Why Tom Brady Will Never Quit

Bonner’s advice: “Just put your hands up and the ball will hit them.” Brady starts off throwing short bullets, and Bonner’s tip is dead-on: The balls slice through the hot air and slam into my hands. Too little torque.” Guerrero notes that Brady will rarely throw 60-yard passes in a game. Brady notes the flawless passes with a “There it is.” He has thrown close to 80 balls this morning, and he doesn’t want to stop. “At football, I want it to be so right.” Among Brady watchers, there’s a belief that he’s currently crafting a second Hall of Fame–worthy career. Time, Gisele Bündchen lamented that even she has to share him with his first love: football.) That’s why trying to talk to Brady about things other than football—politics, say, or the ideal gas law—is usually a waste of everyone’s time, especially his. They care about how he does it—defying time and physics, defying the natural laws of football and man to play like a kid half his age.In anticipation of the day when he can’t play like he used to, Brady is laying the groundwork for a new chapter of his life rooted in helping the rest of the world “do what they love better and for longer.” He founded his company in 2013, naming it TB12, and after some early success with a training facility outside Boston and a best-selling book, The TB12 Method, he’s now developing it into a full-blown lifestyle and fitness brand. “You gotta understand,” he says of his early years in the NFL, “I was like every other American kid. “My teammate Willie McGinest said to me, ‘Dude, if you want to keep playing, you gotta go see Alex.’ ” Guerrero’s background is in traditional Chinese medicine, but Brady was desperate after striking out with mainstream doctors. Guerrero felt the inflamed tendon, Brady says, and “said that what we’re going to do through pliability—although we didn’t even call it pliability then, because we had to come up with a word for it—is effectively lengthen the forearm muscle and lengthen the biceps and triceps through deep-force work. The last ten years of my life I’ve been in pain, and now, after he’s worked on my forearms, biceps, and triceps, there’s no more pain in my elbow?’ It clicked for me right away.” Guerrero then treated Brady’s shoulder pain (from too much throwing) and groin problem (from too much squatting), and Brady was hooked. Alex is going to take care of me.’ ” Today, each of Brady’s daily sessions with Guerrero begins on a massage table, with deep-force treatment of 20 muscle groups, each for about 20 seconds. “I’ve always thought if we can figure out a way to make Tom’s body keep up with his brain, he’ll be able to play a long time.” “I’m more of a thinker obviously than a physical specimen,” says Brady. By the time I have the ball in my hands, I know what I want to do with it.” “No one has to be Tom Brady,” he says. But you can’t say, ‘I want to be healthy,’ then eat shitty food and do crappy workouts.”Contrary to popular belief, Brady claims he’s not militant about his diet. “I have a friend who freaks out if it’s not the most organic this or that, and I’m like, ‘That stress is going to harm you way more than eating that chip is.’ ” That said, Brady tends to eat the same healthy foods over and over: berry-and-banana smoothies pre-workout; avocado and eggs for breakfast; salads with nuts and fish for lunch; hummus, guaca-mole, or mixed nuts for snacks; and roasted vegetables and chicken for dinner. If you gave it your best, you live with the outcome.’ ” Whenever Brady talks about his family, which he does easily and without prompting, he comes to life, waving those long arms and breaking into laughter as he describes how each of his kids delights him. “Gisele’s life has been very nontraditional,” says Brady. Brady wants to play until he’s 45. Then, back in shoulder pads and helmet and holding a ball in the midday sun (“Practice like you play,” he says), he starts sprint drills in the sugary sand. “He’s faster than Daddy already!” Other times, Brady drops back while Guerrero rushes at him with boxing pads and jabs his torso before shouting, “Go!” Then Brady sprints. After one set of reps, Brady remarks, “The funny thing is, I’ve probably run more today than I’ll run all year.” (He’s right: He banged out only 35 yards on the ground last season.) Back at it.