but once you win it all, you can look back at some people who didn’t believe in your ability, and say, “Screw you.”

  By the end of the season, we were a hell of a football team. When the Super Bowl confetti was coming down, I’ll always remember being on the field when my kids and my wife came down and we shared a hug. That was the best moment, and we now have a big print of our family hug that hangs in our living room; I look at it every single day. I didn’t even see the team after the game. When I came back through the locker room, champagne bottles were all over the place and everyone had left for the postgame party.

  The craziest thing was how Darcie and the Tampa mayor, Jane Castor, put that boat parade together so fast. They were thinking about Friday or Saturday, but I told them the team’s not gonna be here. When the league said we couldn’t have a regular parade, they had the answer. They said we’re going out Wednesday on the Hillsborough River. That’s when Tom told us he’d stick around for the celebration.

  Tom was feeling no pain that day. He had a hell of a time and the fans loved him for it. Brady became one of us that day. He got to be himself.

  Now, we face the challenge of trying to repeat. It hasn’t happened in more than fifteen years for good reason. When you win it all, you play so long and the other teams are all working to beat you. You’ve got to find ways to get to August fresh, both mentally and physically. That championship was won by last year’s team. I’m gonna beat them in the face with that. All these banners going up around town? You guys didn’t do it, they did it. You normally lose four or five good players in the offseason, but we didn’t lose any starters, so that’s a plus.

  What helps is our locker room knows Brady has already done it. He knows what it takes to repeat, and he’s not going to accept any crap on the practice field. That garbage stops right then and there.

  Our first goal this season is to win our division because home games will be more important. We have to get that home-field advantage so our fans can go crazy. Everyone in the building knows what we’re up against. We’ll be on prime time five times this season, but hey, that comes with the territory. We’ve earned all the attention.

  We’re the defending Super Bowl champs, and we’re proud of it. I can’t wait to get started all over again. I know you’ll love this book by Lars Anderson, reliving a season none of us will ever forget.

  And always remember, both in football and in life: enjoy the journey.

  I sure as hell have.

  Chapter 1

  Tampa Bay Scheming

  They dubbed it Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson. That was the code name Tampa Bay Buccaneer personnel tagged the team’s pursuit of Tom Brady in the final days of winter 2020. It was a fitting moniker, because the odds of luring Brady to Tampa Bay—a team that hadn’t been to the playoffs in thirteen years, a team with a .387 all-time winning percentage—seemed as likely to occur as a White Sox baseball player from 1920 emerging out of an Iowa cornfield in the movie Field of Dreams.

  John Spytek, the Bucs’ director of player personnel, had coined the classified name. He didn’t want anyone to know that Tampa Bay was targeting Brady, who Spytek had played with fo
r one season at Michigan, and so whenever the front-office heavies were talking about their aim to land the free agent quarterback with six Super Bowl rings, the code words were used. In the NFL, in matters large and small, secrecy is sacrosanct.

  Spytek told other members of the Bucs’ front-office staff that the one thing that really stood out when he played with Brady at Michigan was that the quarterback had shown frustration and disappointment only once during his senior season. It came after he threw an interception against archrival Ohio State. Brady slammed both hands onto his helmet and looked upward into the cold Midwestern sky for several moments, angry with himself for the blunder he had just committed. Brady was saved because the interception was wiped out by a Buckeye penalty, but Spytek’s point was instructive: Brady was as consistent in his demeanor and approach to the game as any player he had ever been around in college—the kind of consistency at the quarterback position that the Bucs had lacked in 2019 with Jameis Winston. “And the Tom Brady we see now twenty years later is that same Tom Brady,” Spytek told Buc staffers. “Nothing has changed about how he goes about his preparation and how he reacts to adversity.”

  Based on intuition alone, Spytek suspected that his former college teammate was looking for a new challenge. So he repeatedly told Bucs general manager Jason Licht, “If we build it, he will come,” referencing the famous line from Field of Dreams. Spytek would then point to the depth chart posted on the wall in Licht’s office at One Buc Place and mention that Tampa had a coach named Bruce Arians who had a long history of tutoring quarterbacks, and that Arians was as well-liked by players around the league as any head coach. It’s no secret opposing players talk to each other in the NFL, and it wasn’t uncommon to see players from other teams line up at the postgame tailgate party that Arians, a former bartender, would hold out of the back of his truck when he was the Arizona Cardinals head coach after games to give him a hug—even if they had never met him before. “To so many players in the league Bruce is like a cool uncle you want to have a beer with,” said former Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer. “He’s unlike any other head coach in the NFL in the way he relates to and treats players.”