During his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, legendary quarterback Tom Brady came up with a pretty great way to convince his teammates to make big plays – he paid them out of his own pocket.
During a recent appearance on the Wam Bam podcast, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard Ali Marpet revealed that Tom Brady used to pay the offensive lineman $1,000 out of his own pocket for every successful screen pass.
“[Brady] took our starting offensive line to the side and he’s like, ‘Hey, if you guys can get a screen to go for more than 15 yards, I will give you $1,000 cash each,’” Marpet said according to JoeBucsFan.com “‘That is for you guys, so every time that we get that, I will be happy to make that payment.’”
And it wasn’t just screen passes – Marpet said there were “multiple” plays that would lead Brady to pay out these types of unofficial bonuses.
“Tom just knowing how guys are wired and what goes a long way and inspiring and getting the most out of his guys,” Marpet said.
All in all, it seems like Brady’s rather unorthodox methods of motivating his teammates were pretty effective considering the good results.
