After watching Super Bowl LV, it’s becoming very clear that experience matters.
Sure, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had an extremely talented team, but their lack of poise and experience at quarterback held them back. Insert Tom Brady and now they’re Super Bowl champions for the first time since the 2002 season. Brady’s now carrying seven rings on his fingers after appearing in ten Super Bowls — so, he knows a thing or two about winning this game.
Leonard Fournette, one of the Buccaneers’ biggest contributors in the 31-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, gave some insight on that experience. While speaking with reporters after the game, Fournette talked about the late-nights texts and reassurance his team had from Brady.
“It felt great. Just knowing his resume and understand why he wins. All week he made us believe we were going to win,” Fournette said. “He was texting us at 11 o’clock at night, ‘We will win this game.’ We believed in him. We believed in the play-calling, what the coaches were calling and we just ran with it.”
The Buccaneers had 145 rushing yards and Fournette said Brady heavily focused on that aspect of the game.
“Tom preached all week, [Kansas City] were 31st in the league in yards after [contact], yards after the catch, too,” he said. “Their run defense wasn’t that good. I take pride in that knowing those guys don’t want to tackle. Sometimes you make a guy miss, but at the same time, punch them in the mouth and then at the end of the game they are not going to want to tackle and that is exactly what happened.”
The confidence was instilled and the gameplan worked — leaving the 43-year-old with the greatest legacy in NFL history.
