LARS ANDERSON on “BRADY: An American Story and the Price of Greatness.”

Absolutely.

But, but I, I, I do think you need to go back to his childhood to understand the psychology of Tom in, uh, the, the middle part of his life, and, or, or excuse me, the early part of his life a- at, at Michigan and, and then in the NFL.

And, and, you know, we, uh...

I, I had a team of people working with me, 'cause there was no way I could, you know, uh, climb this mountain by myself.

Uh, and, and, you know, we talked to many, uh, uh, people, uh, who grew up on Portola Drive there, uh, [laughs] uh, in San Mateo.

And, and, you know, Tom, uh, is like a fifth, sixth grader, little, little chubby, you know, not, not...

You know, just like kids, they're just growing, and he, he was picked on a little bit.

And he would be the last kid picked in neighborhood games, and there would be football games in which, uh, the older kids would tell Tom to go deep, and then they would all run away in another direction and just think it was the funniest thing in the world.

And, you know, Tom has talked about these scars that he has from his childhood, and that always, like, caught my ear, you know? Uh, and, and this is way before I ever thought about writing about him.

I mean, I-

Like having a chip on your shoulder, like a lot of the good athletes talk about having a chip on their shoulder for whatever reason to drive them.

Yes, absolutely.

Um, but for Tom it was, like, it was, it was like a deep pain.

And, and also the fact that, you know, he was raised in a household of women.

Um, hi- his dad, who, uh, I think is probably the third most important character in this book, um, who I admire greatly, I think he was just a terrific dad, um, you know, he had to be on the road a, a little bit be- be- because of his job.

And so Tom was consistently around his three older sisters and mom.

And his mom was even a great athlete.

But his three older sisters were all better athletes than Tom, you know? And, and, and, and I'm sure you know this.

And, and, you know, um-

I have some friends that went to college with o- [laughs] I think, um, one of the older sisters, and it's like, yeah, uh, we, when we heard about Brady gal's younger brother-

Uh, Tommy-

You know, that-

Right? Tommy.

Yeah, Tommy

... and, and, you know, they, you know, they, they just, he was referred to, kind of derisively, as the little Brady.