“If you want to play with the big boys, you gotta learn how to play in the tall grass,” was Tom Brady’s high school yearbook quote. Mine in comparison – “There’s got to be a morning after.”⁠

I am not sure what I was getting at, using a line from what was written as the theme song for The Poseidon Adventure and later recorded by Maureen McGovern to become a number one hit in 1973. A morning after what exactly? I can’t remember.⁠

Far more interesting is Brady’s quote, which seems to inspire greatness and correctly prophesizes his rise to NFL fame. Early on in his career, after winless football seasons in high school where he was not the starting quarterback but the backup, and after he was the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, a young Brady took a nap before his very first Super Bowl.⁠

Think about that - he laid down and closed his eyes, waking up twenty minutes before jogging out to the field. He won. It was the first of six championship wins and nine Super Bowl appearances. Tom Brady has God-given talent, clearly, but he is also hard working, persistent, and disciplined. He prepares, he readies himself. And perhaps that is why he was able to sleep just moments before he went out in the tall grass.⁠

The path to the Super Bowl is not an easy one; it is wrought with upsets and injuries and comebacks and triumph. Teams and players, healthy and strong early in the season, can implode, and struggling teams can build, come together, and surprise even the biggest critics. In our house, the new year is about many things, but it is definitely about football and the culmination of the NFL season. We schedule around the games, which frankly is easy this year.⁠

But maybe I was on to something, maybe I too had a peak into the future: ⁠

"There's got to be a morning after ⁠
If we can hold on through the night ⁠
We have a chance to find the sunshine ⁠
Let's keep on looking for the light⁠

It's not too late, we should be giving ⁠
Only with love can we climb ⁠

And we'll escape the darkness ⁠
We won't be searching anymore"⁠