The text messages would come in late, maybe 10 p.m. Maybe 11.
“Tom Brady,” the phone would read, and even though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had been his teammates through an entire season, even though they were accomplished NFL players themselves, well, there is still something jarring, something that makes you sit up, when in the days before the Super Bowl the greatest quarterback of all time has something to tell you.
“We will win this game,” Brady was texting, according to teammates.
That was the message. The Bucs were going to win the Super Bowl.