New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady quickly tweeted after seeing the reports that former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant died on Sunday in a helicopter crash in L.A.
Brady wrote: “We miss you already Kobe.”
When Bryant visited the Patriots during organized team activities during the summer of 2018, Brady was not present. And yet New England’s players admitted they saw huge parallels between Bryant and Brady after hearing the former Lakers star deliver a lecture to the Patriots. (Bill Belichick invited Bryant to attend practice and speak to the team afterward.)
“When he was telling us about his training regimen, how he approached a day, a light bulb went off in my head: That’s Tom,” Patriots safety Duron Harmon told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer in 2018.
Brady is famous for the TB12 Method, a wholistic fitness regime that the quarterback has fine-tuned to help him sustain peak performance. It sounds like Bryant’s methodology isn’t far off.
When Bryant retired from the NBA, Brady showed his respect.
“Football is so important in my life and I make a big commitment year round to try and be the best I can be for my teammates when it really matters and he’s one of the those guys too. You can see how much he loves the game and how infectious his spirit is and I think that’s what I’ve always appreciated about him — there’s no off time for him,” Brady told the Hollywood Reporter in 2015.
It’s unclear how well Brady and Bryant knew each other. But they both are among the best to ever play their respective sports.
