During the Sunday loss to the Texans, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady could be seen on the sideline trying to encourage the offense.
On Monday night, Brady was asked about his talk during his weekly interview on Westwood One Sports radio with Jim Gray.
“Well I do that quite a bit in practice,” Brady explained. “I know they don’t always pick it up when I do speak, but I do speak a lot in meetings and [on] the practice field, and certainly in the huddle. I’m just trying to communicate what I see. A lot of other guys are doing the same things.”
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“It was a tough game night,” Brady continued. “[The Texans] came out and played really well, and they played very aggressively. When that happens, you’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to try to match it. They got off to a great start, and we tried to battle back and just came up short in the end.”
Asked about how the team is reacting to the loss, Brady explained that the team needs to keep things in perspective.
“I don’t think anyone’s happy when we lose, except for the people that are rooting against us,” Brady added. “I’m sure there’s quite a few of those. We’ve lost games in the past, I’ve lost games in the past, and as much as it hurts to lose, you have to keep it in perspective and realize the place we’re at the in the season. You can’t let it discourage you from waking up the next day and working hard, and hopefully it refocuses us and makes us work even harder.”
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Tom Brady is quoting ... who?
On Monday, Tom Brady posted an inspirational message on Instagram, adding that the Patriots “will never quit!”
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“A man is not finished when he is defeated,” reads the quote Brady included. “He is finished when he quits.”
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It’s from something that was once said by former U.S. President Richard Nixon. According to Nixon speechwriter Williams Safire — writing in his book, “Before the Fall,” published in 1975 — then-presidential candidate Nixon wrote down a note about Senator Ted Kennedy in 1968 following the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. It was the same quote Brady used.
Nixon, famously a strong political opponent of Kennedy (having lost a close presidential election to his brother in 1960), broke with his usual stance to give the Massachusetts senator a “pep talk” following Chappaquiddick, according to Safire’s account. This came before a press conference that included the two political rivals, from which Nixon’s note was derived.
Hayden Bird can be reached at hayden.bird@globe.com. Follow him on twitter at @haydenhbird.