Tom Brady to Brandon Spikes: 'You think I play this s--- to go to Pro Bowls?'
The Pro Bowl does not matter.
If you hadn’t already figured that out on your own, take it from Tom Brady.
Former New England Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes was remembering his time in Foxborough this week, and recalled a time after his third season in 2012 when he didn’t get selected for the Pro Bowl.
Spikes — who played for the Patriots from 2010-2013, and then for the Buffalo Bills in 2014 and 2016 before retiring — had a great season that year, too. He recorded 56 solo tackles, a career best, and started all but two games. He felt that was beyond good enough to make a Pro Bowl roster.
When he didn’t make it, Spikes was crushed.
“I’d been playing off the charts, and I didn’t get picked to go to the Pro Bowl,” Spikes told Sports Illustrated. “I was moping around, actually in tears, and a few guys were trying to lift me up, like, ‘It’s gonna be alright man. We’ve got to worry about what’s in front of us.'”
Then, Brady walked up to him.
“Then The Pharaoh himself walks up to me — I used to call Brady ‘The Pharaoh’ and he hated that,” Spikes told Sports Illustrated. “Brady walks up to me and says, ‘Hey B, you think I play this s— to go to Pro Bowls? Get it together. Get your head up. We’re trying to win rings. That’s what it is here.’
“That’s where I knew what kind of environment I was in, how blessed I was.”
So watch the Pro Bowl this weekend. Or don’t.
Just know that one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the league doesn’t care about the game one bit.
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