Every summer for the past seven years, the quarterback of the New England Patriots has come to this remote island for a beach boot camp. Its an intense part of his regimen, which has him training two to three hours daily to strengthen his arm, pack on more upper-body muscle to absorb hits, and sharpen his footwork and acceleration so that he can elude pass rushers. As Bonner unzips an egg-carton-like duffel bag with six game balls nestled inside, Brady uses a golf laser rangefinder to check the yardage. Its slightly off. Guerrero walks down the sideline, putting down cones every ten yards as measured by Brady. The QB slips into his shoulder pads, dons a silver helmet, and warms up using a white hand towel instead of a ball. He unfurls that smooth throwing motion that has tortured opposition players and thrilled New England fans for 19 years, culminating with a flick of the wrist that snaps the towel.
Bonner and I put on receiver gloves and spread out ten yards downfield. Bonners advice: Just put your hands up and the ball will hit them. Brady starts off throwing short bullets, and Bonners tip is dead-on: The balls slice through the hot air and slam into my hands. Brady goes through the gears, throwing 20-yarders and then 30-yarders. Then we drop to 60 yards. This is a maximum-effort drill for distance. Brady is throwing down the sideline, launching six passes as far and as straight as possible. Our job is to catch the balls and put them down right where they would land. Guerrero and Brady tinker with his drop, bounce, step, torque, and release. When a pass wobbles off course, Brady shouts to the palm trees, Thats an interception. When I drop a perfect spiral, he screams at me, Thats the game winner!
After the morning throwing session, we take a golf buggy to the beach. Guerrero paces out 30 yards, placing a cone every ten. Naturally, Brady remeasures. Then, back in shoulder pads and helmet and holding a ball in the midday sun (Practice like you play, he says), he starts sprint drills in the sugary sand. Guerrero holds a band around Bradys waist to add resistance and make him drive his feet with greater force so that he can accelerate faster. Benjamin joins in. Guerrero gives him a ten-yard head start for a 20-yard race. Copy Bennyhe has good form, Guerrero quips. Hes faster than Daddy already! Other times, Brady drops back while Guerrero rushes at him with boxing pads and jabs his torso before shouting, Go! Then Brady sprints. Im familiar with starting at the bottom and fighting my way to start, he explains. Ive kept that mentality. Ive never felt like, Man, I sure cant get any better.
The drill conditions Brady to be less skittish in the pocket. He and his trainer work for about 30 brutal minutes, totaling around 400 yards. After one set of reps, Brady remarks, The funny thing is, Ive probably run more today than Ill run all year. (Hes right: He banged out only 35 yards on the ground last season.) Back at it. Off Brady sprints, the man with the golden arm and the platypus feet, grunting hard and kicking sand, still chasing perfection.