All those years you've been in this spot with Tom Brady so many times, What has it been like for you to watch from afar this season?

This run that he is having always been awesome?

You know, I think I came in the NFL with Gronkowski Me and Grant drafted the same year, 10 years with Tom Soto.

Watch those two guys, um, leave our team and still bring a success and bring everything they've learned throughout their NFL careers to Tampa.

Um, a team that didn't make the playoffs last year.

Now you have an opportunity to win the world championship.

Um, it's been awesome to watch and obviously Ah, little bittersweet because you have rather those two guys suiting up with you on Sundays.

But it's still awesome to see those guys going out there doing it again.

And, you know, obviously for Tom and his legacy and what he's what he's done in this league, he doesn't have to do anymore.

But, you know, to continue to watch him and his greatness continue to get better and better each year was just unbelievable.

You know, you've seen it from the inside it is genuinely unbelievable.

It's in fact, something I would have said was impossible except that he's done it.

Can you put your finger on how?

How has he managed to do at the age of 43 something maybe no athlete has ever done before?

Yeah, I think it's him just being him, you know, he has a routine.

He has a regiment that he sticks to remember talking toe Brian Horror this year, and he said him and Tom went skiing in the off season, he said.

When they finished, he said, Tom called Alex and they had to get some body working.

He had to get his body back to feeling good and lots of God that is dedicated to football all year round every day.

Um, so when he goes to a team, doesn't have to do a lot of yelling and screaming.

That's not him.

He's not super vocal unless he has to be.

But just how he prepares, how he comes in each day, his greatness.

People just watch.

And when he walks into a locker room, I'm sure everybody in Tampa is like, let me just see how Tom does this.

Let me see how he does that.

And they're looking at him from two lockers down, three lockers down, and the next thing you know, everyone else around him gets better.

Eso that's just his presence and what he brings to a team by just being himself.

E think Dole is trying to let people know Tom's greatness?

Um, I don't think that came out the correct way at all.

I think, uh, what he said about the coaches is true, like that's what coaching is.

It's watching film and putting guys in the best position.

And you know, when I think about the Patriot way, though, I think about a team.

So whether you want to call Tom the best player on the Patriot Way and the leader of it, no doubt about it.

But you can't tell me in all of those games and all of these years throughout that the defense and other guys haven't had something to do with that.

That's all guys coming as all guys believing in that we've had great players across the board.

We've had guys like Darrelle Revis, Vince Wolf for the Teddy Brewskies and William McGuinness.

The Thai laws, like those guys Aaron, you know, Thai laws of pro football, Hall of Famer.

You know, he is the Patriot way also.

So, um, I think whether you want to call time the leader of the Patriot Way because I think a lot does trickle down from him.

But I think there was a little bit of a slap in the face to all of all of the other guys that are not Tom Brady, the Julian elements, the drunks like, but I don't know if I don't think he meant it that way.

I think he wanted to really push Tom Brady's greatness and what Tom Brady is because everyone puts us in this Brady verse Belichick kind of arena.

Andi, I think Dola was really trying to tell people like, you know, Tom is a great player, and, uh, for me, I don't think you have to defend that turn on the film turn on this year.

If you thought Tom Brady was a system quarterback, you probably need to go dive in the snow.

If you're in the Northeast right now, head verse because he's shown every bit of him, he can go when, anywhere, and really, at any moment the guys 43 years old.

He's playing another Super Bowls 10th, so his greatness is definitely out there.

You're exactly right, and that's very insightful.

And you're right that, externally, the Brady versus Belichick thing has been a storyline.

Radio shows talk shows like this one.

How much, if it all was that a factor inside?

You guys played a season this year To what degree, if any, was the Brady factor, Uh, inside the Patriots organization this year?

Yeah, I think as a team organization, we moved on.

But, you know, you lost.

You lost Tom Brady like you lost the best quarterback in the NFL.

Like you don't just replace that.

You don't just make up for that.

And I think we definitely felt that we lose Tom.

We don't have an off season to even begin to try toe.

Process that and prepare and get ready.

So we definitely felt that the guy has been the best quarterback in the NFL for the last two decades.

So, um, to replace that, you know, we felt, But I think from a mental standpoint guys have moved on.

We're trying to improve.

We're trying to get better on but it wasn't as it's been.

You know what I think that's for us is something that we have to push forward and show that the Patriot way is a team.

It is, but it's a lot of good players like we have to do that.

We have to go win football games to Patriot Way isn't you know, just something that happens.

It's guys doing it day and day out, winning football games, winning and preparing the right way.

And I think the Patriots organization is still moving in that direction.

I don't think you saw that throughout the season and tough times going out there and winning some games out of tough, and we'll have to try to just keep getting better.

Thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.