Red Sox fan first. Shohei fan forever. Some athletes are great. Shohei is mythic. So proud to be a part of this project. #SportsareReligion.
#GreatnessCode is and always will be amongst the most special projects this company (@religionofsports) will ever produce because it originated out of my shared basketball obsession with my friend, the late @kobebryant. I found it fascinating that as a fan I had a list of what I thought might have been his best performances but when I asked him, he had one I would have never predicted. Because it was deeply personal to him and was less about the acrobatics he did on the court and more about what was going on in his head and his heart. So I started floating that question by others - @TomBrady and @KingJames - and they said the same thing. Hence the series was born with the notable help of @mavcarter and our friends at @thespringhillco. Now we’re in our second season at @appletvplus with another incredible collection of talent. My fave part of this series has always been working with the gifted @laurenfisherstudio. We get to collaborate with some of the most talented athletes in the world…but it’s pretty obvious to me who the real 🐐 is. So…coming soon on @appletvplus !
It’s here. Episode 10 of #ManintheArena is now available on @espn +. We weren’t holding out and you. And the protracted release wasn’t a ploy to break news around Tom’s retirement. Or his unretirement. We just needed some time and space to make sense of that epilogue-like hangover that happened in Tampa after the prolific run in NE. Because the series if you’ve watched has always been about perspective - about Tom’s ability to mine wisdom from his amazing 20+ years on the field, but also for us to find its relevancy in life off the field. Things like resilience, accountability, sacrifice, discipline - when unpacked through the storytelling played out on the football field, the wins, the losses, the triumphs and quasi-tragedies, those anecdotes transformed from flimsy self-help adages to real life, battle tested life lessons. In my house, with my 14 yo son, we talk about #ManintheArena, or at least the principles mined from it, pretty much everyday. How they can help in his quest to become a better human no matter what life he chooses on or off an athletic field. That for me will be the real legacy of the series. The other one will be the TEAM. I share that in common with Tom as well - I get way too much credit for our success, which really is the result of a cumulative and collective process. Holy sh*t - what an incredible team I am surrounded by, led by the core of @erikledrew , @meg.cirillo, and @atviriato and the rest of the gang at @religionofsports . How about those elite artists at @elastic.tv ? And of course, our friends at @nflfilms and @espn . Where do we go from here? I’m told Tom is working on an Episode 11. We’re on it.
From the start at @religionofsports we’ve always been about exploring “why sports matter.” This new podcast by my friend Varun Soni - Dean of Religion at @uscedu (and one of few people I know not on @instagram !) is all about that. It’s deep and thoughtful and more relevant now than ever. Available soon on Apple podcasts, Spotify and everywhere else!