Tom Brady’s impact on Tampa Bay goes beyond touchdowns, trophies
TAMPA — If they dedicate a statue to Tom Brady outside Raymond James Stadium one day, it should not depict him throwing a football.
The only appropriate image to memorialize Brady’s years with the Bucs would be of him tossing the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another during the Hillsborough River parade for the 2020 season Super Bowl win. It should include daughter Vivian, mouth agape, screaming, “Nooooo!” Tight end Cameron Brate should be seated in the other vessel, waiting to save the Bucs from having to hire divers to retrieve the silver-plated prize.
That trophy, like Brady’s career in Tampa Bay, may always feel like a moment suspended in time.
This is Brady’s third — and likely final — season with the Bucs. His announcement in March that he was ending a 40-day retirement to return in 2022 may have been worthy of its own boat parade for all he has meant to the organization and the community.
“His impact is unprecedented and invaluable in terms of the stage that he helped not only put the franchise on but also our sports community,” said Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. “I’ll never forget when he signed with the Bucs (in March 2020), the national media attention that we immediately got, it was like flipping a switch.
“Then you see from not only the social media mentions but also the number of prime-time (TV) games … my guess is the number of prime-time games we’ve had in his tenure rivals, if not exceeds, the number of prime-time games we had the previous 15 years. It’s almost to the point where the attention that he gets is so massive that it’s not just a once-in-a-generation thing, it’s a once-in-several-generations thing, and it’s truly unique.”
Brady is about dollars and change.
The amount of money he has brought to the Bucs in terms of ticket sales, memorabilia purchases and franchise value is significant, despite playing his first season amid the restrictions of COVID-19.
Some of the unprecedented growth of Tampa Bay has occurred during Brady’s time with the Bucs. Several factors have contributed to that growth, but Brady has provided the opportunity for many idyllic views of the area on national television.
The change is how Brady has transformed a mostly losing culture in the 2000s into a winning one, one goose bump at a time. He also has helped import free agents who came to Tampa Bay believing Brady would slip a Super Bowl ring on their fingers.
Brady had played only three games with the Bucs before the Lightning beat the Stars to win the 2020 Stanley Cup. The Rays lost the World Series to the Dodgers in six games a month later. But the area didn’t become known as Champa Bay until the Bucs beat the Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl 55 in February 2021 at Raymond James, becoming the first NFL team to win the championship in their home stadium.
His reach doesn’t stop there. If your kids go to school in Pinellas County, their health and fitness regimen may soon be the result of a program adopted from TB12, the health and fitness industry Brady founded with trainer Alex Guerrero.
Changing the culture
Before Brady arrived, the Bucs had not reached the playoffs for 12 consecutive seasons. Only twice during that time did they enjoy winning records. Coach Raheem Morris went 10-6 in 2010, and Dirk Koetter went 9-7 in 2016.
The Bucs had assembled a core of pretty good players — receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin among them — but the quarterback position was an issue. Jameis Winston led the NFL in passing in 2019, but he also threw a league-worst 30 interceptions.
When the greatest quarterback of all time walks into your locker room, heads snap. Brady joined the team having owned regular-season and postseason records for touchdown passes, wins, games started, most passing yards and most passing touchdowns.
Brady does it by being the champion of every day. He tries to win every rep, make every right decision, call every right audible and treat everyone the right way.
Just by walking in the Bucs’ locker room, Brady methodically elevated the standards of everyone from quarterbacks to video-room interns.
“He raises the level of work ethic and consistency in practice without saying anything,” coach Todd Bowles said. “Because he’s Tom Brady and he comes out there and they expect to win because he’s got all these accolades. There are guys around him that want to be just as good, not let him down, carry their weight and do all the little things right.
“They see how he trains. They see how it works. And they want to do that on their own without anyone ever saying anything. They want to learn how to watch film on their own. They want to learn how to do fundamentals more. They want to learn how to get in better shape.
“They want to learn how to eat right, and they just want to compete because they don’t want to let the guy down.”
Brady also is the NFL’s best recruiter. When you are the Lord of Rings, free agents want to join your team.
“If I’m thinking about a player or we are as a staff, I’ll give (Brady) a call and see if he can help us out, and he’s always willing to do it,” general manager Jason Licht said.
Most of the time, Licht and Brady are in agreement about which players to pursue.
“We didn’t have to kick too many weeds to find out about Julio Jones (signed this offseason). We’ve known about him awhile, and Kyle Rudolph was the best tight end that was available.
“We have a lot of communication. So does Todd (Bowles) and Tom and myself. We talk a lot about players. … When you have Tom Brady as the greatest, it’s even more of an advantage, and I’m never going to apologize for using him to help me bring in players for this team.”
Once those players arrive, the discussions with Brady commence.
“I came from a team where we ran the ball a lot, but he’s definitely helped me when it comes to receiving and catching the ball and things like that, and understanding defense,” said running back Leonard Fournette, signed in September 2020 after the Jaguars waived him.
“What he has with his knowledge, I listen to a guy like that. I’m also trying to see what he wants as a player and (what) helps him bring his game to the next level. We have a great relationship on and off the field, and I think that’s what helps us when we play.”
Several dozen players are clients of TB12, which has a Tampa office a half-mile from the Bucs’ training facility.
Preparing the way Brady does, with proper nutrition, hydration and recovery, has become the routine for many of his teammates.
“I think he brings that to any team he goes to just by default,” Bowles said. “I think that makes the team’s expectations rise and gives guys who haven’t won in a while … that sense of relief that they can win. It kind of raises everyone’s level to try and get better.”
Ticket sales and more
When Brady arrived in Tampa Bay, the Bucs’ season-ticket base had been eroded by more than a decade of bad football and a carousel of coaches.
Their number of season-ticket holders had dwindled to around 25,000. In 2019, the year before Brady arrived, the Bucs averaged 50,728 per game at Raymond James Stadium. And a large portion of that attendance was fans supporting the visiting team.
All that changed when Brady agreed to play for the Bucs. Not only did the season tickets sell out the entire 65,618-seat stadium once the pandemic subsided, the Bucs added 3,600 seats this year to the south end zone, bringing the capacity to near 70,000.
“Tom has had a tremendous impact on our organization both on and off the field,” said Bucs chief operating officer Brian Ford. “There has been a level of increased anticipation and excitement from our fans. His presence alone has created an unprecedented demand for tickets that we have been working hard to meet.
“We are anticipating playing our regular-season home games before the largest crowds ever at Raymond James Stadium, and much of that credit goes to having an iconic player such as Tom leading the way.”
High-end sky suites and club seats have no vacancy. In a shrewd business move after Brady returned, the Bucs requested a two-year minimum commitment for season tickets. Brady is not signed for 2023.
Impact on the community
Higgins is tasked with bringing sports events of all kinds to Tampa Bay, and business has never been better.
Tampa Bay has hosted Super Bowls, college national championship football games, college hockey final fours, the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
But nothing strikes up a conversation about the area quicker than a question or two about Brady.
Event organizers tune in to watch the Bucs play on national television and they see a sold-out stadium as well as gorgeous sunsets over water.
“It serves as a catalyst to bigger conversations,” Higgins said. “When we have prime-time games, we have the ability to then work with the networks and tell the story of how far we’ve come as a community and where we’re going. It’s that spark and what we need, that door swinging open that we can walk through and showcase all these different things we have going on that’s truly amazing.”
Though Tampa Bay was not granted the full Super Bowl host experience when it was played here during the pandemic, limiting game attendance to around 25,000, Brady and the Bucs never wavered from the opportunity to make history.
“It was a Super Bowl when we needed it the most and from a timing standpoint,” Higgins said. “From the way that it ended with our hometown becoming the first team to win it (in its home stadium), it was truly special. The impact is still being felt today.”
Last year, from the Bucs’ Week One game to kick off the season against the Cowboys through their two playoff games against the Eagles and Rams, local hotel occupancy on the nights before and after Sunday home games was more than 13 percent higher than it was on Bucs road and bye weekends, according to data provided by Visit Tampa Bay. Bookings were also up around the Bucs’ Thursday and Monday night games.
Brady also hasn’t just been hidden away behind the walls of some mansion on Davis Islands.
He has supported and attended the foundation events held by former coach Bruce Arians and Evans.
Recently, Brady’s foundation forged a partnership with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission in an effort to help kids.
“The thing that I think is most impressive about Tom is not only his commitment to success on the field, but it’s also his commitment to making a difference off the field,” Higgins said. “There’s a reason he’s been successful for so long, and that’s his commitment to wellness and recovery and living a healthy lifestyle. For us to be able to work with him to impart those lessons on our community’s kids is fantastic, and we just truly appreciate him working with us to be able to do that.”
On a recent off day, Brady and two of his three children, Vivian and Ben, spent part of the afternoon with teammate Logan Ryan at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay visiting shelter dogs and promoting them for adoption.
Brady has found an adoptive home of his own in Tampa Bay — at least for one more year.
“I chose the right place for me,” Brady said. “I’m very grateful to everybody to allow me to come down here and experience this part of my football life, which I look back and it probably would be incomplete had I not had it. I’m happy I’ve had it.”
Contact Rick Stroud at rstroud@tampabay.com. Follow @NFLSTROUD.
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