André King

Tom Brady reveals the overlooked reason practice squad players never succeed in the NFL It’s not a lack of talent. Brady watched it happen for 20 years. The pattern was undeniable. As soon as a practice squad player got promoted and had to perform under real pressure, they crumbled. It took years for Brady to understand why. “There’s 53 guys on the active roster and there’s now 15 guys on the practice squad. So there’s 68 players. But those practice squad players are important because if anybody on the active roster gets hurt, they can get elevated to the squad.” “These scout team receivers would come in and practice with the scout team and they do really well. And I’d be watching. I’m like, ‘Man, we got to get that guy. Let’s get him up on offense. He’s making a lot of plays.’” “Then all of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Hey man, you’re doing really well. You got to come over here and deal with the pressure of succeeding now that you have expectation.’” “And these guys are like, they weren’t prepared for it. So whatever we saw in practice against where there was not a lot of pressure, now when they’re put in a situation where there’s an expectation for performance, they’ve never had to personally deal with that and then they fail.” “And then what I realized was a lot of guys on those practice squads, they don’t want to be elevated to the roster.” “They’re very happy living this life where they could tell their family and friends, which I have no problem with that. But the reality is a lot of guys don’t want the pressure of dealing with top.” Twenty years in the league and seven Super Bowl rings later, Brady learned that talent wasn’t the hardest thing to find. It was people who actually wanted the pressure that comes with being great.