Lars Anderson > Quotes

“The only reason why world war 2 happened was because Chuck Norris decided to take a nap.”
― Lars Anderson

“He returned to Tom House, the constant analyst, who scrutinized every fine detail of his throwing motion: the angle of his balance, the quick-fire pattern of his footwork, the explosive release, and the fluid finish of his follow-through. On the warm sands of California, where Brady visited family, the work continued. With resistance bands tightening around his legs, he’d pretend to take the snap, dropping back into an imagined pocket as the ocean’s foam crept toward him. Each repetition was captured by a friend’s phone, providing the instant feedback Brady craved to perfect his motion. In his downtime,”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“But after tabulating his results, the coaches and trainers were bewildered beyond words: For the eighth consecutive year, the eight-year NFL quarterback had improved his scores. At age thirty, Brady was indeed a physical freak of nature. He had never been stronger or faster—”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“You know, the three-step drop is the football equivalent of signing your name on a test and getting points just for that. It’s so basic. But there was Tom, a certain Hall of Famer, and he’s working on the simplest thing when the team is going to have the top seed in the playoffs. He knows how to do a three-step drop. He’s done it thousands and thousands of times.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“The counselor eventually asked Brady the question that would change his trajectory: What are the things you can do better than anyone else?”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Saban phoned all of his assistants and told them to gather at 10 a.m. in a specific hotel conference room. In the meeting Saban initiated a critique of the game—“We shouldn’t have let them come back in the second half,” he said to his coaches—and then told his assistants it was “time to move on.” “It was amazing,” recalled Cignetti. “There was a real sense of urgency in his voice as he spoke to us.”
― Lars Anderson, Chasing the Bear: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time

“Brady charged onto the field and soon was swallowed by a crush of victorious teammates. They were celebrating the biggest Super Bowl upset in thirty-three years—”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“His athletic display was nothing short of atrocious, but Brady offered one exceptional metric during his combine: a 33 on the Wonderlic test. This score on the twelve-minute exam demonstrated an impressive verbal, numerical, and abstract reasoning ability”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Huffing and puffing with each clodhopping stride, he clocked a 5.28, the second-worst 40 time for a quarterback in the history of the combine; only Chris Redman (5.37) had been slower.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Brady and Harden began meeting once a week. Harden uttered his core philosophy—control the controllables—countless times.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“By the end of his second pre-season camp, Brady moved up to third on the depth chart.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“During his NFL career, for instance, Brady wrote down his thoughts on thousands of offensive snaps. This fusion of seeing and describing empowered him—at the end of his career—to recall countless plays from the 15,914 he participated in as a professional.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“No one was more willing to persevere long after others had quit.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“One pass, one pick-six: UCLA linebacker Phillip Ward had scored the Bruins’ first and only touchdown of the day.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“That evening, Brady, a Californian barely clinging to his Michigan dream, spoke to a Wolverine staffer who didn’t mince words. “Who gives a fuck if you leave?” he said. “You ain’t done shit anyway. You want to leave? Go ’head.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Gisele had a tradition she attempted to uphold on the last day of every year. She’d write two lists, one containing the achievements and actions from the previous 365 days she was proud of, the other devoted to enumerating what she wanted to improve upon in the upcoming year. Then she would meditate on those lists and come up with goals for the New Year. She’d ask herself questions: Did I take full advantage”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Brady, dressed in his workout clothes, his already-intense eyes shining with eagerness. “It’s time to go to the stadium,” he said. Looking at his roommate, Nugent shook his head from side to side in a waltz of disbelief and thought, Are you kidding me? This guy just won a Super Bowl and he’s already getting after it.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Carr emphasized that Brady’s gifts were difficult to explain and that not all his strengths could be measured, including his toughness, his leadership, and his strong-as-a-raging-river will.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“playing”
― Lars Anderson, The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family

“A common trait I’ve found among repeat champions is a prominent chip on their shoulder, from slights both real and imagined, often nurtured for decades. When what you seek is not wealth or fame but vindication, you can never get enough.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“The coaches really thought nothing of Tom,” said Jason Kapsner, another backup quarterback at Michigan who was a class behind Brady and who came to Ann Arbor in part because he didn’t view Brady as a serious rival for the starting job. “That’s not BS. He was a lower recruit, and when you watched him, the first thing you noticed was that he was very slow. Tom had to dig himself out of this place where no one really thought that much of him athletically. He had everything going against him.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“I’ve looked at it,” Brady said. “When quarterbacks get into their thirties and they get married and have kids, you can see how they all decline.” Brady’s theory made sense to Kraft: With age comes more responsibility. And when a quarterback becomes a family man, he no longer can singularly focus on football. The burning ember of his inner drive starts to cool to a soft glow, replaced by the warmth of family. “Eventually,” Kraft said, “nature takes its course.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“This dedication would be an almost inhuman one, forcing him to make choices that might fracture his relationships with those he held dear. Yet the twenty-year-old was unwaveringly set, willing to pay the staggering costs of his unconditional commitment to the game. He couldn’t see it then, but this reframing would become the foundation of all his future triumphs”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Brady entered the football facility and discovered that he was seventh string. But to Brady, that just meant six guys were ahead of him on the field—not in his mind. One”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“The way Alabama practices is a huge part of its success,” said Curt Cignetti”
― Lars Anderson, Chasing the Bear: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time

“I’m sorry, Tom, I can’t help you become the starter at Michigan,” Harden said. “But I can help you believe you should be the starter at Michigan. If you believe in yourself, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. You’ve got to believe, whether you are playing, starting, or sitting on the bench, that you are capable, you are qualified, and you are confident.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“What really motivates me is self-doubt,” Brady said during the spring. “And I don’t know why it’s always there … Sometimes I wish it wasn’t there.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“Okay,” Brady said at the end of their session. “It’s time to see what I’m really made of.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness

“But now the coach—a man whose scouting prowess was a genetic inheritance from his scout father, Steve, a legend at the Naval Academy—was telling him that the kid from Michigan, drafted with a shrug, was the better player.”
― Lars Anderson, Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness