Tom Brady on Youth Sports, Broadcasting and His Relationship with Greg Olsen

Greg Olsen sits down with Tom Brady to talk about Brady’s youth sports journey, his competitive drive, his perspective as a youth sports parent and how his own childhood experiences shaped the athlete—and father—he is today. They also discuss their work at Fox and their close relationship in their first interview together since Brady became a broadcaster.

Youth Inc. is proud to present this episode in partnership with Unrivaled Sports.

Unrivaled Sports is a leading national youth sports organization creating unforgettable experiences in baseball, softball, flag football, soccer, and action sports. The brand's portfolio spans iconic destinations and programs such as Cooperstown All Star Village, Ripken Baseball, Diamond Nation, Unrivaled Flag, Rocker B Ranch in Texas, and Under the Lights Flag Football. In 2025, Unrivaled Sports will welcome more than one million young athletes and over two million visitors across the country.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So before you guys go check out our conversation with Tom Brady,
make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS
feed for all future conversations here at you think
all right, So when when we laid out about two years ago, the the
journey and the path and the vision of what you think was
going to be trying to bring great stories, great processes,
great experiences to the masses about the journey of youth

(00:22):
sports. We had kind of a Mount Rushmore
of guests and we sat down on a whiteboard and we said if we
could ever get these guys. Well, our guest today is at or
near the top. He's probably the top of
everyone's about Rushmore. We have the great the greatest
football player of all time, widely regarded greatest
quarterback of all time, seven time Super Bowl winner, a guy

(00:43):
that I played against a handful of times as a competitor.
Now I'm a colleague with him in the sports media with our work
at Fox and I think the cool thisthing is over the last year or
so, someone that now I call a friend, someone that we talked
to share stories personally as dads and what not, the one and
only Tom Brady. What's up, buddy?
Hey Greg, I appreciate you having me on and I really

(01:04):
appreciate what you're doing in the world of youth sports and
guiding parents who maybe don't always have.
Now they had the advice they get.
But to get it from a from a place like this with a lot of
the guests that you've already talked about and for them to be
able to listen and to respond and to hear the different
insights. Because I think that's what

(01:25):
we've all had the opportunity togo through some unique
experiences. And all's we really know is our
own experience. But you know, we've all paid
attention and observed for a long period of time as well
about the things that work may be a little bit better than
others. And I think both of us have a
great opportunity going forward to just share the way that we
see things and the way that may be right for us, maybe may not,

(01:48):
may not be right for others, butat least you know we could.
They can hear our viewpoint and and go from there.
Absolutely. Well, I, I just think it's so
cool. Like, again, everyone knows you
from your career and your story and obviously it transcends more
than just sports. But you know, I've gotten to
know you a little bit as a dad. I've gotten to know you as a
son, a brother and, and I want to start there, but I want to
read a quote. A a wise man once said, I

(02:10):
encourage everyone to play football for the simple reason
that it is hard. And I think I, I want to start
there because I think it's a really, if anyone doesn't know,
Tom is the one who said that it,it's AI.
Just think it really paints a picture into just your entire
approach, just the way you view things, the way you went after
things, not only in your career,your post career, your business

(02:32):
ventures. Where did that mindset, where
did that mindset of embracing difficult challenges and pushing
through the hard? Like where did that all start
for you? I think the interesting part is,
is the journey of football for me started at a young age, but I
wasn't probably the, the typicalkid that you think would, would,
would reach, you know, 23 seasons in the NFL and to be a

(02:55):
part of seven championship teams.
I didn't play Pop Warner football.
It really wasn't available whereI grew up.
And when I started playing, I was a freshman in high school.
We had three teams at our school, the freshman team, the
JV team and the varsity team. I started on the freshman team,
but I didn't even start. I started playing as a freshman,

(03:15):
but I was the backup quarterbackon our freshman team and we were
oh, and seven to start my freshman career.
I fell in love with the sport because the 49ers.
I didn't know how to put pads inmy pants at that age.
I was looking around on all the other kids the.
Kids still don't. If it makes you feel any better,
the kids still don't know how. OK, good.
Thank God, because I was lookingaround like how?

(03:36):
How, how do I put the, the butt pad in, in the back?
Can't even see it. And you got to put it on the
loop through the pad. It was a disaster.
And I just remember getting out on the field and I of course I'd
watch football growing up and I was, but I never played it.
And then you heart start hearingall the play calls and what do I
do on a pinch stunt and on a, you know, how am I going to play

(03:56):
linebacker? What?
Thankfully I couldn't play linebacker.
They they found me at quarterback, but because I had a
decent arm, but I didn't really play.
And I'll make a Long story short, it was a, it was a
struggle for me and people wouldn't see this now, but my
second year is on, I play juniorvarsity and I ended up winning
the starting job because the guywas the freshman quarterback
quit and we were OK that year, but I really fell in love with

(04:18):
the sport. And then my third and fourth
year, I started on varsity and Igot lightly recruited to
Michigan and ended up choosing there because I thought, OK, I
was a bit naive of how hard it actually would be.
But I was like, you know, if I want, if you want to be the
best, you got to beat the best. But of course, I was nowhere in
the realm physically or mentallyor emotionally where a lot of
these other kids were when they arrived at campus at Michigan.

(04:41):
I was there were six other quarterbacks ahead of me at
Michigan when I started. And I fought my whole career,
college career to, to end up getting to start and I started
my 4th and 5th year and there was a lot of struggles along the
way. And I would say I had a good
college career. It wasn't great.
I thought I'd be a second or third round pick in the NFL

(05:04):
because I developed and I was very much like Bloomer.
And then I got picked by the Patriots at 199 and then was the
4th quarterback on the depth chart when I started at the
Patriots. So I guess my point in saying
this is I really valued when I did get a chance to play as a
starter, I really valued where Iwas at because it was hard for

(05:26):
me. And every step along the way was
a challenge for me to get from one year to the next, to get
from the freshman team to the junior varsity team, the junior
varsity team to the senior team,this, the varsity team to the
the college team. And in in my red shirt freshman
year was hard and everything about it was a challenge, but I
really valued it and I knew thatOK.

(05:47):
And I always said this thing, well, if they put me on the
field, Tommy, they're never going to take you off.
And fortunately for me, and it was tough situation for Drew,
but he got injured in his secondyear.
And when I remember running on the field, I felt I was really
prepared because I knew how to compete.
And I, I ran out on my field in the second year.
I think I was 24 years old and Ibasically played for for 21

(06:10):
straight seasons after that. And every step along the journey
for those 21 years was a challenge.
And I think when I referenced how hard it was, it was never
something that to me, you could just, hey, let's just roll my
helmet on field. I think you and I both played
with players like that, that they're really talented as
youth. They never really learn how to

(06:32):
develop a great work ethic. And I'm not saying they don't
work hard. I'm just don't say they don't
work as hard as they could possibly work.
They work to a level of their comfort and then they don't.
They're competitive, but they never have to be ultra
competitive because they're physically just a lot better
than everybody else. So I think just some of those
teachings and learnings that I had ended up being great

(06:55):
blessings in my life. It was a blessing that it was
hard and I think for. Go ahead, go ahead.
No go. Ahead, I just think it's a
blessing when it is hard becauseyou there were so many times
along the way where I thought, man, maybe it should be easier
than this. Or maybe I should go take a
easier route. Maybe I should go to a lesser
competitive school than Michigan.

(07:16):
You know, that was one. Maybe I should quit football
because that would have been easier in high school.
But I look back and I go, you know what?
I'm so happy I didn't because itit built up a level of
determination and resilience in me that was able to transcend
decades in professional sports. And when we think of the great
players and not everyone's goingto be a great player, but

(07:36):
whether you want to be a great player in life, you want to be a
great athlete in life, you want to be a great member of your
family, you want to be a great member of your community.
You want to do great in your, in, in your office job.
Well, you better be a great teammate and you better learn to
overcome the things that don't go your way.
Because a lot of times the things that don't go on your

(07:56):
way, if you look at them as a blessing and you learn from it
and you get more determined for it and more resilient than it
will be a blessing. And that will carry you a lot
further in life than something that's given to you.
You Think is proud to present this episode in partnership with
Unrivaled Sports. This summer while in
Cooperstown, NY, I had the chance to sit down with Andy
Campion, Chairman and CEO of Unrivaled Sports to hear how

(08:18):
they are providing top tier experiences at every level of
youth sports. All right so welcome to what's a
really special edition here we are in Cooperstown, NY, Andy
Campion, chairman, CEO of unrivaled sports.
We are here at Cooperstown All Star Village, a lot to dive
into. We're talking before here on you
think, just give us a snapshot like what are we looking at?

(08:41):
What is this is this is absolutely incredible.
We're going to talk about my Cooperstown experience, but give
us an idea of just what where are we?
What are we looking at? This is incredible.
Well, we're pretty close to the Baseball Hall of Fame here in
Cooperstown, right? Cooperstown All Star Village is
the name of this property. I would say this property
represents our missionary and rival sports in its most sublime

(09:04):
state. So it's 12 year old youth
baseball, only 12 year olds. It's a little bit of a rite of
passage as they move on to the next level of baseball, bigger
fields, high school, etcetera. You know, the way we think about
it is keep the main thing the main thing.
So we have amazing fields themedby, you know, New York, LA,
California, etcetera. If you're a Boston fan, we got a

(09:26):
Green Monster out there and that's the main thing.
We want it to be awesome tournament experience and we
want to inspire the kids. And then we've created this
environment, a players village, they stay in a Tavern space for
parents, lodging. And our philosophy is pretty
much if we inspire the kids and they have an awesome time, it'll
be memory making for the parents.

(09:47):
We're going to talk more about just the the intricacies of the
All Star Village here in a second, but I want to talk a
little bit about the work you guys are dealing with Unrivaled.
So there's not a day that goes by that there is not an article
about investment in youth sports, the big business of
youth sports. Tell us a little bit more about
Unrivaled What what was the motivation?
Why youth sports? Why do you guys have such a
passion, but not only here for All Star Village, but Cal, RIP,

(10:08):
Gain and some of your other projects, Just what is it about
not only the business of youth sports, but just the experience
you guys can help create for so many of these young families and
young kids? All right.
So I'll answer that a little bitthrough the lens of why am I
doing this? So I was more lucky than good.
I was really lucky to have had the opportunity to work at

(10:28):
Disney 11 years, work at Nike for 17 years.
I'm actually wearing Kobe 6 Dodgers shoes for a reason so.
Cut your leg off. They don't even know what size
they are. My kid would cut your leg off to
steal your shoes right now. Those are the Kobe's are a big
deal. Basically in the last few years
before he passed away, I was really lucky to get to know Kobe

(10:52):
and on a few occasions he gave me advice and he and it was
almost like he was giving himself advice after basketball.
He he said a few times and I have some sign things from him
that say Andy do epic shit always.
And it just stuck with me. And in a way it's like, well,
obviously we'd all love to do epic shit.
Everybody loves youth sports, right?
Everyone wants their kids to play youth sports.

(11:14):
Our mission is provide unrivaledsports experiences to young
athletes everywhere. So for us that's not just
provide the pinnacle like Cooperstown, All Star Village,
it's a dimension of this kind ofexperience at every level.
That could be league tournament,a showcase.
I think you talked about your oldest playing in some
showcases, local, regional, national.

(11:36):
And so, you know, if you think about what epic means, right?
It's like a long journey, but a huge impact.
And I just think youth sports isone of those things where you
go, it's almost never ending howmuch impact you could have in
it. And that's that's what unrivaled
sports is about. And it's frankly why we chose
the name. We want our experiences to be
inspiring and memory making inspiring for the kids.

(11:57):
And if that's true, it'll be memory making for the families.
We think about it as competitiveand developmental.
We want people to go home and say this was awesome.
The wind might be kids are goinghome going.
Like I never thought about baseball that way.
And frankly, I'd say even more so.
There's a value we have, which is we want to set the standard
for youth sports in every aspectof E sports we're in.

(12:20):
So if we're managing a flag league, like our flag league
under the lights or we just launched unrivaled flag, a flag
Football Focus new brand. We launched it with a high
school girls national championship at our property in
Canton, OH, which is a Jace. It's it's part of the Hall of
Fame complex. We invited the top eight teams
from around the country for freeto come play and we invited

(12:43):
other teams into an invitation or to come see if they could if
they could compete. We had Ashley Clams on the US
national team. She came and spent the the whole
2 day tournament interviewing the kids, giving them advice
them. We wanted them to leave thinking
the future of football female and I think they did.
They felt like they felt like I'm, I'm Greg Oles.

(13:04):
They I think they left going like I'm a Pro Football player.
I'm part of the future here. I'm part of this growth that
that's awesome. I, I think it's such a timely
point that is so important for alot of the families and a lot of
our listeners to hear because welive in a very and, and I'm not
trying to be like the old guys here say back in our day, but it
is a very different youth sportsworld, high school Sports,
College and, and obviously beyond environment that kids are

(13:26):
being raised in today. Then the story you just
mentioned, if, if your journey is going on today, you've
probably transferred schools twoor three times.
By the time you've even gone to Michigan, you've probably played
for three high schools. You've probably moved around
pop, you know, travel teams and,and the kind of the circuits
that involve now. So we try to tell a lot of our
families and our kids like hard is coming and and I would much

(13:49):
rather my kids stand on the mound and have a bad inning and
walk the first 3 batters and give up a Grand Slam at 12/10/12
years old. Come home to mom and dad, cry,
talk, be upset and let's go through those emotions now.
Because if you play sports long enough and that moment comes for
the first time, because you've been sheltered, you've been
protected, you never were put ina position to try hard things to

(14:13):
your point and risk failure. That might come at 18.
It might. Your first struggle might have
come the first day of spring ball.
And who knows how your whole camp when you were the starting
star quarterback of San Mateo High School for four years never
faced anybody. And all of a sudden, now you go
to Michigan and your fourth string, your head might have
popped off. Totally.

(14:34):
Absolutely. You know, it's right.
I just think, go ahead. No, I want to hear your
thoughts. On that was your journey simple
Greg, when you thought about your journey and how you made it
to University of Miami and you know growing up in Jersey and
your dad was a great coach, but like for you, where did you
learn your resilience and determine because I think that's
the value. The value is OK, I want to

(14:56):
become whatever I want to becomeand it doesn't need to be a
professional football player or professional athlete.
I want to maximize my ability, but how did you, in your mind,
maximize your ability as an athlete?
Yeah, no, it's a, it's a good question.
And I think everyone's journey is so unique to themselves.
I mean, as a young athlete, I, Iwas a good player.

(15:16):
I, I mean, I played in a small little town in a suburb in
northern New Jersey. I, I think the talent around us
was, was good. I wouldn't say it was
incredible. It was very different than the
talent I saw when I went down toSouth Florida for the first
time, you know, so but I, I grewup, like you said, my dad was my
high school coach. I had an older brother who was a
quarterback the grade above me. He went to he went to Notre Dame

(15:37):
and then finished his career at Virginia.
I had a younger brother, 10 years younger than me, who also
played Division One quarterback.So like I was surrounded by
quarterback, surrounded by football, my dad, the coach, But
I was like the grunt, you know, I, I was the kid on the
basketball team that if someone needed to guard, my brother
would score 20. And I had AI had to guard the
other kids to, you know, the other star kid who was going to

(15:59):
score 20. I was the running back.
I was the receiver. I got moved to tight end.
I played defense like I was moreof like the grunt guy, bigger,
more physical and like my brother and everyone.
They were the stars right There were the quarterbacks, they were
the guys. So I I think that really helped
me growing up where I was the younger brother, I was second
fiddle, he was being recruited and I was being tagged along.

(16:22):
So like I had a good high schoolcareer, I was a good player, I
got recruited. But I think the best thing about
my journey and what I try to share with my own children and I
try to share with the kids we coach and what not, my greatest
strength was I got better at every level the longer I went.
Like I was a better football player and had a better career,
10 years in the NFL than I was as a rookie, than I was in

(16:45):
college. Like in college I was a good
player. I didn't set any records.
I wasn't an All American. I might have made second team
All ACCI wasn't a star. I wasn't a star my first three
years in the NFLI was a good player.
I played. I wasn't but the man by any
means, I got better the longer Iwent.

(17:05):
And I think my greatest realization you, you talk about
failure and you talk about beinghonest with yourselves.
When I went to Miami and I looked around the room and I
looked around the locker room inthe early 2000s, my the thought
of me ever playing there from a physical capacity was hard for
me to believe as an 18 year old kid.
When I looked around and saw Sean Taylor and Kellen Winslow

(17:26):
and Vince Wilfork and Jonathan Vilma and DJ Williams and on and
on and on, I'm looking around and saying I'm not like these
guys, right? Like I don't look like them.
I don't jump as high. My muscles aren't as big.
But I realized pretty quickly, if I was willing to do things
the guys I was competing againstweren't willing to do, Work
ethic, time management, not going out to parties at night,

(17:46):
not coming in late, like all theeasy things.
Maybe I could close the gap froma talent perspective.
And I carried that lesson with me all the way through my
career. I got progressively better
deeper into my career. I was better at 30 than I was at
21. And that I, I had, that's the
only way I could have survived. I could not have just walked

(18:07):
into the onto the field, to yourpoint, put my helmet on and
said, hey, I'm just going to runpast you, block you, run you
over. That was never me.
And I think those early lessons,being around the game, seeing
the game at a high school, just small town level, kind of shaped
my view. My view where it's not about
being a star, it's just about being on the team, being

(18:27):
contribute, build a role and then grow that role as time went
on. I think then it's great.
It's a great point, a great story.
And I think what as you think about the physical development,
because you're art, you're looking around the room, the
locker room in Miami with all those great players, but you had
to figure out another path to success.
And I think a lot of people listening should really

(18:49):
understand that, that there is amental and emotional component
to sports that actually in my mind can be a superpower, more
so than your ability to to your vertical jump or your 40 speed
or everything that they measureda combine.
And if I'm looking at a lot of the great players I've been, I
would say, yeah, there were absolute superstars.

(19:09):
But there's a lot of other ones that did play the game and
succeeded through a mental emotional superstardom that we
don't evaluate properly. And I think a lot of the parents
listening can really develop that within their own children
and the people that they impact.If they're a coach, that they
shouldn't make it easy and they should constantly test

(19:30):
competitiveness, resilience. How do the kids react to losses?
How can I challenge this young man to get better?
What's his work ethic like? Is he showing up on time?
And hold them accountability accountable to those standards
as well. So I just think that just
because you don't see the physical improvement doesn't
mean you're not making a lot of other improvements in a lot of

(19:51):
other areas that can actually transcend a physical ability.
It's a highlight reel culture that we live in.
Everyone posts, no one's on Instagram posting the picture of
their kids striking out. No one's on Instagram posting
the picture of their kid missingthe game-winning three, right?
We only see the positive outcomes, right?
We and I think our kids look around and they go everyone is

(20:14):
only having. Success.
Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls.Tom Brady played in 50 AFC
championship games. He must have only had success.
And then you take a look, you peel the onion back and you go,
no, no, no, no. Like you might have only seen
that because that's really in this society what we prop
forward and rightfully so. But like there is so much going

(20:34):
on behind the scenes. So when they hear you say that
the most accomplished player in the history of the sport now I
think my 12 year old son is saying, OK, I'm not the best 12
year old on my baseball team or I'm not the best girls
basketball player or soccer player, but neither was Tom
Brady. Absolutely, and I think that you
to see that, you know, this, I was having a conversation with

(20:58):
my son this morning. He's my son Jack.
He's 17. He loves basketball and he's
like, and we're talking about work ethic.
And you know, I was saying, look, there's some guys that I
played with that didn't some of the best players, they only
worked at 7080% of how hard theyreally could have worked.
And then I pointed out some other guys that, hey, he worked
at 100%. He worked at 100%.
I use like Wes Welker and Julianand Danny Amendola's.

(21:22):
I would say three of them, all three of them, they maxed out
every day. And he goes, Dad, was there ever
an athlete that you think workedlike at 100% but was also a
physical freak? And I said, yeah, Michael Jordan
and he looked at me and he's like, he wasn't really a
physical freak. And I'm like, wait a minute,
what are we talking about? I mean 6 foot 6 1/2, you know,

(21:44):
the hands that were fingers, youknow, that were 9 inches long
could jump 40 plus inches. But it's interesting because
when they're associating physical freak, all start
looking at his size, power, speed.
Then I said, well, Ray Lewis waspretty Ray Lewis worked really
hard. He was probably 100% and was a
physical freak. So I think the reality is it's,

(22:05):
I don't know if those are, I think it's, it's very difficult
when people tell you how great you are all the time to develop
a, a great work ethic. I think when they tell you that
you're not, you're so great, youknow, you, you don't have to be
coached. Then I, I find it hard to think

(22:26):
that that kid is going to go have sleepless nights because he
feel like he let the team down. And I feel like the point is, is
everyone can improve something, Michael Jordan.
And this is a story that we had when we were kids.
What does everyone know about Michael Jordan?
In high school, you got cut fromthe team.
So it's like, that's what we grew up with.

(22:46):
And now you're right, Greg, we're not hearing that, hey,
this kid struggled or this kid wasn't great or this kid, you
know, lost out to this other kid.
And I think the point is, it's like we as parents should
embrace the struggles of our children just like they are.
What we really need to do is allow them to overcome their
struggles and support them absolutely, in my opinion,

(23:10):
support them through their journey and whatever they want
to do. But we're trying to make
champions in life. We're not trying to make
champions. And we they can be champions in
sports. It's great.
And if they will make their pro career, it's, it's, it's a long
shot and I would never discourage anyone from trying to
approach that because it's amazing.
But if they don't make it, that's perfect anyway.

(23:31):
They're supposed to be what they're supposed to be.
But why don't we develop if we think of the great teammates
that we play with, Greg, and youwere certainly one of them on
the teams. You were a captain, you were a
leader. You know, you played your ass
off every time out. Like what are the real values of
sports that they teach us? If we're out there and we're
trying to build a successful business and you're supposed to

(23:53):
be a great employee or a great boss or whatever is or you want
to be an entrepreneur, You better learn to overcome failure
and adversity. You better learn to have a good
work ethic and show up in time. You better learn to show up with
a good, positive, optimistic attitude and or else you're
going to be point and blame at everybody your entire life of

(24:13):
why things didn't go right for you.
And then the point is if we wantthings to go right for all of
us. And I think what we refer to
Greg, when we think about this crazy culture that we're in of
self promotion because of socialmedia, we're missing out on the
team promotion. We're missing out on this fact
that when we succeed, and I'm sure you would feel this way

(24:36):
too, aren't the best things about sports.
The relationships, of course. It's the memories.
It's the part we all miss the most.
Yeah. So that to me is like, man,
these guys, if I think of any, anything that someone could say
about me as a, as a former teammate of mine, because they
know me really well, it wasn't me and that guy, he won a super.

(24:56):
It's like, man, I love playing with that guy.
I would go to war with that guy because he always gave it his
best for me and for the team. And I'm like, I, I can go down
with that. And I think it doesn't matter
your level of skill to do that. It doesn't matter your level of
it requires your energy, it requires your effort, it
requires your commitment, it requires your selflessness.

(25:19):
It doesn't require your physicalability to be that.
And I think that's what we respect about sports in the
lessons it really teaches us. We'll be right back to my
conversation with Tom Brady. But first, more from my
conversation with Unrivaled Sports Chairman and CEO Andy
Campion. How do you guys balance here at
All Star Village, the baseball experience, which is maybe a

(25:41):
couple hours a day, and then allthe other time, like how do you
capture the priorities of the experience when they're here on
and off the field? Yeah.
So first of all, I'd say Cooperstown All Star Village is
the best possible expression of youth sports from our
perspective. To your point, it's because it

(26:03):
combines so many things. It's a baseball tournament.
It's camp. Every one of the kids.
We have 82 teams, 82 to 84 teamsa week stay in bunkhouses with
their team, with their coaches. They're having food, playing
Wiffle Ball, hanging out with their teams in the Players
Village. So it's camp meets baseball.

(26:23):
And then there is some theming. But I'll put it this way, like I
was at Disney 11 years and I look back and go, nobody at
Disney must have ever visited Cooperstown, Ulster Village
because if they did, they would have said this is better than
Disneyland. Is there something unique about
baseball? Like give me an idea.
Would you guys look at the landscape?
Yeah, creating these destination.
Facilities. Can we do this awesome question

(26:44):
other sports? The way we're looking at it,
unrivaled is baseball's actually, as you know, with your
kids, right, one of the most developed sports ecosystem.
You have Little League, you havetravel, you have showcases, you
have the Little League World Series, something for everybody.
There's something for everybody,right?
Starting AT ball and all the wayup to like high school select

(27:04):
tournaments. OK, let's keep doing that in
baseball. Now, by contrast, flag football,
to me, I think we're in the equivalent of the.com era.
When before have has there been a sport that's a new sport
that's very accessible? Think of how easy it is to play
flag football, but then has all of the like, fandom and emotion
that you and your teammates and the NFL have and college

(27:27):
football have created. People love football and all of
a sudden there's this opportunity to bring it to a ton
more kids and to girls. And so I look at Unrivaled Flag
and our other businesses in flagfootball, under the lights, our
league, as we get to create the future of flag football and
baseball, We get to take this like amazing ecosystem of

(27:48):
baseball and go like, let's makeevery part of it.
We plan better because it's suchan amazing sport.
So how do we keep the integrity,the kids, their best intentions
at heart? How do we keep that as the main
thing, but also build really well thought out, well
constructed businesses around itto not only grow and make money,

(28:09):
but also elevate the expectationand the level of experience
these families and kids can havelike this?
Like, I think it's a little bit of a fine line.
How do you guys manage? That yeah, One of the things
I've learned over the years is instead of trying to make
everything in life absolute, it's this or that.
Lean into the paradox. The more kids playing sports,

(28:30):
the better, and that's a much more inspiring way to run a
business. I think there's a role for
philanthropy in youth sports anda role for business, and I don't
think they're distinct. I think you can do some of those
things together. Think you can offer an amazing,
sustainable, growing portfolio. Businesses like we are with

(28:50):
Cooperstown, All Star Village, Ripken Baseball, Unrivaled Flag,
which we launched. And so I think there's a way to
do that in business, work with high schools, local parks and
racks, et cetera, and work together.
I think if you can lean into both ends of that spectrum,
that's the only way you can haveepic impact.
What I think about is I want to do something epic, like I look

(29:12):
out here and I go like, there's nothing better than making all
of these kids, I said. Just hit a home run as you were
talking that was like faint exactly you guys talk about like
your your your your pyramid, right what your priorities, your
hierarchies of how you guys set you have these elite high level
destinations and then you build out those portfolio kind of
downstream. Explain it to us, give us an

(29:33):
idea, because I think it's important to picture not only
where you guys are now, but I think it'll give our listeners
and our followers a really good idea of kind of what's to come.
Where are you guys going to get?Yeah, kind of paved.
I love it. We run leagues and so that's
that's the most inclusive. Like that is that lifeblood of
the pyramid. We run tournaments.
But think about it this way. In youth sports there are

(29:56):
destinations and there's programming.
Like running a tournament. The model we love the best is
destination plus. Programming equals experience,
so we love these destinations like scrolling.
Both components. Exactly, like we can make sure
the fields are turfed and if they need to be returfed, the
returf, we've got the right officials, we know that they're

(30:16):
available, right. You know, like field time is a
thing and we've got the field time, we can control that.
And then what is the tournament play, etcetera.
So that I would say that level of our pyramid would be like a
really well run diamond or rectangle facility.
The next level in our pyramid isripped in baseball.
So that level is you control thedestination and the programming,

(30:38):
but you have really dialed it upthe destinations theme.
Like there's an emotion and I even haven't started playing
that ripped in. And then that takes you to like
Cooperstown, All Star Village inRocker beat.
But when you're here, you're notwondering what's over there.
Like you're in it. This is life, right?
So that's the pinnacle of the pyramid for us.
We, I say for the long time, if the idea of youth sports was to
create professionals, we should just all disband the entire

(31:00):
industry because it wouldn't be worth it, right?
We're to your point, we're creating things so much greater
than that. I'd be remiss if I didn't, if I
didn't ask you though, because as I hear you talk, and now
you're preaching this to your son and, and obviously you have,
you know, 3 kids and different ages and different interests and
different sports. And, and obviously that comes
with a whole nother litany of situations as Tom Brady's kid.

(31:23):
And I'm not going to ask you to dive into any of that, but I do
want to ask about your growing up.
And you're the backup quarterback on the freshman team
and you're fighting and you're facing adversity.
What environment did you come home to?
And you're obviously very close with your family, your three
sisters, your mom and dad. You're a very close knit group.
We've talked at length just about what your family means to
you and how obviously now with your children and your family

(31:43):
now, like what environment did you come through?
You talk about helping your children through adversity.
When you came home, were mom anddad saying it's OK, it's not on
you? Were they saying get your ass up
and go back? Like what world were you living
in as you were going through these early stages of your
growth and journey in in the football world, but really just
as a young kid finding your way?It's a great, it's a great

(32:07):
question. And I think I, so the, the three
girls I had in my family were mythree sisters, all older than
me, all played sports, all very competitive, all very athletic.
It was a very sport centric family.
My mom was very competitive, butmy mom was very nurturing and my
mom was there too. She loved being the tea mom.

(32:28):
She loved being at the game. She loved, you know, bringing
the Capri Suns at halftime and, and it was like awesome to
always know my mom was there. My dad, my dad was there
absolutely. But my dad was working a lot
too. But my dad was always be at the
games. And I would say my dad was
always available, you know, and I if I, if I was struggling

(32:50):
throwing the football as I got into my high school years and I
said dad, I just when I'm throwing it, the ball's not
quite coming off my hand, right?It just feels like it's wobbling
a little bit. I not really actually say OK.
And fortunately I had some coaching mentors in high school
that I could go to and we could get locked in on some throwing
mechanics, which were great. And in baseball, dad, I'm just
not hitting the ball great. Like I just feel like, you know,

(33:12):
I'm swinging, but I'm missing too much or I'm, you know, I'm
swinging hard the ball, but the ball's, you know, it doesn't
feel like I'm really just hitting the middle of the bat.
OK, we're going to go to the batting cage.
You know, my dad would come homefrom work and he was like a lot
of dads in America, they go home, they try to make a living
for their family and work their tail off.
He was out the door before we left for school.

(33:32):
And then he would be come home and he'd have his dress shirt
on, he'd roll up his sleeves andhe'd say, all right, let's go
out there to the batting cage. So I think it was a very
supportive dad and a very nurturing mom and I and I would
say that the great part about myparents was they never
discouraged the dream, you know,Hey, you know, dad, I want to go

(33:54):
and and again, this is for all dreams.
This is in sports. You know, I wanted to be a
professional athlete and I was very naive the fact that how
hard it actually was. But my parents never said, hey,
you know, I think we should think about something else, you
know, and I think whatever. And that's one thing I really
try to do as a parent. I really try to listen to my
kids and I say, well, what do you know, what do you want to

(34:16):
do? And my, my middle son loves
anime, you know, Japanese sci-ficartoons.
And I'm like, dude, we're going to open an anime studio someday.
You know, I want you to draw, I want you to create.
And he's like, really, you know,and it's like whatever he wants
to do. And now that may change 50 times
between now and then, you know, but the reality is whatever he's

(34:36):
all in on, then I'm all in on right behind it.
And I think that's to me as a parent, like being available to
the kids and also supporting wherever they're at.
That to me is the most importantthing from a parenting
standpoint. I love that, that it's, it's
like support and then you can push a little bit, right?
But if it's the other way, then it turns into your living your

(34:57):
dream, just knowing you playing against you, watching you play
from afar up close. This is something that I've
struggled with now as a dad. I'd be curious your your
perspective. So I got, I got two sons and a
daughter similar to you, different sports, different
interests, girls and boys, our house very different at
different times, a lot going on.But my, my biggest issue is I

(35:23):
look and I say, OK, I know what helped me.
And I and I, we've talked at length.
You've talked a lot about your drive, your competitiveness,
your spirit like that motivated you every single day.
You were just going to outwork out grind out hustle and you
were just going to force your way into the lineup and so on
and so forth. I respect that like that
gravitate that that connects with me.

(35:45):
I get that. That's how my brain works.
Like what do you mean? We're not?
We're just going to go figure itout and we're not going to take
no for an answer. I've brought at times
incorrectly. I've brought that level of fire
and competitiveness and tried tolike implement it on my kids and
saying the only way is to grind all day.
The only way is to never let that kid stand in front of you

(36:06):
in the line when the coach calls.
I need the first run out there. Like I've at a time my own
competitive spirit. I'm like, hey, I know this
worked for me, so I know this will work for you.
And then I say, as my kids have gotten older, I say, you know
what? It doesn't match their
personality. Like just because it was a good
fight for me doesn't mean it's agood fight for them.
Like, how have you harnessed your competitive spirit that's

(36:28):
fueled you your whole life and say, OK, which of my kids does
this resonate with? And which of my kids am I
actually doing more harm than good?
Because I've had to spend a lot of time kind of navigating
when's too much, when's enough, Like, and it hasn't always been
a good thing for my kids to approach things the way I have
approached things. The great point, Greg, and I

(36:49):
think from my standpoint, if I think about it and this isn't
something I think, you know, it's a great question because I
haven't thought about it much, but like maybe I resonate where
they're at, you know, and I don't like if they're really
competitive, then I'll be competitive with them.
If they're not Uber competitive about it, then I won't be Uber.
And I'm trying to read them I guess a lot more.

(37:11):
I guess if I'm thinking about how I deal with their
interactions with them and theirtheir competitiveness.
I think we were ultra competitive.
I mean, if I'm looking at look, I didn't have a 44 inch
vertical, but I was, I had a 44 inch vertical in competitiveness
and that was something I was born with.
And I don't know how you, I don't know how.

(37:33):
Can you teach someone that? I don't know that's, that's a,
that's a great question. I think we can teach people how
to deal with adversity. I think we can teach people how
to have more resilience. I don't know if you can teach
someone to be more competitive or less competitive.
Like if you said, Tommy, I need you to be less competitive, I'd

(37:55):
be like, you know, take that. And I, I think if you're trying
to make someone a mid level competitor, I think they can
compete harder. I don't know if they'll be more
competitive over time. It's that's a great question.
I don't know if you can improve that.
Yeah, and again, that's been my greatest struggle.
I'm like, all right, I want to give my kids everything that I

(38:17):
can. They say they want to be a
basketball player, a baseball player, a football player or
astronaut, whatever. My first instinct as a dad is
like you just said, like, great,I'm, I'm going to pour
everything into that. Because if you say that's your
dream, I, I'm going to give you all the lessons I've learned,
all the failures, all the successes, all the things that

(38:37):
I've done and say, hey, here's the blueprint.
I'm laying it out. Follow these steps.
This will help you. You're struggling the batting
gate, you're struggling at bat. What's your pregame routine
like? Did you have a set routine?
Don't worry about where the ballgoes.
What did you do before the game?What was your pre game routine?
What'd you do in the cage? Did you do your arm warmups?
Did you do all your shoulder mobilities?
My arm has been bothering me. Well, when was the last time?

(38:58):
Like I'm always questioning and challenging them.
I'm like, did you do AB and C? And then we can live with
whatever the result. But sometimes I'm like, it's
like driving me insane because I'm like, I'm literally telling
you this stuff matters. And you know, your kids, they
don't think what your dad, what dad says they at least mine
don't. They're like, yeah, but my coach

(39:20):
says I'm like, OK, like, but I'mtelling you like, this shit
works, but. And I got to sometimes check
myself and be like, you know what?
I gave it. If they take it, great.
If they don't, I can't let it become too much because then I'm
just making this worse than it really is.
All right, so you didn't hit theball.
Great. I don't want to make it worse,
you know? Yeah, I, I think.

(39:40):
It's a challenge. Yeah, and I think like if my
son, like it's a good example from my oldest son, you know, he
had a basketball game and he didn't, you know, he was let's
say I don't know what was the game I was seeing.
He he lives up in New York. He was like didn't have a good
shooting days, maybe like one for 8 O for 8:00 when I watched

(40:00):
and we got in the car and I was like, you know how you feeling?
Because I know how he's feeling.I felt that.
You know, I'm like, how you feeling?
And he's like, you know, not good.
And I was like, OK, well, you know, tell me about it.
I don't know. I just didn't play good.
And then my next question was, OK, well, what are you going to

(40:21):
do about it? You know, and I wasn't saying,
hey, when we get home, we're going to go shoot.
I wasn't saying I wanted to see what he wanted to do, you know,
and I think that's more an indicator to me of like what the
competitiveness this is. Or, you know, like we, we always

(40:43):
look at kind of the top of the top is like Kobe Bryant.
What would Kobe Bryant do? You know, Kobe Bryant would go
shoot 7000 jumpers. You know, most kids would shoot,
you know, 7 jumpers. Kobe shot 7000.
Probably some would shoot 700 after that.
I think a lot of it is like it'sreally got to be in them and I
would love to cultivate whateverthey want because I think that's

(41:06):
going to tell you a lot about whether that was a basketball
game or a hockey game. That's going to tell you how
they're going to deal with life.I really do.
And and over a course of time, maybe we can nudge the children
in the right direction, say, OK,if something doesn't go your way
or the way you want, you will have to be active in determining
what you do post game most moment to try to improve it the

(41:28):
next time you're in that situation.
Maybe that's the goal and I don't again, maybe it's a failed
test. I don't know.
How did you go on the ACT or theSAT?
How did you do on your bio exam?Not as good.
Well, what are we going to do differently to make it better?
And I think, or you could just say, well, like I hear most
people say, just wasn't my day, just wasn't my day.
And I man, we got the pro sportsand I heard that a lot, you

(41:50):
know, oh, it's for asphalt. Oh, it was the crowd noise.
Oh, it was a 7 million excuses. And I was like, it's not about
the excuse. It's about properly identifying
where in that process, as you'rereferring to Greg, where it
wasn't up to the, to the spot where it needed to be to be
prepared for the outcome that wewanted.

(42:12):
And it's doesn't involve sports.It involves a lot of other
aspects of life because we're very rarely in life going to get
exactly what we want. Some of us more so than others.
We'll get lucky, we'll things will bounce our way.
But a lot of the times, and sometimes it really doesn't.
And then it's like, what are we going to do?
And I think if I think I'm surrounding myself with people

(42:34):
to create success in life, I want to be around people that
know how to deal with adversity,who are resilient and determined
that their actions can influencean outcome and not that we're.
Always going to get we want, butthat it can't improve if we put
our time and energy into that that that's that last 20

(42:56):
seconds. It that that's it, right?
It's not the outcome. You went O for three or three
for three. What did you do leading up to
that game? Did you hit every day?
Did you go through your process?Hey, you went O for eight
shooting, but the last three days, man, I saw you.
You were out there grinding, youwere going through all your
mechanics, you were going through all your progression

(43:17):
drills. You know what?
You put the work in, they'll fall.
That's very different than, hey,you went O for 8:00, but the
last three days all you did was play video games.
So like, why do you expect to go6 for eight?
Those are the conversations I'm having in my house.
And I'm, and again, it's a fine line between over harping where

(43:37):
they just tuned me out because they're tired of dad.
But also like to your earlier point, you mentioned where it's
OK for parents, like hold your kid accountable, teach them
these lessons because it's not about going 6 for eight versus O
for 8:00 on the three. You came home and you got a 74
in your science exam. Did you study?
Did you make a, did you make a study sheet?
Did you go it over? Did you go for extra help?

(43:58):
If the answers to all that are yes and you got a 74, I feel a
lot different than if you did nothing and you got a 74.
So like I and again, the problemis it goes back to our earlier
point. We are in an end result world.
We are in a culture of highlight, a culture of
achievement, which I'm at the NFL level.
I get it. It is a result oriented business

(44:21):
how you get there. There's a lot of ways to get
there. But for these kids like, you
know, it's like the old, like the obstacle is the way, like
the hard way is the way, like weno one wants to head send their
kid down that path. And and I, I think you summed it
up perfectly, because the problem is it has nothing to do
with the sport. This is the lessons are going to

(44:42):
take throughout the rest of their life.
So I I think you and you absolutely killed it.
I have two, two last things, andI'll let you go.
And I'm very generous for you. Yeah, please.
I got one thing for you because you know, this is such a great
initiative with what you're doing.
And I think we got to be honest for a minute like you, you got
you and Luke and Jonathan Stewart as you know, height
coach in a middle school football team.

(45:04):
Is that somewhat unfair And and did the kid listen to you like
your like your kids listen to you or less than or more than
because it is interesting the family dynamic.
But when it's not the family that I mean, and I have these,
you know, I got, I got Jonathan running the offense.
I got Luke running the defense. I mean, what is that like for
the other teams that we're competing against here?

(45:25):
Well, I'm glad you brought that up.
So I I will say I I had the the happiest classroom we had the
entire season. For those most of our listeners
know, we talked about it a decent amount.
For those who don't, I coach my son's middle school team here in
Charlotte. It's me and my dad, who was my
high school coach, Luke Keekly, Jonathan Stewart, Todd
Blackledge, former quarterback back, Penn State first round

(45:45):
pick. Todd's on the staff.
He works with NBC calling their college slated games.
So that's our staff. It's a great group of kids.
It's a great school to varsity coach Chris.
He does a great job, so we try to support him.
Last year, Tom was nice enough to film a selfie video to get
the kids before we kicked off the season.
Hey. Guys, good morning.
I know this is a huge day for you guys at the Charlotte

(46:08):
Christian School, all the middleschool football players who have
worked so hard all summer long, in the heat when it was really
hard, when all your friends wereout there having fun.
You guys were getting ready for football season and tonight's
the night when you guys get going.
I'm really proud of you guys forall your efforts.
I wish you the best of luck thisyear.

(46:28):
Go out and play for each other, play as hard as you can every
time you're out there and have so much fun.
Good luck. When I surprised the kids and
put that on in the classroom before we took the field, it was
like, you know, like in Braveheart when like he gives
that big speech and then like everyone just runs across the
battlefield and like takes axes in the face.

(46:48):
We we could have run the kids out of the room when they saw
your face on the TV delivering that message.
I wish we like turned the cameraaround and film them because it
was a special moment. So again, thank you for that.
But to answer your question, I think in the beginning, every
year the kids who are around us,they're not used to it.

(47:09):
They haven't played for us in years past.
We, we did this for two years inPop Warner before we came to the
middle school. So we had some kids that played
with us before. I think to some of the kids and
to some of the parents in the beginning, it's a little
jarring. It's a little more serious than
maybe what they're anticipated. It's a little bit more intense
than what they've been around. And it probably takes a couple

(47:30):
weeks and then all of a sudden you see the, you see the spark
in their eye and you see the light bulb go off and you go,
you know what? No one's ever challenged me to
be better than I thought I was capable of.
And now I've exceeded all expectations of myself, my
parents, whoever I can do this. And once you got them, once you

(47:50):
have the kids there where you, they say, you know what?
I'm doing this because I love you.
I believe in you. I believe that you're capable of
things you haven't even seen before.
If you trust me and you trust usto coach you and push you.
When we look back on this and you can't ever tell a kid that
you got to take them through it,man, halfway through the season,
when that spark goes off, they go coach me, pour into me.

(48:13):
I like, but it takes a little while In the beginning, teenage
boys, you know, they're they're a little tough.
You know, I'm, I'm a pretty goodathlete.
I've gotten by well, OK, but that doesn't yeah, you're good.
That doesn't mean you can't be better.
Like. So that's always a tough balance
with the with the middle school kids.
But we had a great group last year.
We had some really talented kids, but more importantly, we
just had a bunch of great families.
Not one kid quit. We do a whole summer workout

(48:36):
plan a minute. We we approach it kind of like
high school. And I think the kids learned a
lot about themselves, carried itinto the next couple seasons of
sports, been kind of elevated from there.
We'll do it again this year. My kid will be 1/8 grader next
year. And the other coaches are great.
The other coaches, we have very little conflict.
We had very little issues. There's no, you know, in

(48:57):
football. I mean, you know, like in
football you're so far like evenif someone it's different, you
know, baseball, your dugouts areright there.
There's some more chirping and basketball you're really close.
So in football, there's very little back and forth before and
after the game you shake hands. So we've had very little
conflict, if at any, if at all. Our focus is 100% on our kids,

(49:19):
our family, our team, what everyone else is doing around
us. A lot of the times I I don't
even know what's going on. If you're ever in Charlotte,
we're ever in Charlotte. We're going to, we're going to
get you out to a game. We're going to, we're going to
throw you into the deep and we're going to have you call the
opening script. Wow, man, it's amazing to see
you guys all doing it together and how fun that would be.
And just for for these kids to get that type of commitment,

(49:43):
commitment by a coaching staff that has so much experience.
And you know, they're just, theydon't know how well they're,
they're blessed because they're out there playing, but they're
also blessed because they have some great instruction and
people that are really pouring into them.
So just congratulations to you and all those great coaches who
are doing that. That's an amazing thing.
We get more satisfaction out of it than any of the kids like me

(50:07):
and Luke are at breakfast on Monday mornings and we're using
like salt and pepper and little,you know, little Splenda packets
and we're lining up. All right.
So if if so and so middle schoolcomes out and they want to play
us in four wide, how are we going to, you know, how do we
make the kids pressure without making it complicated on our
coverages? And we're trying to like take
what we know, But then you got to like really filter it down

(50:28):
saying, OK, it's not about what we know.
We got to get 1314 year old boysto be able to do this.
And we're not on the field, you know, so that's the game that
we've learned over the years. And it's just a blast to connect
with these kids. And then you see them in the
hallway, you know, two months later and you're running up
coach. What's you know, And again, you
mentioned relationships and the players you connect with.
Like that's what you remember. You remember the kids that want

(50:50):
to come up and give you a big hug because they've never scored
a touchdown before. And I don't know, like those are
the moments you remember. And hopefully that's the moment
the kids I, I want to end with this and I'm going to let you go
because you've been super gracious with your time and your
insight. And I can't thank you enough for
doing this. And, and we've never discussed
it. We've discussed this a lot
privately. There's been a lot of

(51:11):
speculation about our relationship, a lot of
speculation about our working relationship.
You and I have had many private conversations about it.
I think people would be surprised at the friendship and
the relationship we've built over the last 12 months or so.
I used to. Something we used to try to
preach with our kids all the time is you can compete against

(51:32):
people, but in order to prop myself up, I don't have to pull
you down, right? There is enough.
There is enough. You, you said it perfectly
earlier. You said the concept of team in
an individual world, the conceptof team had been lost.
Where, you know, high tide raises all ships, where if the
team does great, there's room for multiple people to have
success. Obviously there's been a lot

(51:53):
talked about with you and I at Fox and what not, I think, and
I'm not patting ourselves on theback by any means.
I'm just using it as an example where you can be highly
competitive and you can be highly motivated in a very
competitive world that you and Inow live in and still be
incredible supporters of one another and still share
information and still want to see each other do well.

(52:15):
Like I, I want you to talk aboutnot just your journey now, but
like all along your approach to team, to competition, to how you
treated backup quarterbacks, howyou now treat me, which is in a
similar all but different kind of world.
Like, I think it's an important conversation.
I've been very comfortable with sharing it with you and sharing
with everyone else. I'm cool.

(52:36):
Like I kind of think it's cool for you and I in this moment to
kind of show like, we can both want to be great and it doesn't
mean I want either of us to be bad.
Yeah, it's a great point. And I think a lot of even as you
refer to that too, Greg, and it's, I think so much about like
my career journey as a football player.
And I had competed in a lot of room, in a lot of rooms.

(52:58):
And a lot of the lessons I learned about competitive
football started in college. And I was very lucky because it
wasn't easy in college. And there were a lot of guys who
were better than me and there were a lot of guys that had more
experience. And I just realized and I had
AI, had a great sports psychologist mentor that said to
me, would you quit bitching and whining about what everyone else

(53:18):
is doing and quit bitching and whining about how this
quarterback gets his chances andwhy don't you do that?
And this one I wasn't playing ismy second.
Why don't you do the best with the opportunity you get?
And I was like, man, it totally shifted my mind because before
it was always me comparing myself to other people.
And I was like, well, if he doesbad and I do good, then it's

(53:42):
good for me. And the reality I learned was it
didn't matter who did good because there was a year, my
third year, where I didn't play and we won the national
championship. But I got a lot better because
the only person I was focused onand on practice was myself and
how I needed to prepare in case I was called upon and ready to
go. Because I never knew when I was

(54:03):
going to get my chance because Iwent to a place that was
competitive and when I started worrying about my opportunity
and my chance, I just worried about the work I was putting
into it. And I finally did get my chance
in my 4th year. And I played pretty well and I
played in my fifth year, I played pretty well and I got
drafted. I went to the Patriots and I

(54:23):
thought, man, I'm never going toget a chance now.
I didn't think that A lot of people thought you're in New
England. You got Drew Bledsoe.
He signed a 10 year, $100 million contract.
You're never Tommy, you're nevergoing to play.
And I was just like, what do youmean?
I'm just going to work and I'm going to do what I always did,
what I learned in college. And I knew that if I was ever
going to get my chance, I was going to be ready to go.

(54:44):
And I think that's how I've applied that as I've gone
forward because when I look in broadcasting, I was very much a
rookie this last year, but I looked up to a lot of people
that I thought, man, he does a great job.
And you're obviously one of the greats already at a young age.
I want to be like, great. I watched so much Greg Olson
broadcasting tape, you know, andI just said, OK, well, what can,

(55:07):
what's he do that I really like that maybe I can apply to what
I'm doing in my prep or my prep or my on air.
And then other people that have been in this business a long
time, you know, cuz I don't you're, you're trying something
that's totally new and totally different.
And I, I would say I approach itvery much like I didn't.
And as long as this is my, I think general thought as we go

(55:29):
about this in life, as long as I'm good with the man in the
mirror that's looking back at meat the end of every day, I'm
cool with it. I realized that not everyone's
going to like it or love it. Some people may like it more
than others, but I'm trying my best.
And if I try my best for me, that's how we should look at
life. Whether you're a broadcaster, a
football player or teacher or coach or parent, there's parents

(55:53):
that probably come home and go, man, I, I sucked today, you
know, at this. But you got to look at yourself
in the mirror and say, OK, how can I be a little bit better
tomorrow? There were times at quarterback,
I went in there after practice and I threw 2 interceptions and
I was in my 17th year and I had won five Super Bowls at that
point. And I said, you were the worst

(56:14):
quarterback in the world. Why would any team want you to
be the quarterback? You know, what do I got to do
tomorrow so I can come out and be better?
And I think that's all it is, Greg, for me is I'm being, I'm
trying to be cool with the man in the mirror.
I really am. I'm trying to be proud of the
person that shows up and does mybest knowing that it's never
going to be perfect. It's always going to, I'm always

(56:35):
going to want to be a little bitbetter.
And I think that's the beauty ofour connection to like, I'll be
here for you for anything. That's the reality.
Will you ask anything from now to the rest of my life?
Because you've been available tome And that's what a great
teammate is. And there's a part with our jobs
that you know, people or people want to write about that I don't

(56:58):
give a shit about any of that. I just care about my
relationship because I know if I'm cool with you, that's all
that matters. And I know that when you call, I
answer and I know when I call you, you answer.
When I got a question, you answer it.
And when you got a question, I answer it.
And when you got a question, I answer it.
And that's, that's all that cares.
Because this time will come and go and the articles will come
and go. But the only people that need to
be cooler me and you, because that's all that matters to me in

(57:19):
my life. So that's that's how I view it.
Before we get back to the episode, let's wrap up my
conversation with Andy Campion discussing what future
experiences Unrivaled is bringing to the youth sports
marketplace. All right, so for anyone who's
lived the youth sports in, you know, journey and, and lived in
this world, there's really two elements to it, right?
There's two groups of people, There's the kids that they need

(57:43):
to be the goal. And I think for a lot of adults,
at times they lose track of who really all this is for.
Because then the other side of the coin are all the adults that
could be coaches, parents, umpires, referees, tournament
directors, all the adults that of course make events possible,
make teams possible. And all that with your efforts,
not only here at All Star Village, but just all of your

(58:04):
projects, all of your propertiesand unrivaled, Like, how do you
guys make sure that even though adults are making all the
decisions and you're driving adult experiences and family
experiences, all of that never loses sight that it is about the
kids at the end of the day and ultimately their experience.
You're pretty fond of saying something like focus on the

(58:25):
dreams and desire and drive of the kids, not of the parents in
youth sports. And I love it because that's you
could end the sentence there. You could say focus on the
dreams and aspirations of kids, not on the parents or the
adults, as he said, right? But then as you and you've
talked about this a lot too, butit's a little more dynamic than

(58:46):
that, right? And what you've talked about is
so kids first, the short of it with kids is the more kids that
play sport, the better. It's almost that simple.
Like if you said, what do you guys measure if that's the best,
that's the single most importantmeasure for us is more kids
playing sports and kids playing more sports, right?
So, so that's most important. But then you go to the adults

(59:08):
and you kind of lumped us all into one category.
And so I know I kind of know what I'm up against with parents
because I have kids that kids that play sports.
So the way I think about it is what we'd love to do is is get
the parents engaged in the most family oriented way possible,
not in the game itself. So tonight at Cooperstown All

(59:29):
Star Village, for example, we have fan appreciation night and
a credit to our team here. They just launched it this year.
So fan appreciation night, this one like you can't help but
smile when you say it. Mom's Home Run Derby.
We've had to expand it to like qualifying rounds because it's
become so popular in just a few weeks into the summer that every

(59:49):
mom wants to do it. Us as parents, we're we're on
the sidelines going. Like I kind of want to get
around on the field. Great, get on the field and play
in the Home Run Derby. I'd say the second element of
adults that you talk about a lotis coaches.
There might be almost nothing more important at that to this
age, right? Because they're an authority
figure. They're teaching the kids.
But we don't hire the coaches. The clubs and teams hire the

(01:00:10):
coaches. And our assumption, but we pay
pretty close attention, is, is are we giving them the right
environment to be a great coach?Then you have the officials, you
know, you put like, you know, black and white stripes on
someone and you get a negative connotation usually.
The reality is in youth sports, it's got to be the opposite 1.
You want the games to be fair. That's baseline.

(01:00:30):
But the officials and the umpires are basically running
the field. They're kind of the general
manager of the game, right? You have the teams on the field
and you have the coaches. And there's really one adult to
use your term out there. And it's the UMP.
And so we have kids that are like taking selfies with Umpire
Mike and posting them like our UMPS are they're great at

(01:00:51):
officiating and they're great people.
Like it's 12 year old kids. We want them to be great.
How do I experience any of the unrivaled properties next?
Like how do I say this was incredible.
Yep, but I want to do it again next year.
Where do I go? Take me there.
OK. So first I'll just give you the
landscape over the past year, we've we've become a national
organization in baseball. We now have a national

(01:01:13):
footprint. We've got everything from
Cooperstown, All Star Village toDiamond Nation, which is
actually the high school age. You probably are familiar with
that. In New Jersey, we have Ripken
baseball in a number of different locations, but the one
I've been kind of saving for last is called Rocker B Ranch in
Texas. So it's 325 acres, a little over
an hour outside Dallas. It's right now baseball.

(01:01:34):
So we've expanded the number of baseball fields, but we have
some acres, we have some land. It's Texas, right?
We're definitely going to expandrectangle fields as you might
call it, flag football, soccer, etcetera.
We're in that process. But what's awesome about it,
it's Texas. So we have lodging there.
It's our other only other property where we have casitas,
lodges, etcetera. There's a Music Hall and again,

(01:01:56):
food wise, we got Traegers out there, but.
Ranch to play baseball. It's called Rocker B Ranch.
It's it literally is. It's like it's country meets
baseball. It's awesome.
So this I'd say, is the Disneyland of baseball.
That'll be the Walt Disney Worldof you sports.
I mean, that's the perfect way to end it.
And and I and I thought this be such a cool way again, not to

(01:02:17):
make it about us, not to make itabout that.
But I do think after everything we've talked about in this youth
sports world and individualism versus team and propping up
teammates, but being ultra competitive and wanting to excel
and wanting to do well. There's nothing wrong with being
motivated. There's nothing wrong with being
driven to want to be the best. That is, that's OK.

(01:02:37):
We you share. I mean, we, that's the way the
world goes. But the point is you can do that
and still be a very supportive teammate, friend, competitor,
colleague, like, and I think that's kind of the bow of the
whole conversation. And I'm glad we like, I think
it's cool. We've had this over golf, we've
had this over breakfast, we've had this over drinks.
But I think it's cool for the everyone to see and, and use it

(01:03:02):
and hear it like as another example, like this is going on
in all aspects of the of the world sports, TV business.
And it's OK. And you can compete and you can
be friends and you can support one another.
You can do favors for one another.
You can talk about your families.
That's OK. So dude, I'm going to thank you
to the end of the moon when you're now, you say you'll do

(01:03:25):
anything with me. I have you talking about youth
sports for an hour on a beautiful day in Miami.
But dude, like I can't thank youenough.
Like for someone of your stature, your accomplishments,
your perspective, to take the time to talk to our listeners,
our viewers, the families that, that support you think like
there's not a greater voice in, in my mind, there's not a
greater voice to share life lessons, a greater story than

(01:03:47):
yours. And the people who are going to
be impacted, the people who are going to be, who are going to
change a lot about their parenting, their coaching, their
place, that whatever it is from hearing your journey and your
insight, I, I can't thank you enough.
And dude, fortunate to call you a friend.
Fortunate that we've gotten to connect over the last year and
get to know each other better. And dude, I can't thank you
enough for joining us on You Think.

(01:04:09):
Same here babe, great, great senior and keep up the great
work and I know you got you're as great as a person there is.
I wish, and I tried to recruit you to be a real teammate of
mine at one point where I throw passes to you can.
We tell that. Story worked out.
Can we tell that story? Yeah.
So I, OK, so I get released fromthe Panthers and two after the

(01:04:29):
2019 season. So I'm down at the Super Bowl in
20. So this is like January 2020.
The Panthers fly down there, they tell me they're going to
move on. We had coaching changes.
I I kind of expected it. So now for anyone, so I'm not a
free agent. So Tom was a free agent.
So Tom couldn't technically signuntil like March, middle of
March, 2nd week of March. Whatever it was, whatever it

(01:04:53):
was. So I'm talking to my agent and
I'm like, you know, where are wegoing to go?
And I'm like, I, I want to go play with, you know, the Tom
Brady's of the world that they could you imagine I was like,
Gronk had been retired. I was like, could you imagine if
I got to go play with Tom? Rewind years ago.
I'm not even sure if I've told you this story.
I feel like we might have 2011 draft, the year Gronk was

(01:05:13):
drafted. I got called in the night before
the draft by Jerry Angelo and the Bears and they go, hey,
we're just letting you know we have a, we have a drade on the
table with the Patriots. They have free second round
picks. We have a trade.
They're targeting a guy in the draft.
It turned out to be Gronkowski. If he slips out of the first
round, stay alive because this weekend, I'm just going to be
honest with you. We could we have a trade in

(01:05:35):
place with the Patriots. So now I'm like, holy shit,
you're like partly mad, but you're partly like, OK, I could
get down with that. Like I, I that's cool.
Long story short history, obviously Gronk drops, he gets
taken to the second they call the draft off.
So now here it is almost 10 years later.
I'm like, alright, I got one more shot to play with Brady.
I'm going to try to get his number.

(01:05:56):
I don't remember how I got your Oh yes, I do.
I got it from Edelman because meand Edelman would trade stories
because we both broke, broke ourfoot 50 times in our last couple
years. So I reached out to Edelman and
be like, dude, what did you do? So I got my your number from him
and all of a sudden I get a message back.
Greg happy to talk TB. And I was like, I'm pretty sure

(01:06:17):
this is Tom. It's a Long story short.
The timing wasn't great. It was February.
I would have had to wait like four or five weeks because you
couldn't sign and the timing didn't work.
And then Gronk ended up coming out and you guys won the
freaking Super Bowl. But it was close.
It was close. We were close a couple times but

(01:06:38):
but we found a way to make it happen in the end.
And here we are, and now we get to go.
Golf together now we get to go golf.
I like that. We're going to play in a member,
guest somewhere as teammates. That's the best we could do at
RH. The Internet will go crazy.
Yeah. Appreciate you buddy man.
Hope the family's great. Enjoy and I'll see you.
I'll see you here soon. You Think is officially back our

(01:07:00):
biggest season ever. We got guests like Malcolm
Gladwell, Ryan Day, CJ Stroud. The episodes are incredible.
We can't wait for you guys to hear what we have in store.
Follow along, subscribe to our YouTube page, follow us on all
of our social channels and see what we have in store here at
You Think.