You had to see it to believe it. The Tampa Bay ‘Bucs’ Buccaneer’s triumph over Kansas City Chiefs in Sundays’ Superbowl was momentous in itself. The fact that Tom Brady, their 43-year old vegan quarterback pretty much won the game for them takes their achievement to a whole new level.
Brady’s domination over the Kansas City Chiefs and their massively talented 25-year-old quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, was – some say – the ultimate vindication of experience over youth.
Right throughout the game, Mahomes raced around the field like a man possessed, frantically and desperately trying to make something, anything happen. But it wasn’t to be. Time after time he was grabbed, blocked, swamped and smothered with passes failing to leave his hands or arrive in the hands of others.
Brady, meanwhile, was totally in control, composed and calculating. It wasn’t fitness nor speed that made the difference. In fact at times it looked like a vintage, old man performance. But in avoiding mistakes he forced others to make them. The Bucs did something no college or NFL team had done before by keeping Patrick Mahomes’ squad out of the end zone for an entire game.
After his long-time employer, the New England Patriots, decided that last season was to be his last, Brady did what so many retiring people do – he moved to Florida. Joining the Bucs was an invite he could not resist but steering them to a 31-9 victory was never on the cards.
Brady keeps himself in peak condition with intense training, meditation and a strict diet – no white sugar, no dairy and up to 5 litres of water a day and has been quoted to say ‘My philosophy is that a plant-based diet has the power to reverse and prevent disease.’ Brady also ‘talks often of his love for a good burger and dark chocolate,’ reports The New York Post. Specifically, he indulges in Unreal Chocolate, a brand of vegan, gluten-free, low-sugar chocolate.
